The Power of Zooming In & Out
Innovation is the key to staying ahead of the curve, adapting to change, and driving growth. One source of inspiration that has left a mark on me is the iconic film "Powers of Ten" by Charles and Ray Eames. Created in 1977, this short film takes viewers on a visual journey that spans the various powers of ten, from the microscopic to the cosmic.
The film begins with an overhead shot of a couple on a picnic blanket near Lake Michigan. The scene is one meter wide by one meter high. From there, we zoom out—every ten seconds, ten times further away than the original one-by-one meter square. Similarly, in business, successful innovation often starts with a tighter focus on customer needs and market insights. Considering industry trends, markets, and the evolving technology landscape, it expands to a broader view.
Scenes from Powers of Ten
Remarkably, the Eames' exploration of scale has significant parallels with the principles of innovation. Gaining different perspectives allows businesses to better face the increasingly complex problems requiring innovative solutions.
According to a report by Innosight, corporations in the S&P 500 in 1965 stayed for an average of 33 years. By 1990, that had narrowed to 20 and is forecast to shrink to 14 by 2026. Looking ahead, it’s reasonable to assume that in another 60 years, most of today’s companies will no longer exist as they do today or will be replaced by new companies in new industries that we can’t imagine. Gulp. So, how can a company remain relevant? They will need to adapt. They will need to reinvent themselves. And they will likely need to transcend their current industry.
One of the best ways to innovate—to adapt ahead of the curve—is to develop the ability to gain new perspectives by zooming in and out. Let’s take a look at what that means.
Zoom Out to Better Understand Context
Just as the Eames' camera zooms out from the picnic blanket into deep space, business leaders must broaden their perspectives. To innovate successfully, being aware of industry trends, global markets, and emerging technologies is crucial. Understanding the larger landscape helps businesses identify opportunities, anticipate challenges, and position themselves strategically.
One of the advantages of zooming out of a problem is gaining a comprehensive understanding of the bigger picture. When you step back and look at something further away, you can more easily identify overarching themes, patterns, and connections that might not be apparent when immersed in the details. (You’ve heard, “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” right?) Zooming out allows you to view the system vs. individual nodes. This perspective can help you see the problem in a broader context, making it easier to set goals, define objectives, and prioritize tasks.
For instance, if a project faces a sudden budget cut, pausing and zooming out allows you to see the whole picture, reevaluate priorities, and make decisions that preserve the core elements while sacrificing less critical aspects.
Zooming out allows you to develop more appropriate solutions. After all, customers don't buy products and services; they buy solutions to their problems. To understand and develop more appropriate solutions, you must zoom out and map their entire journey. However, one pitfall I often see is companies only map the customer’s journey with their product—or, at best, brand. What happens before they interact with you or your prospects? What about when they’re not using your product? How can you meet them where they are instead of waiting for them?
Zooming out gives you additional context and a more complete picture. A more holistic picture of the system enables you to more easily adapt, reinvent your business model, or transcend your industry as you provide the most appropriate solutions for people.
Zoom In to Understand Specifics
At the microscopic level, Powers of Ten teaches us the importance of paying attention to detail and understanding the intricacies of our businesses. Just as the camera zooms in to reveal the microscopic world, businesses must zoom in on customer experiences, internal processes, and product design. Microscopic innovation involves refining and optimizing existing practices to enhance efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.
For instance, in an interaction design project, zooming in might involve conducting user testing sessions to observe how users interact with a specific feature or element within the user interface. This close examination can reveal usability issues, user frustrations, or design flaws that need immediate attention.
Or imagine you're developing a new brand identity. After understanding the company's history, values, and competitors, you might zoom in to generate hundreds of potential logo directions. You would then zoom in further to explore various finer elements of a single option, like the composition, the softness or hardness of the bezier curves, the figure/ground relationship, varying adjustments to the typeface or symbol, etc. By addressing each aspect individually, you may create several variations of a single concept for review.
Zooming in lets you look at things closely and personally, allowing you to consider possible solutions more deeply and optimize processes, solutions, and ideas more efficiently. Zooming out and zooming in are important, but they can’t work in isolation. Innovation flourishes when you switch between zoom levels.
Zooming In & Out Drives Innovation
The Eames' film seamlessly transitions between different scales, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all things. Successful innovation often occurs at the intersection of people, processes, and ideas. The synthesis of insights from different levels of zoom can lead to innovative ideas that better address the problem holistically.
For example, innovation workshops often incorporate this technique by encouraging team members to start with divergent thinking (zooming out) to generate various ideas and then use convergent thinking (zooming in) on the most promising ones for further development.
Recently, I was part of a team designing a main-stage keynote for a large user conference. The client began by sharing one slide at a time. Zooming out involved us asking the client to share the event's theme and the entire talk track so that we could see the narrative as a whole instead of addressing one-off concepts. That way, we could see how each piece fits within and supports the larger whole. Understanding the presentation’s overall purpose, audience, and story arc gave us the confidence to zoom in, make the best design decisions at a slide level. We then zoomed out to check our and guide the project to a successful outcome.
Zooming in and out is also valuable for collaboration. A concerted effort between diverse teams with unique skills and expertise can lead to groundbreaking solutions, surface fresh perspectives, and foster creativity. It can also unite your organization, as zooming in and out requires teams to work together to solve the problem. This collaborative approach can lead to richer discussions, a wider range of ideas, and better design solutions.
"Powers of Ten" provides a profound metaphor for the principles of innovation. By understanding the importance of zooming in and out, businesses can navigate the complexities of the market and position themselves as agents of change. Just as the Eames' film has stood the test of time, its lessons continue to inspire us to push the boundaries of what is possible.
P.S. For those interested, the BBC released an updated version of the classic Powers of Ten, expanding our understanding of the known universe.