Посты с тэгом: inside the box

Be Fruitful and Multiply: The Multiplication Technique

Published date: July 14, 2014 в 9:34 am

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A common problem in photography is the occurrence of red-eye, like you see here. Redeye happens when the flash of a camera goes into the eyeball. It hits the back of your eye which has a lot of tiny blood vessels. The light picks up the red color from the blood in these vessels, and then it bounces straight back into your camera lens. Your friends get that eerie, red-eye look.

But today’s cameras have a clever and simple way to defeat redeye. They have a dual flash. The first flash causes the person’s pupil to constrict enough so that very little light will get in. At that exact moment, the second flash goes off and lights up the subject matter. Voila! No redeye.
This innovation is a classic example of the multiplication technique. The Multiplication Technique is defined as copying an element already existing in the product or service but changing it in some counterintuitive way.
To use the technique, begin by listing the components of the product, process, or service. You pick one of those components, make a copy of it. You keep the original component as is, but the copied component is changed. That creates the virtual product. Using Function Follows Form, you look for potential benefits, and you modify or adapt the concept to improve it to yield an innovative idea.
NoticeableHere are some examples of multiplication. The consumer products company, Procter & Gamble, used the Multiplication Technique to create the Febreze Noticeable Air Freshener. It’s called Noticeable because it has a clever way to keep you smelling the scent. After a period of time, your nose becomes too accustomed to a smell, and the brain shuts it out. But this product gets around that. It has not one, but two different scents. The first scent pulses out into the room, but then stops right about the time your nose stops recognizing it. Just then, the second scent starts pulsing out into the room. Your nose picks up where the other one left off. Pretty clever.
Trac2Here’s another example. Gillette multiplied the razor blade of a straight edge razor to create the TRAC II Twin Blade Shaving System. The first blade gently lifts the whisker so that the second blade can cut off the whisker for a closer shave. The copied component is different in its location and function. By the way, you may have noticed Gillette and other companies have added even more blades to their razors. They have as many as five blades, but they don’t really do anything differently than the first one. I don’t consider that a creative idea, but rather just a way to improve performance.
Measuring cupLook at this measuring cup. It has two sets of measurements along the side. It has its original measurements, and a second set of measurements at an odd angle around the perimeter of the cup. Why would that be valuable? As you tilt the cup to pour liquid, the second set of measurements allows you to continue measuring the amount of liquid. That’s very convenient.
Multiplication accounts for many new products and services, and it’s straightforward to use. You want to make this powerful technique part of your innovation arsenal.

How to Organize an S.I.T. Innovation Workshop

Published date: July 7, 2014 в 3:00 am

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You can use an innovation method like S.I.T. on your own. But there are times when you want to use it in a group with your colleagues. After all, innovation is a team sport. Innovating in groups lets you harness the brainpower of others. Here are some tips and techniques to get the most out of your S.I.T. ideation session.

Perhaps the most important step is to select the right participants. The ideal number of participants is between 12 and 16. These people should be from diverse, cross functional areas of the company. About one third of the participants should be marketers from different parts of the marketing organization – market research, brand management, and so on. About one third of the participants should be technical – mechanical engineering, software engineering, operations, and so on depending on the project. And finally, about one third of your participants should be customer oriented. These are people that advocate for the customer. They include your salespeople, packaging, and customer service.
It’s also important to have gender diversity. An equal number of men and women is the ideal. Be sure participants are fully committed to participation in the workshop. Avoid letting people drop in and out as it suits their schedule. Otherwise, it interrupts the flow of the workshop.
When you begin your workshop, start by identifying the constraints around the exercise. Without constraints, the ideation will lack focus. You’re likely to generate ideas that are too wild to be considered viable.
Next, make sure you and the participants define the closed world around the problem. The closed world principle states there is an inverse relationship between distance from the problem and the creativeness of the idea. The farther away the solution, the less creative it will be. Where you define this imaginary space around the problem will have a big impact on how you apply each technique.
Once you select the techniques, create a list of the components and attributes by writing them down on a whiteboard, a flip chart, or a pad of paper. With Division, it’s a good idea to put these on sticky notes. Make sure you number the list. That helps keep the workshop more organized as you work through the lists.
When you apply a technique, be sure to work in smaller teams of two or three people, not as one large group. Working this way has many advantages. Pairs give each other their undivided attention. Working in pairs is also more efficient. As you apply a technique, assign each pair a different component from the list. That forces them to really focus, and it increases their chance of coming up with a creative idea. Be sure to set a specific time limit, say 3 minutes. This further constrains their brain to think inside the box.
When ideas are generated, try not to identify ideas with a specific person. Otherwise, people may bias the idea depending on who generated it. A simple way to do this is to have people write down their ideas. When giving credit for the source of an idea, make sure it’s from the pair of colleagues, not just one person. You have to find ways to strip ideas of their identity. This will make sure ideas don’t get thrown out prematurely.
A typical workshop can be anywhere from an hour in length to several days. Innovating is hard work, so be sure to manage the group’s energy level. Take a lot of breaks during the workshop, and mix up the activities to keep people engaged.
The S.I.T. method works because it channels people’s ideation and it regulates their thinking. You and your colleagues will generate many great ideas, so be sure the team has a process in place how you will capture and collect those ideas throughout the workshop.

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Innovation Through Task Unification

Published date: June 30, 2014 в 3:00 am

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The famous inventor, Thomas Edison, lived in a beautiful home. But something was unusual about the gate that led into his house. His visitors had to push the gate very hard to open it, and then again very hard to close it. It seemed odd that such a successful inventor like Thomas Edison wouldn’t fix his gate. Rumor has it that Thomas had attached a pump to his gate so that every time someone opened or closed it, they were pumping fresh water into the plumbing system of the house.

This is a great example of the innovation technique called Task Unification. Task Unification is defined as the assignment of additional tasks to an existing resource. That resource can be a component of a product or service. Or it can be something in the immediate vicinity of the product or service.

Think back to the story of Thomas’s gate. The gate has its primary job of letting visitors through, but it also has the additional job of pumping water. That’s not all to the story. The guests coming to visit Thomas are also a resource. They have their primary job of being friends of Thomas. But now they have the additional job of activating the gate to open and close it.

To use Task Unification, begin by listing the product’s internal components as well as the external components, the things right around where the product is being used. You select a component and assign it an additional task. That creates the virtual product. Using Function Follows Form, you look for potential benefits, and you modify or adapt the concept to improve it.

There are three ways to apply Task Unification:

One way is to have an internal component take a job of another internal component. Think of it as that component is stealing the function of the other component. Here is an example.

  • CmWhat you see here looks like an ordinary coffee maker. In fact, this product has a clever little innovation inside. The coffee maker’s filter has the additional job of measuring just the right amount of coffee to use given how much water was put in. It gives you the perfect brew every time.

You could also have an internal component take the job of an external component.

  • EasyfillNissan, the Japanese auto maker, has a nifty idea to make it easier to fill your tires with air. The car’s horn will beep to let you know when you’ve reached the right tire pressure. It’s called the Easy Fill Tire Alert. In this example, the car horn steals the job of the tire pressure gauge.

You could also have an external component steal the job of an internal component.

  • SubwayHere’s an example from a grocery store in Korea. They placed billboards in train and subway stations that show their products on the shelves just the way you would see it in a store. Commuters use their smartphones to scan the products they need. That shopping list is sent to the grocery store so the commuter can stop by on the way home to pick up the groceries. In this example, they assigned the subway billboards the additional task of becoming the point-of-sale. Very convenient and it saves times.

PlaypumpHere’s another example of an external component being assigned the additional job of an internal component. It’s a concept called Play Pump. It’s a child’s merry-go-round, the kind you would see on a playground. They don’t know it, but as they play on it, they’re also turning a pump to pump fresh water out of a well and into a holding tank. It’s used in small villages in sub Sahara Africa where finding and pumping water is difficult. The kids of the village have the additional job of providing water to the community.

That almost sounds a lot like Thomas Edison and his water pumping gate! And that’s why Task Unification can lead you to some pretty clever ideas.

LEARN the entire S.I.T. Method at Lynda.com…

Mastering the SIT Innovation Method

Published date: June 16, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Let me share with you some tips and advice on how to master the techniques and principles of Systematic Inventive Thinking.

First, work on mastering one at a time, not all five at once. It’s better to limit rather than dilute. Don’t overwhelm yourself trying to be an expert in all five right away.
One way to develop your expertise in the SIT techniques is with pattern spotting. A key premise of SIT is that for thousands of years, innovators have used patterns in their inventions, usually without even realizing it. Those patterns are now embedded into the products and services you see around you, almost like the DNA of a product. You want to develop your ability to see these patterns as a way to improve your use of them.
When you go to the store or when you’re watching TV and you see some new, innovative product, try to figure out which of the five SIT techniques could have been used to generate that novel concept. You’ll begin to realize that these patterns are all around you. That helps boost your confidence in the method and in the existence of these patterns.
At some point, you’ll use pattern spotting automatically. You’ll see some new product or service and instantly your mind will try to search which of the five techniques applies. When you get to that point, you have what we affectionately call, the SIT virus. It means you are well on your way to mastering the method.
Another way to master SIT is with mental simulation. Mental simulation is used by athletes and other professionals to improve their performance. They mentally simulate performing an event or series of events as a way to groove it into their mind.
You can also use mental simulation with the SIT techniques. When you’re out and about in your daily routine, pick an object randomly and pick one of the five SIT techniques. See if you can mentally work through the steps of the method to invent some new clever product or service right on the spot.
For example, imagine you’re at the airport standing in line at security. Pick an object or the process itself and see if you can apply one of the techniques to create some beneficial service or a new product. By mentally stimulating the SIT techniques, you’re going to perfect their use and you’re going to build your confidence in your ability to apply the techniques on demand.
While learning the SIT method, be sure to leverage social media. Find other people who use the SIT method. Share ideas and stories of how it’s been used in practice. Join this growing community of SIT practitioners.
Check out blogs, webinars, LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest. If you visit my Pinterest site, for example, you will find a board for each of the five techniques with examples of products that demonstrate that pattern.
Check the Resources link for this website, you’ll find recommendations for books, articles, and even an iPad app that can help you facilitate each of the five techniques. You want to become a student of creativity, because ultimately that is what will help you master SIT as your dominant method of idea generation.

Business Innovation Fundamentals: The SIT Course on Lynda.com

Published date: June 9, 2014 в 11:29 am

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Just released! Lean the entire SIT Method on Lynda.com.

Innovation propels companies forward. It’s an unlimited source of new growth and can give businesses a distinct competitive advantage. Learn how to innovate at your own business using Systematic Inventive Thinking, a method based on five techniques that allow you to innovate on demand. In this course, author and business school professor Drew Boyd shares the techniques he’s taught Fortune 500 companies to innovate new services and products. Drew provides real-world examples of innovation in practice and suggests places to find your own opportunities to innovate.

In the bonus chapter, Drew shares insights from his own career and answers tough questions on resistance to innovation, innovation and leadership, and the difference between generating vs. executing innovative ideas.
Topics include:
•    What is innovation?
•    Understanding the myths about creativity and barriers to innovation
•    Understanding the characteristics of innovative products and services
•    Using the five techniques of Systematic Inventive Thinking
•    Creating new services and processes at work
•    Running innovation workshops
•    Involving customers in innovation
•    Mastering innovative thinking

Creating New Opportunities in the Digital Space

Published date: June 9, 2014 в 4:42 am

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The SIT method is great for creating exciting new products and services. But you can also apply these techniques to digital assets.

For example, let’s apply the Attribute Dependency technique to a website. You start by listing the internal and external attributes of the site. You list the attributes, and you create a two dimensional matrix that pairs internal attributes to other internal and external attributes.
Next, select a cell on the matrix and imagine a relationship between the two attributes. For example, “location of visitor” and “graphics,” meaning how the information is displayed on your website. As the location of the visitor changes, the information and graphics that you display on your website changes. Why would that be valuable? In what situations would it make sense to have that relationship in place?
Think about it. Imagine if your customer is browsing your website right inside one of your retail stores. Perhaps you would change the kind of information and graphics you would use to show your products.
What if they were browsing your website from one of your competitor’s stores? Could that change how you display competitive pricing information?
What if your customer is browsing within a healthcare facility, or from an airport, or inside a restaurant? Would it change the products, the prices, or other service elements that you display? It just might.
Applying attribute dependency can make your website responsive and adaptable. It services your clients better by understanding more about them.
Let’s apply this same approach to a social media application. For this example, let’s use Facebook. List the internal and external attributes of a Facebook Page, and create your matrix. Let’s imagine a relationship between “likes” and “wall postings.”  There is no relationship there now, so let’s imagine one. For example, as the number of “likes” increases over a particular period of time, your wall postings change. Why would that be beneficial?
Perhaps you would put different products or special promotions there once you reach a certain level of likes. In other words, you change how you engage with your customers who visit your Facebook page based on how they engage. A relationship between these two attributes would give you a cue to know when it’s appropriate to do something different on your page.
Let’s go further with digital innovation and look at mobile apps and how to apply SIT techniques.
For these, I like to use the Task Unification technique. In that case, we took a component of a product or service and we assigned it the additional job of addressing a specific business issue.
You can do the same thing with mobile apps. We create a virtual product by saying: the App has the additional job of addressing this business issue. The trick is to pick an app that has absolutely nothing to do with the issue now. That’s where you find some surprising innovations.
Let’s do an example. Imagine your company makes a household product that helps get rid of odors in your home. It’s a spray product that you would use to get rid of odors from your cat or dog. Imagine you’re the marketing manager for this product and you want to find creative ways to promote its benefits.
First, find a list of mobile apps. You can find many on iTunes, or a site like this one: Gotoweb20.net.  Pick one of these randomly and plug it into the phrase: the app has the additional job of promoting my product.
Here is an app called Micello. Micello is a provider of comprehensive indoor venue mapping. It’s like Google maps only for in indoor spaces like shopping malls or airports. You imagine this app has the additional job of promoting your spray for pet odors. What would be the benefit? How it would work, and how would it increase brand awareness of your product?
Suppose this technology is used to create an internal map of your home. What if it could also track where your pet spends its time as it moves from room to room. Perhaps the app creates an odor heat map of where the pet has been so that you know exactly where to spray the product.  I love this idea because it’s both functional and it reinforces the brand promise.
Task Unification can help find new uses for existing apps, and it can help you create completely new apps.
Your digital assets are just as important as your products and services. Using the SIT Method will unlock more value for your customers and find new ways to engage them more effectively  through digital channels.

Graduates, Start Your Innovation Engines: 5 Tips to Being Creative in Any Job

Published date: June 2, 2014 в 3:00 am

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A college diploma is one key to starting your career engine, but learning to be more creative could help turbo-charge it. Just like college coursework, creativity can be learned—you don’t have to be born with these skills. Focusing on them is definitely worthwhile: companies value creativity because it spurs growth and competitiveness. As a recent graduate, you can stand out from the crowd by coming up with great ideas no matter what position you start in.

Having the skill to innovate and be creative on command can make you more attractive to a company and help you land a dream job. To do so, keep these five tips in mind on how you can solve problems and be creative in any job, at any level!

1. Identify the constraints around the problem

What are constraints in the workplace? Job constraints could be limitations on budget, impending deadlines, or other limiting factors that you face during day to day tasks. Think of constraints as the mandatory requirements to doing your job. These things don’t hinder your ability to think creatively – they help it! Constraints keep you “inside the box” and force your brain to work harder and smarter. When approaching a professional problem, try looking for a solution by first identifying constraints to solving the problem (deadlines, budgets and other factors). By imposing these limitations up front, you’re doing yourself a big favor. You filter out the bad ideas from the start, before they take shape. After all, why come with an idea that’s unworkable? It’s better to limit yourself right from the start within a space where the viable ideas exist. This tactic will be sure to impress your boss and co-workers.

2. Imagine you are solving someone else’s problem

Tricking your mind into solving the problem for someone else can improve creative output. Start a meeting by explaining the task or the problem to be solved. Then, tell the group to solve the same problem, but imagine doing it in a different industry or for a different product. This activates the group and expands their thinking before they start working on their actual problem. Just getting people to step away from their daily routine will boost their creative output. Think of it like doing word problems in math class. There could be a common underlying formula to coming up with a solution.

3. Got a large problem to solve? Break it up into smaller parts.

A simple way to change perspective is by breaking problems into simple components. How does this boost your creativity? Many times, just seeing the separate components of an issue will trigger new inventive solutions.  It activates your mind to go in new directions. Think of it as unpacking a full suitcase and laying out all your clothes on the floor, then repacking in a new and better way. To do this with a problem at work, write down a list of each component, whether it’s a product, process, service, or a smaller and more specific problem that you want to tackle.

4. Need a brainstorming session? Work in pairs, not large groups.

Group brainstorming sessions can sometimes be frustrating and unproductive. A simple way to overcome this is to break a large group into smaller teams of two or three people. Working in pairs makes people more focused. You feel accountable to the other person to do your fair share of the thinking. You bounce ideas of each other and you offer suggestions on how to improve the idea. Working in pairs is also more efficient. Five groups of two can generate far more ideas in the same amount of time than one group of ten. Plus, it could be a great way to get to know people in your office.

5. Practice the Golden Rule of Creativity

Creativity is a team sport, and you’ll generate better ideas if you harness the brainpower of others! Colleagues will help you if you help them first. Imagine you find an article online that a colleague of yours would find interesting. Make this small favor even more appreciated by printing the article and highlighting the most relevant parts. Write a small note on the article pointing out how your colleague might use the information. And finally, hand deliver it to your colleague. If more appropriate, try this same method of personalized sharing digitally by highlighting and making an email note, or social media post.
I call this the golden rule of creativity. Practice it and others will do whatever they can to help with your creativity projects.

Copyright 2014 Drew Boyd (This post first appeared in Coke Journey on May 27, 2014)

Filtering Ideas to Find the Very Best Ones

Published date: May 26, 2014 в 9:46 am

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The SIT Method is designed to help you generate lots of ideas in a systematic way. But how do you select which ideas to pursue? Filtering ideas is an essential part of the creativity process. You want to make sure you spend your time only on those with the most potential.

First, put all your ideas in a standard format. That’ll make it a lot easier to evaluate them. I like to use a template like this:

  • Name of Idea:
  • Description of Idea:
  • Benefits:
  • Target Audience:
  • Challenges:

Every idea should have its own name, not just a number. Give it a name that will help people see what the idea is about. Use literal names, not vague or confusing ones.

Next, put every idea into one of three categories. The first category is for those ideas that are a bit far out, perhaps borderline crazy. They’re novel, but they may not be feasible.

The second category is for those ideas that are just the opposite. They’re not wild at all. They’re incremental improvements.

The third category is for ideas in the middle – not too far out and not too near in. They’re in a special zone we call the sweet spot. They’re viable and creative. It’s these ideas that people get excited about.

But we’re not done yet. Once you put the ideas in these categories, look at ways to get more of them into the sweet spot. Here is what I suggest you do. Start with the far out ideas. Is there a way to pull them back in, take out some of the weirdness of the idea to make it more feasible? What if you eliminated an exotic feature of the idea but still retained the essence of what the concept is trying to do? That might eliminate some of the riskiness of the idea.

For those incremental ideas, find a way to push them out and add some novelty. For example, what if you used Task Unification to have one of the components doing an additional task? Or what if you applied Attribute Dependency to the concept to make it smart and adaptive? That would certainly add some novelty and push it closer to the sweet spot.

After this exercise, you’re ready to start evaluating your list of ideas. There are two ways to do this. One is very simple and informal. You ask a group of people to vote on the ideas. You have probably seen the so-called dot method. Here’s how it works.

First, let the group read the entire list of ideas with all the benefits and challenges. Then, each participant is given a number of small, sticky colored dots. They’re instructed to place these dots on the ideas they think are best. I usually have participants place these right onto the paper with the list of ideas. This keeps the voting anonymous and makes it more objective. Then, collect all the votes and tally them up. While it may sound overly simple, the dot method of voting has a lot of benefits. Each individual has their own biases of what makes a great idea, and they vote accordingly. But voting as a group tends to neutralize those individual biases. Many times, the group vote will tell you which ideas the company will prefer.

The other method is more formal and quantitative. First, create a scorecard by listing the four or five most important criteria for judging good ideas. Criteria might include how novel the idea is, how useful it is for your customer, how viable the idea is to implement, and perhaps how risky the idea is. For each criterion, use a rating scale of 1 to 4 where a 4 is highest and 1 is lowest. Don’t use odd number scales like 1 to 5 because people may have a tendency to overuse the middle of the scale and rate too many ideas a 3. You want to force their ratings to be on one side or the other.

Ask people to use the scorecard and rate each idea. Then, using a tool like Excel, put the data in a spreadsheet so you can calculate the averages of all raters. Add up the final score for each idea.

  • Novelty 4
  • Usefulness 3
  • Viability 3
  • Risk 2
  • Final Score 12

The ideas with the highest scores are your best ideas assuming you selected the right criteria. This approach takes more time, but it gives you more precision especially when evaluating a large pool of ideas.

True innovators generate great ideas, but they also use the wisdom of others to help evaluate them.

The Innovator’s Challenge: Fighting Back

Published date: May 19, 2014 в 3:00 am

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Even though companies want innovation, resistance to it is strong. After all, innovative ideas, by their very nature, are risky. They are likely to cause some form of change, and people are naturally fearful of change. A new disruptive innovation might be seen as a threat to someone’s job or their status in the organization. People worry that a highly innovative project might steal away some of their resources in terms of budget and manpower.

Even the leaders within your company may resist change. They might worry about the riskiness of a project and whether or not it’s going to work. No one wants to be responsible for a failed project.
Your customers sometimes resist innovative ideas and the change that goes along with it. A new product or service might cause them to have to change their habits. An innovative product might require special training or customer support. Your innovative idea might cause them to have to do things differently with their customers.
So how do you deal with resistance? First of all, don’t view resistance as a negative, as something that you have to overcome or defeat. Instead, embrace resistance as a potential benefit to your project. Use that resistance to stimulate healthy discussions and constructive feedback. By challenging your ideas, people are actually helping you strengthen them. They’re pointing out the negative aspects and soft spots in your idea. That’s a huge benefit to you, because now you know where you need to improve your idea. Without that resistance, you may never have known these issues.
The second big challenge you should expect as an innovator is competition for resources. Companies have to make choices on where to invest resources to create growth. Think of any company as a portfolio of potential projects. A company might invest in a new advertising campaign, or a new sales program, or perhaps a new technology, or the company might invest in your idea. One thing’s for sure – there’s never enough money to go around for everyone’s project.
So what can you do to earn your share of the budget? You need to understand that managers invest in projects the same way investors buy stocks in the stock market. They look at the track record of the people involved in the project and whether they’ve been successful in the past. But even more importantly, they look at the future potential of a project. What will this project produce today, and what is the pipeline of innovative ideas right behind the project to keep the machine moving?
Those teams or individuals that have a track record of success and the healthiest pipeline of new concepts are going to get the most money. What that means for you in practice is that you have to innovate continuously. Don’t put all your chips just on today’s project. You need to spend some of your time and resources generating new concepts, even if those concepts might be years away from getting investment dollars.
As you generate new ideas, you also need to make people aware of them. Create visual images of your new concepts, or build small prototypes. That helps bring your ideas to life. It gives you a way to show off your pipeline and the long term potential of your business unit.
Being an innovator is one of the most rewarding aspects of any job in any career field. After all, “The world leaders in innovation and creativity will also be the world leaders in everything else.”

The Myth of Serendipitous Innovation

Published date: May 12, 2014 в 3:00 am

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In 1891, a physical education teacher named James Naismith invented the game of basketball when he nailed two ordinary peach baskets to the wall of a gymnasium. His students loved the game. But, there was a problem. Every time a player shot the ball into the basket, somebody had to get up on a ladder and take it out. That wasted a lot of time and it ruined the flow of the game.

But then something happened. After many games, the bottoms of the peach baskets became so weak that they eventually broke off, allowing the basketball to fall straight through.
This simple serendipitous invention allowed the game to be played continuously without interruption, and it gave rise to a global billion-dollar industry we know today as professional basketball.
The game of basketball isn’t the only invention created through pure chance. Many successful products you see around you today are the result of serendipity. The Post-it note, velcro, penicillin, x-rays and even chocolate chip cookies were created by chance.
With so many successful products created through serendipity, it makes you wonder whether companies can rely on it to create breakthrough products. The answer is no. Serendipity, as a method of innovation, has a very poor track record. The number of serendipitous products is a tiny percentage of the total of all products. It just doesn’t yield nearly the amount of blockbuster products as you would think.
So why does it seem there are so many of them? That’s because serendipitous products are more memorable than others. We hear about them in the news media more often. Because of that, we recall more examples of serendipitous products than other inventions. So we’re fooled into thinking they must be occurring at a much higher rate. It just isn’t true.
Instead of having to rely on chance, learn a method that you can use proactively to create new products and services.
Let’s look back at our basketball example. What if James Naismith had used a thinking tool that guided him to remove the bottoms of the peach baskets right from the start? Had he done so, he would have seen the benefit immediately.
We’ll never know for sure. But, what would you rather rely on? Pure chance? Or would you prefer to have a method that leads you to these same inventions in a systematic way?
If you’re serious about innovation, I advise you to go with the odds, not the gods. While serendipitous products are fun to read about, don’t let them distract you from using a systematic approach that will increase your creative output.

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