TL;DR: Industries get disrupted constantly (think CDs by MP3s, MP3s by streaming, GPS by smartphones). This makes entrepreneurship feel like a high-stakes gamble ("賭") on choosing the right direction. But you can significantly improve your odds by focusing on good design. Today, good design isn't just aesthetics; it's about deeply understanding a problem and crafting a functional, meaningful solution that achieves a specific purpose. By applying design thinking – identifying unmet needs first, designing the solution mechanism, and then choosing the technology – we transform entrepreneurship from a blind bet into a strategic process of value creation.
We've all seen it happen: MP3s wiped out the CD industry, only to be decimated themselves by Spotify and Apple Music. Smartphone navigation turned dedicated car GPS units into relics. New products and services constantly disrupt existing industries, reshaping our world.
This relentless change makes entrepreneurship feel like a constant gamble. Every day, founders are betting ("賭") on their chosen "theme" – their core product, service, or market focus – hoping it won't become obsolete tomorrow. It can feel like you're forced into a daily bet ("焗賭") just to stay relevant. But is it purely a gamble, or can we approach it more strategically?
The Evolving Meaning of 'Good Design'
Sixty years ago, "good design" often primarily referred to product aesthetics – how something looked. Today, while aesthetics still matter, the evaluation of good design centers more on how effectively a product or service achieves its intended purpose and function, and whether it creates a positive, lasting impact.
When entrepreneurs develop a new product or service, they aren't just solving one specific client's immediate request. They are fundamentally betting that this new offering will be commercially viable ("能否賣錢") in the broader market. How can we make this less of a gamble and more of a calculated move? The answer lies in good design.
What Do We Mean by 'Design'?
"Design" is a powerful concept – it can be a verb (the act of creating), a noun (the result), and even a philosophy. It can be the engine driving company growth and the catalyst for business transformation. Whether tangible or intangible, anything intentionally constructed to achieve an ideal or purpose can be considered a product of design.
In our increasingly complex world, design is indispensable for both solving existing problems and identifying new challenges worth tackling. The English word "Design" has Latin roots suggesting "to give significance." It implies a process of simplification that simultaneously imbues deep meaning. And crucially, unlike pure art, design must be functional.
Truly effective design requires deep thinking:
- Who are we designing for?
- Why do they need it?
- What specific problem are we trying to solve? When done well, especially with cross-disciplinary collaboration, good design has the power to create real change and solve real problems for specific groups of people.
Design Thinking in Action: A Recent Example
Let me share a recent case from Mercury Technology Solution:
- The Client & Problem: A Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) clinic was struggling with appointment scheduling. Issues included long patient wait times, frequent lateness or no-shows, and inefficient resource allocation due to varying physician skills and available rooms/beds.
- The Traditional IT Fix: The typical IT approach would be simple "digitization" – perhaps implementing a shared online calendar like Google Calendar. This addresses the symptom superficially but doesn't tackle the underlying complexity.
- Our Design-Led Solution: We believed this wasn't just a digitization problem, but a resource optimization challenge. We designed a system we call "Dynamic Resource Scheduling." Instead of manual booking into fixed slots, our system uses an algorithm (Algo) to calculate optimal, bookable appointment times. This algorithm considers multiple factors: the specific service required, room and bed availability, the physician's specific skill set and proficiency level, and even historical patient satisfaction data for similar appointments.
- Broader Application: During the design phase, we didn't just focus on the TCM clinic. We actively considered the operational needs and experiences of similar service-based businesses like beauty salons, dental practices, and hair salons to ensure our core logic was robust and potentially adaptable.
The Process: Need First -> Design -> Technology
This example highlights our core methodology: "Find the need first, then design the product/service" ("先找需求再設計產品/服務"). We apply design thinking directly to our IT solution development:
- Identify Unmet Needs: We focus first on deeply understanding the real, often unarticulated, needs and pain points in the market.
- Design the Mechanism: We then conceptualize and design the process or mechanism that would effectively solve that need (like the dynamic scheduling logic). This is often independent of specific technology initially.
- Select/Build the Technology: Only after defining the core solution mechanism do we select the appropriate technologies (databases, algorithms, UI frameworks, etc.) to bring that design to life efficiently and effectively.
By following this process – need first, then design, then technology – we ground our development in real-world problems. This significantly increases the probability of creating something valuable and commercially successful, thereby reducing the inherent "gamble" of entrepreneurship.
創業不是一場賭博，你需要好設計
MP3的誕生消滅了唱片公司CD產業、Spotify/Apple Music又消滅了MP3產業。Smartphone的導航功能讓車用GPS變成夕陽產業。新產品顛覆既有產業，亦正在改變這個世界。創業者每天要賭的是「主題」， 沒有人希望自己正在進行的事業很快地成為夕陽產業，因為這關係到創業是否成功、能走多遠。人生每天都在賭，創業也是，每天都是「焗賭」。
在60年前，好設計更多指的是一種純粹的產品美學，而現在，優秀設計的評價重點已經變成一個產品或服務能否更好地去實現特定目的、功能，以及能否為社會帶來持續的影響。
創業者在開發新產品/服務要解決的不只是某一客戶的需求，更多是去「賭」新產品能否賣錢。
好設計： 「設計」可以是動詞、也可以是名詞，也可以是哲學。它成為公司成長的動力、企業轉型的契機。無論有形無形，只要是為了某種理想和目的而構築的事物都會被視為設計。
在不斷複雜化的社會中，對於課題的解決和新課題的發現，設計已然成為了不可或缺的存在。
設計的英文「Design」在其拉丁意涵指的是「to give significance」 ，也就是設計雖然是一種簡化的概念，但還能夠帶來深層的意義；而設計與藝術兩者最大的差別就是設計具備功能性。
認真思考為誰或為甚麼設計，以及想要解決甚麼樣的問題，假如能夠跨領域合作，一個好的設計，絕對能夠帶來改變、解決某一部份人的問題。
舉我最近的一個例子： 客戶是一家中醫診所，現有問題是病人預約（等候，遲到，失約）及醫師能力不一造成資源錯配。如果用傳統IT的解決方法，一般是「電子化」。也就是共享行事曆或Google Calendar。對於這課題，我們認為不應該去手動的電子化。所以我們設計了一個「動態資源排程」去按服務、房間、床位、醫師能力值、以往病人滿意度去計算（Algo）一個可以預約的時間。
設計時，我們也考慮了其他行業的需求，例如美容院、牙醫、髮型屋等不同的經驗。
我們按照「先找需求再設計產品/服務」的流程去創造出價值，把design thinking（設計思考）的過程應用在IT上面，最重要的就是先把市場上還沒有被滿足的需求找出來，再回過頭來去想要用甚麼樣的機制來解決這個需求，到最後再來找適當的科技把這個技術做出來。用以上方法，成功機率自然變高，「賭注」自然就會降低。
Entrepreneurship will always involve risk, but it doesn't have to be a blind gamble. By embracing design thinking and focusing on solving real needs thoughtfully, we can build businesses that are not only more likely to succeed but also create genuine, lasting value. Design for impact.
