Category Archives: Process

For content related to creativity and innovation processes

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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.

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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!

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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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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.

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Brainstorming 101 – Idea Generation Techniques

After picking the right people, setting the scenario, establishing the ground rules, and adding a little sugar and caffeine, it’s time to kick off the fun.  You’ve probably seen brainstorming where a group of people sit around a room and bounce ideas off one another - sketching and writing ideas on the wall.  But there are many other techniques that can be equally effective and just even more fun.  Here are a few:

You can do a Group Chat over the internet or on an internal network where a group of people can type and view ideas on their computer.  During these types of brainstorming sessions, ideas come up fast and furious limited only by typing speed.  The unconventional part of this technique is that it affords participants a certain degree of anonymity.  This usually adds a stretch to the imagination – since nobody knows who is typing in all the crazy ideas!

You can also do a Pass the Idea technique.  Each person starts an idea with a sketch or description and then passes it on the next person.  Everyone takes turns building on the ideaa as they get passed around.  By the time you are finished, the ideas have taken as many different directions as there are people in the group.

A third method is the Role Play.  Each person assumes a certain character or personality and acts out the role within a brainstorming session.  This technique helps people get out of their shells and reduces inhibitions in general.  For example, you could take on the role of a pregnant mother of 5 who needs to design a baby mover.  It’s a little like dressing up in a costume and acting out a fantasy…  The results can therefore be a little unexpected!

Another method is the use of  ‘Mind Maps’ which are schematic style word assocations. Choose your subject and then connect assocations that relate to your subject. Then connect other assocations to these associations and so on. By developing this array or associations, new conepts and relationships may present themselves that wouldn’t otherwise.  

Finally, you can just sit around a table with stimulating objects, snacks, and drinks or do what I consider the Conventional.  The group talks, sketches, and writes capturing ideas as they develop.  This is probably the most common form of brainstorming I’ve seen and guess what… it works.

All these techniques will generate lots of ideas.  For what to do with all these seemingly disconnected ideas… you’ll have to wait for another post.

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Brainstorming 101

You can brainstorm lots of different ways but there is a process. Here are the steps at a high level. I’ll cover some the steps in more detail with individual posts later on.

Choose the right group of people
Choose the method of brainstorming
Set the scenario - forecast the future
Set the actual brainstorming environment
Review the ground rules
Let ‘em loose and start generating ideas!
Record everything
Cluster the ideas
Prioritize the ideas