Transcript
BY DREW BOYD
& JACOB GOLDBERG
Summarized by Dan Pacheco
• 17 years at Johnson
& Johnson in
marketing, mergers
and acquisitions.
• Now at University of
Cincinnati teaching a
Master of Science in
Marketing Program.
This is the opposite of Christensen’s
Innovator’s Dilemma.
Premise: the most innovative products and
services use a pattern that anyone – or any
company -- can learn to be more innovative.
SIT: Systematic Inventive Thinking.
“You have to think outside the box.”
Start from a problem, then find a solution.
Brainstorm ideas that are intentionally out
in left field. “There’s no such thing as a
bad idea.”
Boyd skewers them all.
Rather than starting with a problem and
finding a solution, try going the other way.
Start with a conceptual solution, then work
back to find out which problem it solves.
1992: psychologist Ronald Finke
discovered that most people are better at
starting with a solution.
Connect all nine dots using just four straight
lines without lifting pencil from page.
Solution requires drawing outside the box.
In 1970s, this psychologist learned that
only 20 percent of test subjects thought of
this solution.
The rest felt confined to the imaginary
space of the square formed by the dots.
“You have to think outside the box”
became a cultural phrase.
Another test revealed the “trick” to test
subjects in advance. They knew they could
draw outside the box.
Only 25 percent were able to solve it – a
mere 5 percent more than in the original
test.
Boyd: it’s a myth that you must think
“outside the box” because most solutions
are staring you right in the face.
We tend to be most surprised at ideas that
are “right under our noses.”
The most surprising ideas (“Gee, I never
would have thought of that!”) are right
nearby.
Example: playing video in a Flash player
installed on every computer. This is how
YouTube started. Simple but powerful.
This is our tendency to believe that objects
or systems can be made only as they have
traditionally been made.
We perceive them as whole units and
expect them to retain the same familiar
structure.
Rather than seeing benefits of new
configuration, we try to “fix” them to be
how they “ought to be.”
Imagine the head of a flashlight falls off.
It looks broken – but how else could you use it?
Maybe the flashlight head could be stuck to a wall to work as a spotlight that’s remotely controlled.
Or maybe it could become a headlamp.
1. Subtraction
2. Task Unification
3. Multiplication
4. Division
5. Attribute Dependency
1) Reporting a breaking news story
2) Promoting a product or service
3) Charging for content
Innovative products tend to have
something removed that was previously
thought to be essential.
Often, the teams working on a product
react negatively to the suggestion of
removing something.
For example, removing a screen from a
heart rate monitor.
Sony’s Walkman was a “tape recorder”
without a record function. Sony’s CEO
thought it made no sense, but it resulted in
the first breakout portable music player.
Innovative products tend to have certain
tasks brought together and unified.
Usually these components were previously
thought to be unrelated.
Example: Crowdsourcing brings people
together to work on a large problem,
sometimes without realizing it.
When you fill out these forms, you’re
helping computers digitize books.
Innovative products often have one
component copied or changed in some
way that seems unnecessary at first.
Example: a double-flash in cameras
reduces likelihood of red-eye.
Double sided tape
multiplies the side.
Seemed
unintuitive at first,
but it has lots of
new uses.
Better than rolling
single-sided tape
back on itself.
Innovative products have a compoenent
divided out of the product, then put back in
a different way.
Example: taking a refrigerator drawer out
of the fridge and in a cabinet makes a
cooling drawer.
You used to have to check in at the airport and check bags at the same time.
Now, you can check in from home and drop off your bags at a kiosk, or carry them on.
Innovative products have two attributes
correlated with each other so that as one
changes, the other changes.
Example: sunglasses that get darker as
outside light gets lighter.
Attribute dependency is common in nature.
Chameleon’s color is dependent on other
colors around it.
Being mimicked by products, such as
sunglasses that change tint and coffee cup
lids that change color based on
temperature.
Claims this is responsible for 1/3 of all
product innovations.
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