020100703 - Product design

One thing that has become clear to me and some friends recently is that product design is not just one task, but three very inter-related tasks: functional design, interface design and technical design. Functional design is what the product does and why. Interface design is how it performs its functions. Technical design is how the functional and interface designs are achieved. This breakdown has been very helpful in our thinking. Of course there's a whole lot more to things than just product design, most of which probably fall under something that could be called “business design”. A topic for another post another day.

020100513 - The Dollar Isn't Dying

Simon Black (here) argues that the USD, Euro and Yen are on the way out, and that some other currency (perhaps the RMB) will become the global “currency of trade”. He raises some important issues, but misses or under-estimates others.

In fact, as far as I can tell, the USD isn't dying and might just be spreading its wings, taking flight and leaving it's American nest. Whether that's good for the US or not is a different question, and almost entirely independent and irrelevant.

More here.

020100206 - “Too big to fail” as a business strategy?

American Airlines recently announced a global alliance with Iberia and BA (Financial Times, 1/2/10). Why? More here.