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Product innovation increasingly involves both human designers (engineers, developers, lead users, creative geniuses, and other innovators) and machine designers (algorithmically organized software tools that autonomously collect and interpret data to make innovative design decisions). This article provides practical guidance about how firms can leverage different forms of machine designers in tandem with human designers to fundamentally change the way they engage in product innovation. It describes how successful companies have managed to optimally orchestrate the capabilities of human and machine designers to create both effective and ethical product innovations that were previously unthinkable.

Until 20 years ago, South Korea's Samsung Electronics manufactured inexpensive, imitative electronics for other companies. Its leaders valued speed, scale, and reliability above all. The few designers working for the company were dispersed in engineering and new-product units, and they had little status in a company that emphasized efficiency and engineering rigor. Then, in 1996, Lee Kun-Hee, the chairman of Samsung Group, grew frustrated by the company's lack of innovation and concluded that in order to become a top brand, Samsung needed expertise in design, which he believed would become "the ultimate battleground for global competition in the twenty-first century." He set out to create a design-focused culture that would support world-class innovation. But shifting to an innovation-focused culture without losing an engineering edge is not a simple matter. It involves managing a number of very real tensions. Samsung's success in making this shift stems from a single early decision--to build design competency in-house rather than import it. The authors describe how the company created a committed, resourceful corps of designers who overcame internal resistance by deploying the same tools they use in pursuing innovation: empathy, visualization, and experimentation in the marketplace.