Monthly Archives: June 2008

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Creativity vs. Innovation

Here’s a good question.  What’s the difference between creativity and innovation?  First of all, there is a difference. 

Creativity according to Dictionary.com is: “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”

Innovation on the other hand is: ‘something new or different introduced’

So Creativity is the idea and Innovation is the same idea or the creativity applied.  I like to say Creativity is Free (the name of this blog) because it’s usually easier to come up with ideas than to implement them.  People are having great ideas all the time — and often the they are having the same ideas at the same time.  But it’s the sorting out and finding the right idea and bringing it to life that defines innovation.  Out of many hundreds of creative ideas, only a few may ever be implemented.  For those precious few that are, we know of them as innovation — or simply, applied creativity.

For more posts on Creativity and Innovation processes – click here.

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FPS Strategy for Innovation

What’s the connection between video games and innovation strategy?  In an FPS (First Person Shooter) game like Halo 3, you can save your current game status and keep trying new approaches to solving a difficult problem until you eventually find something that works.  This ongoing problem solving exercise demands keen awareness, game experience, trial and error experimentation, and continuous improvement (Kai-zen).  On the higher difficulty settings, some levels can be nearly impossible but with a lot of evolutionary innovation and some brute force, you can usually figure out how to beat the level.  This concept of immortality allows the gamer to keep trying new ideas without real risk.  The keys in gaming, as in innovation, are patience and perseverance.  If employees can do their jobs and develop new ideas without risking their jobs, they might create some breakthrough products – just like reaching the end of the level! 

Innovate or die is really more like innovate AND die many times until you figure out a way to succeed!

For more posts on Creativity and Innovation processes – click here.

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Brainstorming 101 – Seeing the Now and the Future

Before unleashing ones creativity, it’s worth taking a pause to understand the people who will be buying and using the actual product. Knowing what motivates their purchase and what they value in a product are key points to understand for the designer. But we also need to remember that this information is only in the ‘now’. We also need to forecast into the future because people and the world around us may change – or stay the same. Here are some useful tools to consider in the design of new products and before brainstorming new ideas:

Trend scanning – understanding social, economic, technological, fashion, geo-political, and other macro level trends and how they will change the market and people within it.  For a more ‘street’ level look if it’s been awhile…  you can hire so called ‘Cool Hunters’ or style gurus who have their pulse on the latest trends and styles. 

Video Ethnography – Video studies of how customers interact with their products during everyday life in their everyday environment.

Give them a Camera and Scrapbook – Giving customers a camera so they can photograph the key things they find valuable, motivating, exciting, necessary, inconvenient, innovative, etc.  This can also be a collage of objects or images from the customers life.

Immersion in the Customer Environment – Spending time living how the customer lives and using products as the customer would.  For example, I heard that when Toyota was launching Lexus, they sent a team of designers to southern California to live the country club lifestyle.

Future Scenario Alternatives and Immersion – Developing several alternative views of the world based on trend forecast and expected events.  For example, we may find ourselves in a world with a severe energy shortage where everything is given in order to secure energy at the expense of the environment, peace, etc.  The brainstorming team is then immersed in the future and imagines what they will need and want in terms of products.

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New Business Idea – The Eat by the Pound Restaurant

Airlines are seriously considering charging customer by how much they weigh as fuel costs soar.  On the surface, it’s a pay as you go model but is it really fair?  Or is it fair that lighter customers are ‘subsidizing’ heavier customers?  So I was wondering then if this could be applied to a restaurant concept.  The Eat by the Pount restaurant would charge you by the weight of the food you eat.  You step on a scale and get a weight reading when you arrive and you get another reading when you leave.  Your bill is calculated based on your increase in weight.  Of course there are lots of potential issues with this concept.  How would you adjust for going to the bathroom for example?  Anyway, I thought it was an interesting concept and would make for an interesting theme restaurant.  Imagine a large digital display over the entrance or at your table that show how much you weight and how much you eat by the pound.  Just like your treadmill displays how many calories you burn, this restaurant would display how many calories you took in!  A system could record each patrons weight as they arrive.  The system would also calculate the weight delta when checking out — with discounts offered to customers who gained the most weight in the shortest amount of time!  That would really encourage some healthy eating…

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New Product Idea: Higher Tech Toilets of Japan

You’ve heard about them but have you see the controls for one?  The fabulous toilets of Japan are always something that surprises the visitor.  There’s probably more processing power on this toilet than the first rocket to the moon.  The toilet offers temperature controlled seat and water, air drying, an (ass)ortment of washing options.  It even has an emergency stop button for when things don’t go exactly as planned!  I’ll save you the picture of the toilet and keep it just to the controls…

Now for some real innovation: how about  a toilet that analyzes your urine and stools?  With the technology available today, toilets might be able to tell you how much weight you’ve just lost or even check if you are pregnant! Just remember, you read it hear first.

 

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External Sources of Innovation and Design

Beyond internal idea generation techniques, there are also several external methods for generating and harvesting ideas.  A good source of innovation and design is the Contest.  A design contest generates ideas from around the world from professionals, students, and everyone in between. Contests range from the X-Prize  with ambitious goals like personal spaceflight to automotive design competitions such as the Peugeot Design Contest.  These contests can generate lots of concepts and goodwill for the company and sponsors at minimal cost, while at the same time helping out winners with prize money and publicity.

Companies can also establish partnerships with universities and professional consultants.  When internal resources aren’t available and/or you need outside knowledge and perspective, this is the way to go.  There are many capable research departments and design consultancies more than willing to take on your work and your funding!

For more information on this topic, I recommend you go to Professor Eric Von Hippel’s website.   He lists several other excellent sources including:

1.  Making design toolsets available online which allow customers to actually design their own products.  Think of it as a product configurator on steroids. 

2.  Idea submission websites similar to old fashioned suggestion boxes.  Some examples include Dell’s IdeaStorm, Cisco’s i-Prize, and myStarbucksidea. Visitors to the site can make product or business suggestions and vote/comment on ideas. Sometimes, this concept is referred to as ‘crowdsourcing’ or ‘co-creation’ – where companies leverage customers and the general public to get involved in the design of new products or services.

3.  Ideas generated by ‘Lead Users’ such as automobile clubs where members take it upon themselves to modify and upgrade their vehicles. Here, loyal and passionate customers on the leading edge of style and performance take your product and enhance it to meet their needs – often before the general public (or your company) have caught on to these trends. You can learn more about Lead Users at the Professor’s website mentioned above.