Biomimicry in Design – by Jay Stansell

👋 Hello, Jay right here! Welcome to my e-newsletter on Substack, solely for Product Coalition members.

Right here’s what I’m overlaying this week

1. 🗒️ STUDY WITH JAY: Biomimicry in Design: Nature-Impressed Innovation

2. 🎧 AUDIO STUDY SUMMARY: 21 minutes

3. 🎧 PODCAST: EP64 The Psychology of Enterprise Agility

4. 🤔 EVENT: 2 new dwell occasions this week

5. 📝 COMMUNITY ARTICLE: Stockholm Syndrome with Work: When Your Job Takes You Hostage

6. 👉 OPEN TO WORK

🗒️ Every week I share what I’m learning, with the world. This week I’m learning Biomimicry in Design, and paid members can request entry to my pocket book right here.

Proper then, there I used to be in my workplace final Tuesday, correct distracted by this cheeky gecko on my window. As you do. Whereas we product people have been all wrapped up in our fancy methodologies and dash planning, this little grasp of gravity acquired me pondering – nature’s been working the world’s most profitable R&D lab, and this is the good bit: she’s joyful to share her code base with us.

Crikey, speak about a humbling second.

We product people satisfaction ourselves on our agile methodologies and modern options. But this is one thing to think about along with your morning espresso: nature’s been perfecting these practices for 3.8 billion years. That is one spectacular dash backlog!

Take that gecko on my window. It makes use of thousands and thousands of tiny hairs creating one thing known as van der Waals forces – physics so elegant that scientists nonetheless marvel at its simplicity and effectiveness. [^1]

Let me share this week’s discoveries, about resilient techniques in nature. For any product leaders pondering “Jay’s gone full David Attenborough,” follow me – it will remodel how you consider product technique.

Organisms thriving in fire-prone environments function good strategists, using three approaches that might make any product architect envious:

1. Full-spectrum safety: They develop normal resilience, creating sturdy architectures that deal with each immediately’s challenges and tomorrow’s unknowns. Entropic Supplies applies this precept of their self-degrading plastics, mimicking protecting chaperone proteins. [^2]

2. Constructed-in redundancy: Nature champions a number of backup techniques. Take into account how crops develop advanced root networks. When did you final overview your system’s redundancy plans?

3. Sacrificial techniques: Consider it as strategic function deprecation – letting go of 1 element to guard the core product’s integrity.

Proper then, earlier than we dive into extra tech examples, let’s speak about how nature handles its sources. And belief me, that is the place it will get correctly attention-grabbing.

Ever watched a squirrel throughout autumn? These little fellows make your typical ERP system look primitive. They will collect hundreds of nuts, distribute them throughout lots of of areas, and one way or the other bear in mind the place about 90% of them are buried. It is like watching a grasp class in stock administration and distributed techniques.

This is what product leaders can pinch from our bushy-tailed mates:

1. Distributed Useful resource Administration

   • Retailer sources near the place they will be wanted

   • Create a number of backup areas

   • Construct in redundancy for crucial sources
     Actual-world instance: Amazon’s distribution heart technique mirrors this strategy, putting stock strategically close to demand facilities.

2. Seasonal Planning
   Simply as squirrels know when to begin gathering for winter, profitable merchandise anticipate and put together for altering circumstances. Take Netflix’s content material technique – they’re continually gathering and distributing new content material, adjusting their library based mostly on predicted viewing patterns.

This is one other good little bit of pure knowledge. Bamboo may appear like it is rising slowly for ages, however it’s truly constructing an in depth root system. Then – growth! It could actually develop as much as 91cm in a single day (very like the final 25 story factors on final day of the dash?).

Sound acquainted? It is the identical sample profitable merchandise use:

• Construct sturdy infrastructure first

• Create sturdy foundations

• Scale quickly when circumstances are proper

Take into account how a spider builds its internet:

• Makes use of precisely the correct amount of silk

• Creates buildings which are each sturdy and environment friendly

• Repairs and recycles supplies continually

This is not simply intelligent – it is genius stage useful resource optimization.

Let me introduce you to the M4 robotic – or because the technical people name it, the “multimodal mobility morphobot.” (Good luck saying that thrice quick!)

The M4 excels at flying, rolling, crawling, and tumbling – and that is just the start. Its actual genius lies in the way it chooses between these talents.

Take into account a sea lion: swish swimmer in water, adaptable waddler on land. Or watch meerkats: swift runners on all fours one second, alert sentinels standing tall the subsequent.

The M4 embodies this adaptability. Every of its 4 limbs transforms for various conditions:

• Wheels for environment friendly floor journey

• Legs for tough terrain navigation

• Thrusters for aerial maneuvers

The M4 replicates each animal types and intelligence. Its sensors and onboard computer systems allow:

• Terrain evaluation (like a mountain goat evaluating its subsequent leap)

• Vitality-efficient motion choice (matching animals’ pure conservation instincts)

• Seamless mode transitions (as easy as a chicken switching from strolling to flight)

Watch it in motion: On flat floor, it rolls effectively. Encountering an impediment? It takes flight, then returns to rolling as soon as clear. Dealing with a steep slope? It combines motion varieties for optimum efficiency.

Let’s join this to your product growth:

1. Adaptive Design
   The M4’s morphing talents mirror how your merchandise ought to adapt to person wants. Take into account how your interfaces may flex for various contexts, or how your structure may scale below various calls for.

2. Vitality Effectivity
   The M4’s motion optimization gives classes in useful resource administration. Time to audit your product’s useful resource utilization?

3. Clever Transitions
   Research the M4’s seamless mode switching. How easy are your product’s state transitions and person journey handoffs?

This is one thing to make you smile – and assume. I’ve translated Mom Nature’s human growth undertaking into correct product administration communicate. The outcomes? Eye-opening…

Product Proprietor: Mom Nature
Scrum Grasp: Pure Choice
Key Stakeholder: Humanity (actively taking part)