Quicksand - A Primer on Innovation

Are we on the same page about innovation?

a 10 minute read.

Towards an Agenda for Innovation

Quicksand is a design strategy and innovation consultancy headquartered in India. We work across a diverse range of contexts in the Global South.

It is an implicit requirement for a strategy and innovation consultancy to debate its expression of what it is to innovate. For us - an organisation which has built a reputation on its sense-making abilities - any chosen expression of the value we bring must follow a process of regular cycles of iteration.

Looking at ourselves today, we can identify two distinct realities for this debate: the first asking what innovation has meant for us, and the second asking what it means for our partners.

In the process of unpacking our views on these, we feel our value draws from the fundamental facets of our identity.

Our innovation agenda is inextricably linked to our identity as a collection of individuals.

There are some aspects to this that directly shape the way we engage with our partners, so allow us to paint you a picture.

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Quicksand is an imaginative, collaborative and freespirited collective of diverse people.

Our effectiveness as creative problem solvers is nourished by the core value of friendship which our studio is founded on. There are expectations of openness and camaraderie from team members, while there is also respect for the independence of spirit that drives highly creative individuals.

The diversity of our portfolio is another reflection of this independent spirit, because plurality is the mark of an interdisciplinary practice. The search for plurality often creates pronounced tensions; at times manifesting as a conflict between design process and artistic intent, and at other times as a debate between relevance and profitability. We welcome these tensions, since it is in their negotiation and acceptance that the spirit of innovation resides.

A conversation with a new client begins in the realm of possibility - a space where many conflicting perspectives co-exist.

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The ability to reconcile these with an attitude of collaboration and learning is a key challenge of design-led strategies.

If we view an innovative practice as a composite of multiple disciplines and aspirations, then a robust internal framework must exist - one that nurtures individual competencies and facilitates their integration.

There is no doubt that this is a slow, continuous process, and one that can create pressures on the business front. But we are willing to bet on the positive energy this can foster for individuals and organisations.

Innovation is an exhilarating but exhausting process. We feel that a framework designed to support innovation must therefore acknowledge the need to nourish the human at the centre of this process. This can only be achieved if the seriousness of strategic work is tempered by imagination and play.

Since the start of our journey in 2005, we have developed projects that have granted us a rare view of the innovation ecosystem in India, and throughout the rest of the world. We feel we are on the brink of a journey to somewhere profound, let’s explore it together. 

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Our Expertise: Emerging Markets

We are one part immersed in the global best practice of design, and the other in the plural contexts of emerging markets.

India is an incredibly fast moving and layered environment. When coupled with the complexities of scale and economics, this places unique demands on sense-makers and innovators. Add to this a vibrant mix of cultures and societies, then one is faced with a bewildering array of challenges to strategise about.

Quicksand is armed with experiences that have been built in these contexts, and which reflect our commitment to being a thought leader in the innovation landscape for emerging markets.

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Innovation is no longer a question of imaginative responses, but a burning mandate for imaginative and relevant responses. Merging exuberance with responsibility is an important challenge facing, not just our practice, but every practice that is home-grown, independent and seeking real impact.

Innovation for emerging markets requires a convergence of imagination, relevance and responsibility.

There’s also the paradox of innovation: in a context where systems of governance and institutional capacities are still evolving, the success of any innovation effort depends on the ability to navigate and tap a complex web of relationships that exist within microcommunities. In the absence of functioning systems at a macro level, the relevance of systems thinking in a design solution is even more important.

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Design in industrialised economies has found a niche for itself by demonstrating its relevance in creating tangible products.

Being innovative in emerging markets requires negotiation of complex systems where the test of design is in the creation of value that is often intangible.

With the benefit of our experience, it’s now nearly impossible to think of a project breakthrough without being embedded deeply within the context. Having an ability to listen, observe and learn, whilst retaining an openness to build local partnerships is vital. The success of this approach is still a work-in-progress, and we see it as a responsibility of our practice to steer this process of sense-making.

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A Conversation on Human-Centred Design Quicksand partners, Ayush and Babitha, have witnessed the studio’s maturity and seen us assume a vocal role in the global conversation on human-centred design. Here they reflect on the trajectory of our learning throughout our first decade of experience.

A / Can you trace, through some examples, how our understanding of human-centred design has changed over the years?

B / At some level, I think it was a basic curiosity, our love for stories and travel that spurred our foray into human-centred design - which is really about developing a deep understanding of people’s needs, and designing for those needs.

Whether we were designing a phone helpline system for education, developing a new sparkling drink category for Coke, or more recently, attempting to address the plastic bag challenge in Cambodia. Most of our projects have taken us to places where we’ve had a chance to embed ourselves within a context to listen and observe.

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In a sense, it feels like we’ve always been using our own process of human-centred design, and constantly adapted it in order to create meaning for our stakeholders. We arrived at it naturally, though our own logic, free of the burden that comes with buzzwords.

Many of our projects have also thrown us into unfamiliar contexts within India, and across the Global South. However, our primary need to stay true to real people’s needs and aspirations, ensured that we went in with curiosity and built local partnerships. And this approach has stood us in good stead.

A / Is the idea of design thinking bloated compared to what it can truly deliver?

B / I guess that tends to happen when something becomes a buzzword. When it becomes a Swiss army knife that you wield - not because it serves a purpose and is the most appropriate tool to use - but because it makes you look like a cool, hipster who drinks kale smoothies and rides a fixie.

I don’t know if we can blame design thinking itself for this.

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Design thinking is about assuming a beginner’s mindset and recognising that complex problems do not often have simple solutions, but instead require sustained engagement.

The problem is that buzzwords tend to encourage people to latch on to new methods as omnipotent problem-solving techniques. Tools and methods, need to be constantly revisited and adapted for each unique context.

Within Quicksand, we are constantly reinventing the way in which we approach project contexts. It would be easier to define a fixed approach to replicate. But when we let design thinking fall into this trap, we are letting go of its allowance for human nature.

When it comes to creating long-term sustainable change, the problems of integrating a new design can be intimidating.

It needs to be about breaking down traditional hierarchies of decision-making.

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To increase chances of change, the larger systemic structure in which a problem sits needs to be re-thought.

While that is never easy, it is absolutely vital.

The extended relationships we build with our clients - often asking and working with them through the tough questions - are precisely what helps design thinking ‘deliver’. In the absence of this willingness to engage with complexity, design thinking will end up falling into a trap.

B / Why “strategy and innovation powered by the principles of human-centred design”, and not a “design thinking” firm. Could you draw out the distinction?

A / We have often debated the right starting point for a conversation. It feels like design thinking and strategy and innovation present differing scenarios.

Design thinking makes a case for how every decision that attempts to improve the quality of human life is essentially a design decision.

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In that context it makes itself relevant for a wide spectrum of human experiences.

This is a clear departure from the popularly understood notion of design which emphasises aesthetics, or form over function. While the practitioners of design thinking are clear about the distinction between the two, here’s where we have sensed the struggle lies: Firstly, curious organisations assessing the practice are still looking to find the familiar tropes of design. Not altogether a bad thing, but sometimes it takes the focus away from the process and runs the risk of forcing a design output where it might be premature.

Secondly, the semantic associations of design thinking owe a greater allegiance to traditional design over other disciplines. The practice itself therefore tends to sit uncomfortably with others - not for any other reason but the manner in which it is perceived.

Our reasons for leaning towards innovation as a positioning strategy are manifold. Strategy and innovation is a statement of intent for an organisation. However, design thinking is a manner of sense-making and solution-ing, the nuances of which are still largely unfamiliar and misunderstood.

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As a trans-disciplinary practice, Quicksand’s position of strength lies at the confluence of disciplines. Innovation has an inclusive vocabulary that keeps possibilities open for different disciplines to weigh in from their unique vantage points.

And finally, in the current state of affairs, design thinking has a way of normalising the process around cookie-cutter descriptions of stages and activities, when in reality the process is lot more fluid, dynamic and flexible.

We prefer the openness of the word innovation, it embodies a shared value of pushing new boundaries in order to reinvent and rethink.

A / Can you elaborate on how human-centred design permeates the studio practice beyond our work?

B / The idea of making sense of our work in a highly personal manner - whether in client projects or independent pursuits - has ensured

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that we stay true to the core idea of humancentred design, even within the studio.

The way the studio practice has evolved over the years has taken into account all of our collective interests and aspirations.

This passion to ground all of our efforts in honest enquiry has permeated not just client projects, but also independent pursuits like our festival, UnBox. Whether it is about the studio rallying around personal interests and motivations, or about creating communities of practice with external partners and friends, there is always a humane basis to our pursuits, irrespective of the scale. How can we create an engaging festival experience, if we did not involve external partners in the co-creation of it?

How can we engage with a range of external experts on independent, boot-strapped ventures, if we cannot relate first as friends and partners?

The nature of our work may change over the coming years, but I sincerely hope that our soul does not, and that we continue to build on these ideas of curiosity, honesty, and empathy using an extended community of partners and friends.

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Our Process

An adaptive, iterative process defined by principles of collaboration, empathy and curiosity.

Design thinking is not a panacea, nor is it a rigid methodology, rather it invites experimentation and adaptation. In expressing the scope of our services, we continually return to a simple articulation of professional interests and expertise.

Each project is a journey through unpacking these competencies. What remains fixed is that each part of every journey has basic values anchoring it, and the cross-fertilisation of these values will drive sustainability and relevance.

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We have distilled our process into three simple statements that can be imaginatively interpreted by our teams on their various missions. These are the reasons we started Quicksand, and what we do best.

Meeting People

Framing an opportunity through the lens of people’s aspirations is our entry-point to the innovation journey. Our motivations for undertaking this journey are both personal (of curiosity and adventure) and practice based (of questioning biases, assumptions and a search for inspiration).

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Telling Stories

Stories have the power to bring together teams and provide a fertile ground for insights, ideas and inspiration. When we are deeply immersed in a context, the most pressing need is to build empathy for users amongst diverse teams. It is also clear from our years of practice, that solutions can be sustainable only when they are co-created.

Crafting Experiences

A well designed product or a system equates to a good experience. Bringing an experience to life is a painstaking process of prototyping, testing it in the real world and examining learnings. It is a slow, deliberate process but one that accelerates the pace of innovation.

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Our Values

Our values anchor the individual and the collective, the independent and the interdependent, the culture and the strategy. They are our reason to exist, and your reason to partner with us.

The values articulated here have evolved from experiences we have shared together in the course of building Quicksand. They are intended to guide how we work with our clients to build mutually respectful relationships with them, whilst also informing how we relate to each other internally.

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Be Local. Feel Global.

Quicksand explores the application of design thinking in emerging markets today. The way in which this local view interacts with a global perspective profoundly informs our work.

Making Sense of Chaos We don’t shun the complexity of our work; rather we champion the application of design-led thinking as means to navigate chaos.

An Open Studio Our studios are open environments with constant expectations of collaboration and personal expression. We nurture them as metaphors for our rich understanding of plurality.

The Value of Friendship Our studio is rooted in the simple pleasure of sharing an independent practice with friends, this is key to the independence of spirit that drives us as creative individuals.

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So, what experience do we have?

We have worked with global corporations to envisage new business opportunities.

Our work has spanned creating disruptive innovations for low income consumers with Unilever, envisioning a new beverage category for Coca-Cola and understanding how people use, store and transact information for Google.

We have worked with international development partners to drive social impact.

We have worked in diverse contexts, such as re-imagining community sanitation in urban contexts for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, enhancing conflict relief work through design-led innovations for the International Rescue Committee and developing the DIY Toolkit, one of the most widely used toolkits for social innovation for Nesta and Rockefeller Foundation.

We have incubated open networks for creativity and collaboration.

Our pursuit for independent expression and exploration has led to the creation of UnBox, a festival and community platform for interdisciplinary thought and action, a leading audio-visual collective called Basic Love of Things and Blindboys, a platform for new visual perspectives from the Asian continent.

Know more at quicksand.co.in Email hello@quicksand.co.in Twitter @helloQS LinkedIn /company/quicksand-design-studio Instagram /quicksandstudio