realDesign: Design Stories About the Real - world/teams/products/users

There exists a tight-coupling between every phase of the internet era and a set of buzz words. The omnipresent and overused buzz word for the web 2.0 era is - "Innovation".  My garden supply site , a respected business journal, and everyone in between wants to tell me about their innovations, how to innovate, who is innovating, why we are not innovating enough and much, much more.

Given all of this, I found it hard to resist buying and reading Scott Berkun's latest book "the myths of innovation". From reading his first book , The Art of Project Management, I expected this book to be pragmatic, realistic, entertaining and informative. I was not disappointed.

Myths of innovation is a book about the everyday work of designers and the way this work is perceived.  However, The Art  Project Management is about the effective management of the environment within which we, the designers, work.  While I learned a lot of new facts reading The Art, I found a lot of supporting evidence (if you will) for existing beliefs when I read The Myths. In addition to reaching for this book when I want  to use a quote or anecdote to make a point, I can also see my self using this book to analyze the innovation trajectory of projects that I am affiliated with.

The book is organized into ten chapters, each chapter focusing on debunking one myth. I have taken the liberty to translate the list into design parlance:

• Myth 1: Good Design is the Result of a Single Moment of Inspiration or Epiphany
• Myth 2: Winning Designs are Immediately Obvious
  
• Myth3: There is One Single Method to Get to Good Design
  
• Myth 4: People Love New Designs
• Myth 5: The Designer Works Alone
• Myth 6: Good Design Ideas are Hard to Find
• Myth 7: Your Boss Knows more about Design than You Do.
  (probably not, but he can create an environment where it is safe for you to innovate)
  
• Myth 8: Problem Statements Do Not  Matter (they do, phrasing the problem correctly can give you half the solution)
  
• Myth 9:  The Best Design Always Wins
  (no, the design that is optimum for a given situation and time - wins)
• Myth 10: New Designs are Always Good

Read the book ! 
And if you need further inducement, here is my  favorite quote from the book:
"An idea is not an innovation till it reaches people"

 You can read an edited and improved version at the xDesign Group Blog: design@sun