Ideation, Creativity, and Idea Generation Techniques

Ideation Creativity: Tools

  • Creative solutions must be practical and work in the real world.
  • Creativity: Bringing a new idea into existence.
  • Innovation: The practical application of creative ideas.
  • Creative thinking involves:
    • An innate talent.
    • A set of skills that can be learned, developed, and utilized in daily problem-solving.

Thinking and Problem Solving

  • Thinking about replacing NOKIA.
  • Problem solving involves coming up with new ideas.

Examples and Visuals

  • Images of phone interfaces, receipts, and various products are shown.
  • These visuals likely serve as prompts for generating ideas or illustrating different concepts related to creativity and innovation.

HiSAVER: Computer Peripherals

  • Diagram of a system labeled "HiSAVER" with components like "MASTER" and "SENSOR", possibly related to energy saving in computer peripherals.

Simplify

  • Examples of simplification are shown through brands like Post-it and Google.
  • Reference to a blog post about simplicity.

Add Experience

  • Examples of products focused on adding an experience, such as Red Bull and Starbucks Coffee.

Make Combinations

  • Combining existing products to create new offerings (e.g., 2 chairs + table = sofa, bed).

Make an All-in-One Package

  • Creating comprehensive packages like all-inclusive holidays or kitchen utensil sets.

Innovate: Apple Product Evolution

  • Timeline of Apple product innovations from 1976 (Apple I) to 2007 (iPhone).

Add Colors

  • Images of SMEG appliances in various colors and Alfa Romeo cars.

Add Some Fun

  • Promotion of fun elements with reference to "The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun".

Add Extra Functions

  • Products are enhanced by incorporating additional functions.

Mass Customize

  • Examples of mass customization, such as personalized dolls and travel guide chapters.

Build a Community

  • Examples of brands building communities like IKEA FAMILY, My LEGO Network, and HARLEY OWNERS GROUP.

Go Back to History

  • Using retro designs or products, like RETRO CANDY.

Mini-size

  • Various examples of miniaturization, such as iPod nano and finger food.
  • Reference to "MICROTRENDS" book.

Reduce Time

  • Products designed to reduce time, exemplified by "60 SECOND" microwave meals and "The One Minute Manager" book.

Listen to Customers Feedback

  • Emphasizing the importance of listening to customer feedback, with Dell's IdeaStorm platform as an example.

Generating Ideas: Strategies and Techniques

  • Brainstorming/Reverse Brainstorming
  • Assumption Challenging
  • SCAMPER
  • Attribute listing
  • Constructive discontent
  • Adaptation
  • Analogy
  • Morphological synthesis

Generating Ideas-1. Brainstorming

  • Brainstorming involves working in groups to redesign an object (e.g., a mug).
    Brain-storming
  • Brainstorming is a well-known creative tool.
  • It can be used in most groups.
  • Best done with an independent facilitator.
  • Typically takes around 30 minutes to an hour.
  • Brainstorming Rules:
    • No criticism or debate.
    • Quantity over quality.
    • Freewheel: Encourage wild and unusual ideas.
    • Combine and improve: Build on existing ideas.
  • Brainstorming works because people use each other's ideas to trigger their own thinking.

Generating Ideas-2. SCAMPER (Osborn Checklist)

  • SCAMPER is a checklist that helps develop new products and services from existing ideas.
  • SCAMPER stands for:
    • Substitute
    • Combine
    • Adapt
    • Modify/Magnify/Minify
    • Put to other uses
    • Eliminate
    • Reverse/Rearrange
      Substitute
  • Think about replacing part of the problem, product, or process with something else.
  • Change things, places, procedures, people, ideas, and even emotions.
    Combine
  • Combine two or more parts of your problem to create a different product or process or to enhance their synergy.
    Adapt
  • Think about adapting an existing idea to solve your problem.
    Magnify/Modify
  • Think about ways to magnify or exaggerate your idea.
    Put to other uses
  • Think of how you might be able to put your current idea to other uses, or think of what you could reuse from somewhere else in order to solve your own problem.
    Eliminate / Minify
  • Think of what might happen if you eliminated or minimized parts of your idea.
    Rearrange/Reverse
  • Think of what you would do if part of your problem, product or process worked in reverse or were done in a different order.
    Generating Ideas
  • Use the SCAMPER technique to come up with new ideas for a baseball cap:
    • Substitute: What might you substitute?
    • Combine: What might I combine this object with?
    • Adapt: What might I change? What else is this like?
    • Modify, magnify, minify: How might I change it?
    • Put to other uses: Are there other uses for this object?
    • Eliminate: What can I do without?
    • Reverse, rearrange: What if I rearrange any parts, function or objectives?

Generating Ideas-3. Analogy

  • Analogy involves looking behind the concepts used in different domains and transforming them to fit our situation.
  • Analogy thinking helps identify and apply the best features from other solutions.
  • Think of similar objects which could be used to create new designs for the ball point pen. List how and why

Generating Ideas-4. Constructive discontent

  • Constructive discontent involves analyzing and redesigning an existing product (e.g., T-shirt) and working on improving it.

Generating Ideas-5. Attribute Listing

  • Attribute Listing is used when you have a situation that can be decomposed into attributes.
  • Particularly useful with physical objects.
  • Highly rational style, suitable for people who prefer analytic approaches.
  • For the object or thing in question, list as many attributes as you can.
  • Break the object down into constituent parts and look at the attributes of each part in question.
  • For each attribute, ask 'what does this give'? Seek the real value of each attribute. Attributes may have 'negative value'.
  • Look for ways in which you can modify the attributes in some way to increase value, decrease negative value, or create new value.
  • Attribute Listing works as a decompositional approach, breaking the problem down into smaller parts that can be examined individually.

Attribute Listing: Lamp Example

  • Example provided for attributes of a lamp, including power supply, bulb, light intensity, size, style, finish, and material.

Mind Mapping Techniques

  • Instructions on how to create a mind map, starting with a central topic (e.g., Happiness) and adding associations on branches.

Generating Ideas-6. Morphological synthesis

  • Morphological synthesis involves elaborating using a 2D grid, thinking creatively as to how the attributes for a product (e.g., mechanical pencil) can be developed.
  • Key attributes, properties, and options are considered.

Morphological Analysis, Matrix Analysis and Attribute Listing

  • Morphological Analysis, Matrix Analysis, and Attribute Listing are useful techniques for making new combinations of products, services, and strategies.
  • Use the tools by identifying the attributes of the product, service, or strategy you are examining.
  • Use these attributes as column headings. Underneath the column headings list as many variations of that attribute as you can.
  • Use the table or "morphological box" by randomly selecting one item from each column, or by selecting interesting combinations of items. This will give you ideas that you can examine for practicality.
  • Attribute Listing focuses on the attributes of an object, seeing how each attribute could be improved.
  • Morphological Analysis uses the same basic technique, but is used to create a new product by mixing components in a new way.
  • Matrix Analysis focuses on businesses. It is used to generate new approaches, using attributes such as market sectors, customer needs, products, promotional methods, and so on.

Negative(Reverse) Brainstorming

  • Brainstorming to generate bad solutions to the problem and then see how those could be transformed into good solutions.
  • The method is a two-step process, that consists of generating the worst ideas first and then transforming them into good solutions.
  • Instead of trying to solving a problem, reverse brainstorming generates ideas to make the problem worse. Then, you reverse those ideas to discover new ideas for solving your original problem.

Why Negative Brainstorming

  • It’s difficult for people to “be creative” on command.
  • Ideas can sometimes be too broad and lacking in the specifics needed to take action.
  • Not everyone will have enough knowledge and expertise to contribute to a possible solution.
  • For complex problems, the result of a brainstorming session is often a lot of ideas but not the right ideas.

When Negative Brainstorming

  • When people have trouble coming up with good ideas quickly.
  • When people are stumped on how to solve a problem.
  • When you want people to let go of their pre-conceived ideas about a topic.
  • When you want people to step out of their comfort zone and find new ways to problem-solve.

How Reverse Brainstorming

  • Step 1: Define your problem.
  • Step 2: Reverse the problem
  • Step 3: Collect ideas like:
    • Do not communicate project goals to the team.
    • Start working on the project without defining scope or desired results.
  • Step 4: Reverse the ideas
  • Step 5: Evaluate the ideas and identify the solutions

How to improve creativity?

  • Divergent Thinking
  • Convergent Thinking
    Divergent Thinking, Concerned with generating ideas or information about a situation or problem:
    *Tools include
    *Brainstorming
    *Similarities and Differences
    *Spray Diagram
    *Affinity Diagram
    Convergent Thinking, Concerned with organizing and making sense of ideas or information:
    *Tools Include
    *Fishbone Diagram
    *Affinity Diagram
    *Tree Diagram
    *Multiple Cause Diagram

Lotus Diagram

*LOTUS BLOSSOM: Quickly develop a large quantity of high-quality ideas
STEP 1
*Eight 3-by-3-inch squares are arranged around a center blossom. The center square of each blossom contains a concept or problem related to the other squares of the blossom.
Enter a problem to be solved, an item to be improved, or a theme to be examined in the center box (Box I in the example).
STEP 2
Brainstorm related components, solutions, or themes and put them in the boxes immediately surrounding the center box (Boxes A-H).
STEP 3
Use the values from those boxes as the center of the eight lotus blossoms on the outer edges of the sheet. (You're propagating ideas.)
STEP 4
Brainstorm related components, solutions, or themes, and enter these in the eight boxes surrounding each of the new center seeds for each outer lotus blossom. Try your best to Serge the leases to maximize ideas.
*When the exercise is complete, you will have at least 64 new ideas to explore related to the original problem or theme. Review and determine which are viable or important to move forward with.

Various Diagrams and Approaches

  • Morphological Box for Generating Creative Solutions
  • The Internet Marketing Tree
  • Tree Diagram
  • Fishbone Diagram
  • The Classic Affinity Diagram Approach
  • Integrations

Ideating

  • Idea Generation
    • Generate ideas, hypothesis, market targeting
    • Design thinking
    • Develop value proposition, plan, milestone
    • Lean startup process
  • Identify Opportunity/problem
    *Compile all info/data:
    *Via reading, investigation
    *Try get rid of problems Generate creative ideas
    *Slowly formulating solution
    *Transform idea into reality, then into business activities
    *basic process of Startup
    What? (Your idea on business/market)
    Whom for? (Target market)
    Product/Solution Architecture
    Action
    *Sample prototype
    *Desirably, participate in Crowd funding/Competition

Value Proposition

I. Ideation
*Value Proposition (Product and Service) Compelling Problems & Benefits Features & Benefits
Compelling problem(s) your are targeting to solve? – What’s the pain point or need that your potential customers have? Single-person households want to buy or eat a small portion of ingredient/food, but because its quantity is large, most are reluctant/difficult to purchase as the concern of Leftover food.
*Describe your business – What is your product or service? Food Sharing application.

*Compelling benefits – How do you provide value to your customers? Food Sharing with neighbors or buying a small portion of food with a low price
*Target Beneficiary (e.g., for who are in needs for __)
*Compelling benefit (Will provide ______ that does/benefits/helps…)

Recognizing Customer Needs and Wants

  • Be sensitive in identifying the needs and wants of customers.
  • A need is something basic in life.
  • Wants are something that is more than a basic need.

Approaches to Seeking a Business Idea

  • Fulfilling needs and interests
  • Analysing life problems
  • Diversifying the usage of goods
  • Observing changes in the community
  • Using the latest technology

Idea Generation Examples

  • Examples are provided for connecting families, sharing activities, and releasing stress, with various functions and target groups mentioned.

Brainstorming Lotus Bloom Worksheet

  • Food - Kitchen sharing/space/service.
  • Sharing economic Second-hand market High consumer price Economy revitalization Sharing/rent Friends Gathering Kindheartness.
    *Information Neighborhood Bonding Flea market Daangn market Sharing On/offline Food Ingredient Taste corner Supermarket/CVS.
    *Customer = Food court – Employee Diversity of scale ESG Pollution Recycling GMO Environment Leftover food Vegan food Waste Plastic Sharing economic Neighborhood Market/CVS.
    *OLIO app : a mobile app for food-sharing, aiming to reduce food waste. It does this by connecting those with surplus food to those who need or wish to consume such food. The food must be edible; it can be raw or cooked, sealed or open.