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Innovation Sighting: Task Unification in Kitchenware

Published date: October 27, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Many “wearable tech” devices measure the calories you burn in a day. But weight watchers know that’s only half the equation. You also need an accurate count of calories consumed. Now a new device will do just that. It’s called Vessyl, a cup that will not only identify and track what you drink and how much of it, but also sense the liquid type. It will transform how we consume every ounce of liquid throughout the day.
As reported by CNET:

“Caffeine and sugar amounts, alongside calorie count and a proprietary metric for hydration called Pryme, are tracked through an app on your phone, and bits of that information are also displayed on a screen embedded within the cup itself. The display glimmers to life only when new liquids are poured in to notify you that, yes, you are drinking coffee — and here’s how much caffeine that particular brew will put into your system. A small pillar of light also tells you how drinking that particular amount of that particular liquid will hurt or help your level of hydration as well.”

It’s a great example of the Task Unification Technique, one of five in the innovation method, Systematic Inventive Thinking. Task Unification works by assigning as additional task to an existing resource.

Let’s extend the concept and imagine putting the technology in other kitchenware such as plates, knives, forks, and spoons. For example, what if your plate was divided into sections for different types of food (meats, vegetables, and so on). The plate could weigh and detect the quantity and type of food to measure calories. Perhaps it could recommend optimal amounts of food based on calories burned during the day. Or imagine a fork that sticks in food and measures the fat and calorie content. Now you’d have a way to truly balance your intake and outtake to reach those elusive weight goals.
To get the most out of the Task Unification technique, you follow five basic steps:
1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.
2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task, using one of three methods:

  • Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product accomplishes already
  • Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
  • Choose an internal component and make it perform the function of an external component, effectively “stealing” the external component’s function

3. Visualize the new (or changed) products or services.
4. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this, and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge?
5. If you decide the new product or service is valuable, then ask: Is it feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it viable?

What China Must Do to Innovate

Published date: October 27, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Innovation is an essential ingredient to the growth and success of China’s economy. The use of methods such as Systematic Inventive Thinking will accelerate that growth. But where should China focus its innovation efforts? Professors George Yip and Bruce McKern make the case that China should focus on the following:

  • Cost innovation: Cost innovation occurs when changes in the product design, production or delivery process, technology or materials result in reduction in production or delivery costs. Using Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), the Task Unification Technique tends to produce ideas that are resourceful and cost effective.
  • Process innovation: Process innovation occurs when a company creates a new process for producing or delivering an existing product or service. In China, much process innovation seeks to reduce the cost of production. For process innovation, the Division Technique helps break structural fixedness and create new, transformational processes.
  • Application innovation: Application innovation occurs when existing products (or services) or technologies are combined in a new way to produce a new product. The humble but ubiquitous sandwich, and also the credit card, are classic examples. The Task Unification Technique forces the innovator to consider ways that existing resources can take on additional jobs, leading to clever new applications.
  • Supply chain innovation: While China has become critical in the global supply chains of foreign companies, supply chains inside China still have much room for improvement. Infrastructure is needed to catch up with the country’s very rapid growth. Here, the Subtraction Technique forces the mind to remove essential elements of a supply chain to help see new opportunities and unique replacements for those elements.
  • Product innovation: China has produced relatively few product innovations that are truly new to the world. But based on extensive experience with incremental innovations, Chinese companies are moving from incremental toward radical innovations. The Attribute Dependency Technique is great for taking exisitng incremental innovations and converting them to “smart” products.
  • Technological innovation: China has yet to produce high-impact technology innovations with global significance. But we have seen examples of minor but world class technology being implemented to create innovations. Here again, the Task Unification Technique is especially effective for taking raw technologies and seeking new and novel uses in a wide variety of domains.
  • Business model innovation: In China, most business model innovation has started by taking a Western model, adapting it to China, then further innovating the adaptation. Although Alibaba.com, for example, copied the eBay platform with its competing service Taobao, it quickly overtook eBay, based on its earlier B2B platform experience and innovations to suit the Chinese customer. To innovate a business model, use the Multiplication Technique. It challenges the innovator to consider key parts of the business model in a whole new light.
  • Non-customer innovation: Non-customer innovation occurs when a business is able to serve a customer segment not previously served in this category elsewhere in the world or in a particular country. The so-called “adjacent market” appears attractive as a new source of growth, but these can be distracting. Consider instead applying most or all of the five techniques of SIT to an adjacent space before diving in.

As the professors noted, Chinese companies are adept at exploiting all of these forms of innovation due to their relentless focus on customers, their search for unmet needs, and remarkable speed. Adding in the use of systematic methods of innovation would take China even further.

Innovation Sighting: Subtraction in Email

Published date: October 20, 2014 в 3:00 am

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The only thing worse than having too many emails is getting very long ones. When I open an email and see a long-winded message followed by a chain of other emails that have to be read as well, I dread it. After all, brevity is a virtue, and I value those emails that are short and efficient.

Now there’s a new app that helps manage the problem, and it is a great example of the Subtraction Technique, one of five in the innovation method, Systematic Inventive Thinking. It’s called “MailTime.” MailTime re-formats and summarizes your mails into a messaging conversation view. It redesigns the way you assign tasks helps you to track information easier.

I downloaded the app, and I love it. Here’s how it works:

Email replies are annoyingly formatted as a series of redundant transcripts, while text messages are nicely displayed as simple back-and-forth conversations. But MailTime makes work and personal email on your smartphone as quick, easy, and fun as sending text messages. MailTime features include:

  • CHAT BUBBLE FORMATTING: Read your email messages in an attractive “chat view,” while also retaining the ability to see the original email thread if desired.
  • ONE CLICK TO-DOS: Quickly assign to-do items for yourself and for others directly from your inbox, plus easily track the status of each pending task.
  • ‘TOO LONG’ EMAIL ALERTS: Just like Twitter prevents you from writing more than 140 characters, MailTime warns you if your email message is too long to be effective (but you can still send it if you want).

To get the most out of the Subtraction technique, you follow five basic steps:

  1. List the product’s or service’s internal components.
  2. Select an essential component and imagine removing it. There are two ways: a. Full Subtraction. The entire component is removed. b. Partial Subtraction. Take one of the features or functions of the component away or diminish it in some way.
  3. Visualize the resulting concept (no matter how strange it seems).
  4. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this new product or service, and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge? After you’ve considered the concept “as is” (without that essential component), try replacing the function with something from the Closed World (but not with the original component). You can replace the component with either an internal or external component. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values of the revised concept?
  5. If you decide that this new product or service is valuable, then ask: Is it feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable?

Learn how all five techniques can help you innovate – on demand.

Entrepreneur’s Library: Episode 5 – “Inside The Box” by Drew Boyd

Published date: October 13, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Listen to the Entrepreneur’s Library: Episode 5 – “Inside The Box” by Drew Boyd (17 minutes):

The EL Podcast Episode 5

Q: Will you take just a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you personally?
A: I’m a professor at the University of Cincinnati but I’m really a corporate guy. I’ve been in large organizations for over 30 years and 17 of those years were at the global healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson which is where I learned this method that the book is about.

Q: what was the inspiration for you behind writing Inside the Box?
A: It’s really inspired from two perspectives; one is my time at Johnson & Johnson. We were very desperate to find an innovation method to create new medical products and we spent millions of dollars looking for a method. Just by chance I happen to find out about this method called systematic inventive thinking and we realized immediately that it was special, that it worked very well and I continued to practice it over the last 12 years. A few years later I met my co-author Dr. Jacob Goldenberg, it’s his research that this method is based on. He and I became friend, started teaching and working together when he asked if I wanted to write a book together. Without even thinking about it I said ‘yes.’

Q: What would you say makes your book different from others regarding a similar topic?
A: Our book is the only book that details the method called systematic inventive thinking. Most of the books you deal with today on this topic are more about the why or how you execute innovation. Very few, if any, really deal with the how and that’s what companies want to know. We wrote the book with the intent to give people a way to understand creativity, understand the method, the cognitive tools of how you use your brain in a different way to produce novel ideas you weren’t likely to produce without the method.

Q: Give the reader a great explanation of what they are going to get out of this book
A: This book starts with an introduction to the method and so it’s essential that the readers read the introduction. In chapter one we dive into one of the most important principles called the closed world principle. The closed world is this imaginary boundary around where your product or services is being used. The closed world principle says that the farther away you have to go to import solutions to your problem, the less creative it’s going to be. In other words the most creative solutions are right under your nose.

Then the next five chapters detail each of the five techniques. Chapter two starts off with what’s called the subtraction technique. We finish the chapter with a specific list of steps you follow to use to subtraction technique and common pitfalls. We want people to avoid the routine mistakes that sometimes happen when using the technique. Chapter three is the division technique. This chapter tells some stories about the prevalence of this particular pattern and the many products and services that the division technique can produce. Chapter four is about the multiplication technique. Many innovated products have taken a component, created a copy of it but then changed the component into some counterintuitive non obvious way.

The fifth chapter is called new tricks for old dogs; it’s about the task unification technique. Many innovative products have taken a component of the product and then assigned it an additional job. This technique produces some amazing innovations. Chapter six is about the fifth and final technique. The title of the chapter is clever correlations, the attribute dependency technique. The majority of innovated products have taken an attribute of the product and created a dependency between them. In chapter seven we talk about what are called contradictions. A contradiction is when you have two opposing ideas that can’t exist at the same time. In this chapter we show people how just the opposite is true, that contradictions are a source of creative thinking and we do this by showing people how to use the five techniques to solve contradictions.

Our final chapter is called final thoughts and here we are really try to give people a sense that creativity is the way you make the world a better place. We want people to feel the sense of empowerment, that they can learn innovation. Creativity is a skill; it’s not a gift or something you are born with. You can use these five techniques to boost your creative output no matter where you are in the creativity scale.

The epilogue tells the very nice story about my experience teaching children, as little as third grade, this method and the surprising result of how these children were so capable of using this method to produce innovated ideas. If a third grader can do it than people from all walks of life should be able to innovate with this message as well.

Q: If your readers could only take one concept, principle or action item out of the entire book what would you want that to be?
A: The idea that I would take out of the book is that innovation is a skill. Innovation is not a gift, it’s a skill that can be learned and learned in a systematic way by harnessing the power of patterns and how those patterns could regulate your thinking, channel your ideation and make you create concepts that you weren’t likely to have created on your own.

Q: What is a quote that you are really proud of from your book?
A: The quote that is my favorite is not ours but it’s still my favorite in terms of innovation. “The world leaders in innovation will also be the world leaders in everything else.” by Harry Mcalinden. I can’t think of a quote that says it better. That quote really just gives people the impetus to understand the importance of innovation. Innovation is essentially how we compete in the world, how we overcome our challenges and make the world a better place. The quote sums it up very nicely.

Q: If there is just one book that you could recommend to our listeners based on the way it impacted your life what would that be?
A: The one book I’d recommend is called The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler. It’s out of print now but it’s a book that I take with me on trips over and over. This book has really inspired me to think about creativity throughout the ages and how it’s occurred in different ways. It really was an inspiration in a lot of ways for our book as well.

Q: Can you recommend the best way for our listeners to get more information on you and Inside the Box?
A: To get more information about the book, I’d recommend the readers check out our website called http://www.insidetheboxinnovation.com and I also have a blog called http://www.innovationinpractice.com/ in which I’ve been blogging for about seven years now. If you look at the blog as a supplement of the book, that would be a good way to consume it.

You can also find me on twitter at https://twitter.com/DrewBoyd and on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/drewboyd/. If you go to my Pinterest site, what you’ll find is a board of each of the five techniques in this method. Each board contains examples of products and services that epitomize that particular technique.

Can Creativity Be Taught? Insights from Jacob Goldenberg and Others

Published date: September 29, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Can creativity be taught? Here are insights from Professors Jacob Goldenberg, Rom Shrift and others on this seemingly elusive topic (from Knowledge@Wharton, August 27, 2014):

“I think there are individual differences in our propensity to be creative,” says Wharton marketing professor Rom Schrift, “but having said that, it’s like a muscle. If you train yourself, and there are different methods for doing this, you can become more creative. There are individual differences in people, but I would argue that it is also something that can be developed, and therefore, taught.”

Wharton marketing professor Jerry (Yoram) Wind has in fact taught a course in creativity at Wharton for years, and says that “in any population, basically the distribution of creativity follows the normal curve. At the absolute extreme you have Einstein and Picasso, and you don’t have to teach them — they are the geniuses. Nearly everyone else in the distribution, and the type of people you would deal with at leading universities and companies, can learn creativity.”
Does creativity need the right conditions to flourish? Jennifer Mueller, a management professor at the University of San Diego and former Wharton professor who has researched creativity, sees evidence that it does. “Every theorist that exists today on the planet will tell you creativity is an ability that ranges in the population, and I think in a given context, creativity can be shut off — or turned on, if the environment supports creativity.”
In whatever the sector or discipline — product development, exploitation of networks, music or education — creativity shares certain traits, experts say. Jacob Goldenberg, professor of marketing at the Arison School of Business at the IDC Herzliya in Israel, says creativity has more than 200 definitions in the literature. “However, if you ask people to grade ideas, the agreement is very high,” he notes. “This means that even if it is difficult to define creativity, it is easy to identify it. One of the reasons why it is difficult to define is the fact that creativity exists in many different domains.” Still, he says: “Most creative ideas share a common structure of being highly original and at the same time highly useful.”

In Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results, Goldenberg and co-author Drew Boyd make the case that all inventive solutions share certain common patterns. Working within parameters, rather than through free-associative brainstorming, leads to greater creativity, the book says. This method, called Systematic Inventive Thinking, has found application at Procter & Gamble and SAP, among others. “We shouldn’t confuse innovation and creativity,” Goldenberg says. “Creativity refers to the idea, not to the system [product, service, process, etc.] that was built around it. For example, online banking is a great innovation, but the idea [of using the Internet to replace the branch] was not creative. It was expected years before it was implemented.”

Similarly, he adds, “cell phone technology is one of the most innovative developments, but the need was defined years before, and we just waited for the technology. In my view, a creative idea that is still changing our lives is the concept of letting users develop the software they need on a platform [that a particular] firm sells: the apps concept. This means that consumers develop and determine the value of the smartphone and tablets.”
This example, Goldenberg says, fits one of the templates for creativity described in Inside the Box: “Where you subtract one of the resources” — such as engineers and marketers — “and replace them with a resource that exists inside a closure (box), in this case your consumers.”
Schrift has used a different template from Inside the Box in his classes: The idea of building a matrix of characteristics of two unrelated products, and creating new dependencies. Such examples, he says, include an air freshener that changes scent every 10 minutes (remixing the concepts of time and fragrance), or a gym with a fee that is structured to increase if you don’t work out enough (fitness and incentive). “A lot of the time, looking for a new dependency gives you a creative idea,” Schrift notes.

It’s Back! Innovation and Design Thinking MOOC

Published date: September 22, 2014 в 3:00 am

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The University of Cincinnati’s Massive Open Online Course begins October 16th. The course is free and open to all.

You should take this course because 1. you can do it even while you are traveling, and 2. ALL the content is optional. Just surf the content that is most important for your needs.

The course will help you master the tools necessary to generate new ideas and quickly transform those concepts into a viable pipeline of new products and services. Participants will learn the highly effective method of idea generation called Systematic Inventive Thinking used by many global firms across a wide variety of industries. They will also learn a suite of design thinking tools to take new concepts and put “life” into them. Generating ideas is not enough. Design thinking takes new ideas and sculpts them into market-winning products and services. Participants will learn the mechanics of each S.I.T. tool, and practice the use of each on a real product or service. Additionally, they will learn from a panel of seasoned practitioners and experts in the fields of innovation, new product development, and venture start-up.

The course is taught by two industry-practitioners-turned-academics. Drew Boyd is a 30 year industry veteran. He spent seventeen years at Johnson and Johnson in marketing, mergers & acquisitions and international development. He is co-author of Inside the Box: A Proven System of Creativity for Breakthrough Results. Jim Tappel has over 25 years in industry in the engineering and design. This unique perspective from the commercial/marketing side (Drew) and the engineering/design side (Jim) creates a complete picture of what companies need to do to drive innovation and promote organic growth. Both are now full time faculty members at the University of Cincinnati.

The course features guest videos by practitioners in the field who are experts in innovation, design, new product development and venture startup. They are:

  • Cindy Tripp, formerly the Director of Global Design Thinking at Procter & Gamble. Cindy led development of P&G’s Design Thinking application for business strategy, organizational design, commercial and product innovation to generate previously unimagined solutions.
  • Doug Ladd, Chief Marketing Officer, EndoChoice, Inc., one of the fastest growing medical device companies in the world.
  • Sally Kay, Principal, Strategic Product Development. Sally has extensive experience in innovation as a practitioner (25 years) and a consultant with particular focus on the front end of the innovation process. She is active in The Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) for the last 25 years. She chairs The Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award Program.
  • Dr. Michael Clem, Vice President R&D – Medical at Kaleidoscope, a leading innovation and design firm. Mike is an innovation leader with a successful track record of developing and leading teams to deliver winning solutions. He spent over 20 years in technology and R&D programs with Johnson & Johnson companies.
  • Elizabeth Edwards, CEO at Metro Innovation and author of Startup: The Complete Handbook for Launching a Company for Less. She is a venture capital and economic development strategist focused on helping cities and regions develop stronger entrepreneurial ecosystems.

RegisterParticipants who successfully complete the course and enroll as a new student at the University of Cincinnati will receive graduate credits that can be applied toward either an MBA degree from the Lindner College of Business or a Master of Engineering degree through the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

Join us on October 16, 2014 for the start of Innovation and Design Thinking.  Content links will be available approximately one week prior to the course’s start date. The course will start on October 16 and be completed on November 20.

Innovation Sighting: The Division Technique in Vision Correcting Displays

Published date: September 15, 2014 в 7:33 am

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Innovation is anything that is new, useful, and surprising. “Surprising” means that the idea makes you slap your forehead and say, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”

Here’s a great example. “Researchers at the MIT Media Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have developed a new display technology that automatically corrects for vision defects — no glasses (or contact lenses) required.” It is a classic and clever example of the Divison Technique, one of the five techniques in Systematic Inventive Thinking.

From MIT News:

“The first spectacles were invented in the 13th century,” says Gordon Wetzstein, a research scientist at the Media Lab and one of the display’s co-creators. “Today, of course, we have contact lenses and surgery, but it’s all invasive in the sense that you either have to put something in your eye, wear something on your head, or undergo surgery. We have a different solution that basically puts the glasses on the display, rather than on your head. It will not be able to help you see the rest of the world more sharply, but today, we spend a huge portion of our time interacting with the digital world.”

In hindsight, it makes so much sense to “divide” the function of your glasses (vision correction) and place it somewhere else. For example, this technology might be applied to televisions, car windshields, windows in your home, or just about anything that you have to focus on.

To get the most out of the Division technique, you follow five basic steps:
1.  List the product’s or service’s internal components.
2.  Divide the product or service in one of three ways:

  • Functional (take a component and rearrange its location or when it appears).
  • Physical (cut the product or one of its components along any physical line and rearrange it).
  • Preserving (divide the product or service into smaller pieces, where each piece still possesses all the characteristics of the whole).

3.  Visualize the new (or changed) product or service.
4. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this, and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge?
5. If you decide you have a new product or service that is indeed valuable, then ask: Is it feasible? Can you actually create this new product or perform this new service? Why or why not? Can you refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable?
Keep in mind that you don’t have to use all three forms of Division, but you boost your chance of scoring a breakthrough idea if you do.
 

Systematic Persuasion: An Innovator’s Second Most Important Tool

Published date: September 8, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Just as there are five techniques of systematic innovation, there are six universal principles of persuasion. These principles help people know when it’s appropriate to say ‘yes’ to a request. For innovators, creating great ideas is the first imperative. But then the hard part starts – how to align and convice others of the value of your idea.
Take a look at this Infographic and YouTube video that explain the Six Universal Principles of Persuasion.
6-elements-persuasion-infographic

New Course: Marketing Fundamentals on Lynda.com

Published date: September 1, 2014 в 3:00 am

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I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest course, Marketing Fundamentals, at Lynda.com.
“Whether you’re rebuilding your marketing program from the ground up or leading the first campaign of your career, this course will help you lay the foundation for a successful marketing endeavor. Drew Boyd is a professor and consultant with 30+ years of marketing experience for major brands. In this course, he explains marketing’s role in an organization; provides frameworks for analyzing a business, its customers, and its competitors; and shows how to develop a successful marketing strategy and use that strategy to inform everything from pricing to promotion.
You’ll also learn to address tactical challenges and present the plan to get buy-in throughout an organization, from the C-suite to the sales team, as well as use the marketing plan to guide outside agencies and vendors. Finally, you’ll learn how to launch the campaign and measure its performance.”
Topics include:

  •     Marketing in an organization
  •     Assembling the team
  •     Creating the marketing plan
  •     Analyzing your products, customers, and market
  •     Segmenting customers
  •     Creating a value proposition
  •     Developing a strategy
  •     Setting goals
  •     Setting prices
  •     Using social media
  •     Presenting your plan to leadership
  •     Budgeting your plan
  •     Measuring success

Innovation Sighting: The Chairless Chair

Published date: August 25, 2014 в 3:00 am

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It’s like a chair that isn’t there, but magically appears whenever you need it. It’s called the Chairless Chair and you wear it on your legs like an exoskeleton: when it’s not activated, you can walk normally or even run. And then, at the touch of a button, it locks into place and you can sit down on it. Like a chair that is now there.

It’s a perfect example of the Subtraction Technique, one of five in the innovation method, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). It’s also a great example of Ideality, a property of innovation solutions that appear only when the problem appears.

From CNN:

“The idea came from wanting to sit anywhere and everywhere, and from working in a UK packaging factory when I was 17,” says Keith Gunura, the 29-year old CEO and co-founder of noonee, the Zurich-based startup behind the device, “standing for hours on end causes a lot of distress to lower limbs, but most workers get very few breaks and chairs are rarely provided, because they take up too much space. So I thought that the best idea was to strap an unobtrusive chair directly to myself.”

The device never touches the ground, which makes it easier to wear: a belt secures it to the hips and it has straps that wrap around the thighs. A variable damper engages and supports the bodyweight, which is directed towards the heels of the shoes. These are specially designed and part of the mechanism, but an alternate version works with any footwear and touches the ground only when in a stationary position. The user just moves into the desired pose and then powers the device, which currently runs for about 24 hours on a single 6V battery. (CNN)

“In addition to resting your leg muscles, it also provides optimal posture,” adds noonee CTO and co-founder Bryan Anastisiades “it keeps your back straight and can reduce the occurrence of bad postures for both healthy workers and those recovering from muscle related injuries.”

The Chairless Chair is attracting interest and production line trials are set to start in Germany with BMW in September and with Audi later this year. An aluminium and carbon fibre frame keeps the overall weight of the Chairless Chair at just two kilograms, so it doesn’t burden the wearer with too much excess weight and only marginally impairs movement. And in the future, it could be fitted with smart motors able to infer the user’s intentions and offer the ideal posture without even the need to press a button.

To get the most out of the Subtraction Technique, you follow five steps:

  1. List the product’s or service’s internal components.
  2. Select an essential component and imagine removing it. There are two ways: a. Full Subtraction. The entire component is removed. b. Partial Subtraction. Take one of the features or functions of the component away or diminish it in some way.
  3. Visualize the resulting concept (no matter how strange it seems).
  4. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this new product or service, and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge? After you’ve considered the concept “as is” (without that essential component), try replacing the function with something from the Closed World (but not with the original component). You can replace the component with either an internal or external component. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values of the revised concept?
  5. If you decide that this new product or service is valuable, then ask: Is it feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable?

Learn how all five techniques can help you innovate – on demand.

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