Biomimicry in Design

Bonus: Mother Nature's Product Roadmap

👋 Hi, Jay here! Welcome to my newsletter on Substack, exclusively for Product Coalition members.

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Here’s what I’m covering this week

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

2. 🎧 AUDIO STUDY SUMMARY: 21 minutes

3. 🎧 PODCAST: EP64 The Psychology of Business Agility

4. 🤔 EVENT: 2 new live events this week

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

6. 👉 OPEN TO WORK

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STUDY WITH JAY: Biomimicry in Design

What do Amazon, Netflix and squirrels have in common?

🗒️ Each week I share what I’m studying, with the world. This week I’m studying Biomimicry in Design, and paid members can request access to my notebook here.

"Mate, Your Product Strategy Might Need Some Gecko Feet"

Right then, there I was in my office last Tuesday, proper distracted by this cheeky gecko on my window. As you do. While we product folks were all wrapped up in our fancy methodologies and sprint planning, this little master of gravity got me thinking - nature's been running the world's most successful R&D lab, and here's the brilliant bit: she's happy to share her code base with us.

Crikey, talk about a humbling moment.

The Billion-Year Head Start

We product folks pride ourselves on our agile methodologies and innovative solutions. Yet here's something to consider with your morning coffee: nature's been perfecting these practices for 3.8 billion years. That's one impressive sprint backlog!

Take that gecko on my window. It uses millions of tiny hairs creating something called van der Waals forces - physics so elegant that scientists still marvel at its simplicity and effectiveness. [^1]

Mother Nature: The Ultimate Product Mentor

Let me share this week's discoveries, about resilient systems in nature. For any product leaders thinking "Jay's gone full David Attenborough," stick with me - this will transform how you think about product strategy.

The Fire-Tested Framework

Organisms thriving in fire-prone environments serve as brilliant strategists, employing three approaches that would make any product architect envious:

1. Full-spectrum security: They develop general resilience, creating robust architectures that handle both today's challenges and tomorrow's unknowns. Entropic Materials applies this principle in their self-degrading plastics, mimicking protective chaperone proteins. [^2]

2. Built-in redundancy: Nature champions multiple backup systems. Consider how plants develop complex root networks. When did you last review your system's redundancy plans?

3. Sacrificial systems: Think of it as strategic feature deprecation - letting go of one component to protect the core product's integrity.

Nature's Resource Management Masterclass

Right then, before we dive into more tech examples, let's talk about how nature handles its resources. And trust me, this is where it gets properly interesting.

The Squirrel Economy

The Squirrel Economy Concept…?

Ever watched a squirrel during autumn? These little fellows make your typical ERP system look primitive. They'll gather thousands of nuts, distribute them across hundreds of locations, and somehow remember where about 90% of them are buried. It's like watching a master class in inventory management and distributed systems.

Here's what product leaders can pinch from our bushy-tailed mates:

1. Distributed Resource Management

   • Store resources close to where they'll be needed

   • Create multiple backup locations

   • Build in redundancy for critical resources
     Real-world example: Amazon's distribution center strategy mirrors this approach, placing inventory strategically near demand centers.

2. Seasonal Planning
   Just as squirrels know when to start gathering for winter, successful products anticipate and prepare for changing conditions. Take Netflix's content strategy - they're constantly gathering and distributing new content, adjusting their library based on predicted viewing patterns.

The Bamboo Bootstrap

Here's another brilliant bit of natural wisdom. Bamboo might look like it's growing slowly for ages, but it's actually building an extensive root system. Then - boom! It can grow up to 91cm in a single day (much like the last 25 story points on last day of the sprint?).

Sound familiar? It's the same pattern successful products use:

• Build robust infrastructure first

• Create strong foundations

• Scale rapidly when conditions are right

Nature's Just-in-Time Manufacturing

Consider how a spider builds its web:

• Uses exactly the right amount of silk

• Creates structures that are both strong and efficient

• Repairs and recycles materials constantly

This isn't just clever - it's genius level resource optimization.

The M4 Robot: Nature's Engineering Masterpiece

Let me introduce you to the M4 robot - or as the technical folks call it, the "multimodal mobility morphobot." (Good luck saying that three times fast!)

Nature's Swiss Army Knife

The M4 excels at flying, rolling, crawling, and tumbling - and that's just the beginning. Its real genius lies in how it chooses between these abilities.

Consider a sea lion: graceful swimmer in water, adaptable waddler on land. Or watch meerkats: swift runners on all fours one moment, alert sentinels standing tall the next.

The M4 embodies this adaptability. Each of its four limbs transforms for different situations:

• Wheels for efficient ground travel

• Legs for rough terrain navigation

• Thrusters for aerial maneuvers

Engineering Brilliance

The M4 replicates both animal forms and intelligence. Its sensors and onboard computers enable:

• Terrain analysis (like a mountain goat evaluating its next leap)

• Energy-efficient movement selection (matching animals' natural conservation instincts)

• Seamless mode transitions (as smooth as a bird switching from walking to flight)

Watch it in action: On flat ground, it rolls efficiently. Encountering an obstacle? It takes flight, then returns to rolling once clear. Facing a steep slope? It combines movement types for optimal performance.

Your Product Strategy Connection

Let's connect this to your product development:

1. Adaptive Design
   The M4's morphing abilities mirror how your products should adapt to user needs. Consider how your interfaces could flex for different contexts, or how your architecture might scale under varying demands.

2. Energy Efficiency
   The M4's movement optimization offers lessons in resource management. Time to audit your product's resource usage?

3. Intelligent Transitions
   Study the M4's seamless mode switching. How smooth are your product's state transitions and user journey handoffs?

Here's something to make you smile - and think. I've translated Mother Nature's human development project into proper product management speak. The results? Eye-opening...

MOTHER NATURE'S PRODUCT ROADMAP

Human Evolution Enhancement Project v2024

Status: Thriving (3.8 billion years of continuous deployment)

Product Owner: Mother Nature
Scrum Master: Natural Selection
Key Stakeholder: Humanity (actively participating)