I think that we all have experienced the feeling that the constrains of a group, organisational setting, productline, portfolio, company is limitations for the “creative”process we are facing in many different braindump-sessions. You could call it “Inside-the-box”-thinking.
Management often preach “Outside-the-box”-thinking as part of different creative exercises and I feel pretty sure that you have been part of these kinds of experiments. We all have, haven’t we?
But is “Outside-the-box” thinking always recommendable?
Few months back I discovered a “Box”-description – “Big-box-thinking”. The three alternatives differs like this:
A. “Inside-the-box”
Creativity too constrained by operational and financial restrictions.
B. “Outside-the-box”
Unconstrained brainstorming too often leads to designs that are not feasible.
C. “Big-box-thinking”
Appropriately broad success metrics enable creativity and innovation.
The authors recommend that the design team be “immersed in consumer and manufacturing reality from the word Go.” In this way, a “sweet spot” can be defined: an alignment of what consumers want and are willing to pay for with what the business can make at a profit. This lets the design team know the parameters within which they need to work and gives power to the spark of creative innovation.
Knowing your parameters is great, but even better is learning how to broaden that “sweet spot” and increase the creative possibilities. They call this Big Box Thinking, because it’s a way to bridge the divide of the conservative in-the-box, supply-chain perspective and out-of-the-box creativity.
So, have you actually been a part of an “Outside-the-box”-session and what was actually the implemented result? Or any experience with the "Big-Box"?
Greetings! Hans Henrik has very kindly invited me to join CPH127 as guest author today and I thought I would start by starting a dialogue on the topic of Innovation. Yesterday, I began my first project as a consultant in the area of business and design and my first client is a leading branding and interaction design studio in San Francisco. I’ve been asked to create a business strategy and accompanying metrics and timelines for it’s successful execution. One of the key topics is Innovation. And there has been a lot of heated debate on the definition and usage of this now common word. For example, is it redundant to say innovative design? Isn’t design by it’s very nature inherently innovative? What about design innovation, we’ve seen it being used, but what does it mean?
Numerous design firms are beginning to position themselves as innovation consultants, here is an excerpt from IDEO’s self description posted on Coroflot - "IDEO is an internationally recognized design and innovation consultancy". They teach you how be innovative, how to create a corporate culture to foster innovation, and one assumes, creativity - to join the thread of this conversation to Hans’ recent posts on Creativity and corporate culture. Conventional wisdom has it that innovation is radical, paradigm shifting change yet BusinessWeek launches their new channel with an article that refers to "microinnovation". Does that mean incremental improvement? Or innovation in small doses?
The venerable Oxford dictionary defines innovation as
noun 1 the action or process of innovating. 2 a new method, idea, product, etc.
Slightly circular definition, number one, wouldn’t you say? As for number two, an innovation is nothing more than a new method, idea or product. Yet, as you can see from the current usage and from other reading I’m sure, that the definition seems to imply much much more. What are your thoughts and definitions? Here is a link to Hans’ first post on the 4 types of Innovation.
I know I know, my service design witiness has been absent but Im now at the Design Council making it happen and will post up something to sink your teeth in… As an appetizer, i found this, which is a testimony of the whole industry waking up to that ever-so-difficult-but-interesting field…
Few days ago I wrote about the "Creative Class". If you’re interested in other perspectives you can find lots of links here.
Few weeks ago I had the opportunity to listen to some observations and insights from the customers experience movement.
I find the format VERY interesting and I think we here at CPH127 will introduce it in a few months on a regular basis. What do you think about that idea – will it last?
Ideas on topics and interviews?
