Design Thinking at Pixar and Disney

By Ashok Sharma

Challenge:

Creating stories that touch people’s hearts.

Selection:

The tool of and storytelling has been selected since this is about movies. Storytelling can be really  powerful and compelling. It can inspire many others with a proper message. It’s important to  understand the skill of persuasion and emotional intelligence which influence people. Every heart- touching story inspires others. Pixar and Disney are known for such heart-touching stories which  inspire people.

Application:

Ratatouille is a film about Remy, a small, rat with a blue coat. Remy dreams to be a big chef in  Paris. Ratatouille was a massive international commercial success because of its unique and heart- touching story. Pixar and Disney always come up with ingenious stories that touches people’s  hearts. How do they do it? It is through R&D in a collaborative and iterative environment.  However, the process isn’t as simple as is sounds.   All stories at Pixar and Disney start as a part of a 3-idea pitch. After spending almost five months  crafting pitches for all three separate project ideas, each director from the core team presents them  to the Chief Creative Officer (CCO). The CCO then is bound to select one of them to be the next  project, or asks the directors to reiterate the idea and pitch it again.   Once an idea is selected, it enters the R&D process which takes up to one year. The purpose of this  phase is to deepen the original story idea from the proposed pitch. Multi-disciplinary R&D groups  direct topical examination, making reels with cuts from a wide assortment of movies set up with a  good soundtrack. With time, the story rooms are filled with images and notes covering the walls for  the director and creative team to take inspiration from.

Insight and approach:

Pixar and Disney follow the idea of “No idea is bad.” They believe that an idea can only be  criticised with a constructive suggestion.   This allows people to improve their ideas without harsh judgements. Every criticism during  production meetings is positive, with a better idea. This creates a safe space where no one is afraid  of putting forward their ideas.   The R&D team also reached out to people with expertise in the specific fields. The team met with a  woman who has thirty-six pet rats, interviewed Anthony Bourdain about his most memorable meal,  which led to the adaption of a scene in the movie in which, the food critic, Anton Ego, takes a bite  Ratatouille, Remy’s signature dish, remembers the homemade Ratatouille he had as a kid. The team  also hired Thomas Keller, a chef, as one of the consultants to give movie the professional touch it  needed.

Every Pixar and Disney movie goes through such intense and cautious design thinking process and  research to move ahead with the movie with a strong base. Using design thinking in the process,  Pixar and Disney never fails to deliver great and memorable movies.

