Oh, how we all love the saying “Let's all be creative and think outside the box!”. As if we could be creative at the drop of a hat, and actually, where is this box that we are constantly supposed to look outside of?
The edge of the plate defines the boundary, the obstacle, the hurdle. And it is precisely this imaginary border that needs to be overcome so that we don't always stand in our own way or just stare at our own plate. We need to overcome the plate and give free rein to our own thoughts so that unconventional ideas can emerge that often bring surprisingly simple solutions to familiar problems to light. This unconventional approach stands in contrast to the many effective innovations of our time, which are based on advanced technology and decades of research and development work, and it can produce unconventional innovations. But how do they come about?
Let's follow Jesse Nieminen's 2020 blog from Viima, the software forge for innovation software, and try to find out what the principles behind unconventional innovations are.
Usually everything starts with a good idea. But even that idea isn't just lying around ready to hand, it has to be developed. And what could be better than an idea generation workshop where the moderator promises: “There are no bad ideas!”. Unfortunately, this is not true. Or to put it another way, there are bad ideas, and according to an interview with Todd Rovak from 2020 (sifted.eu), we all have our own share of them. There are ideas that are ignorant or just don't make sense. There are ideas that are unrealistic or too ambitious. There are ideas that are not ambitious enough. However, it is not so easy to know when an idea is really good and when it is really bad. This is particularly the case when you are aiming for big, truly innovative ideas. A good “unconventional idea” has recognized something that others have overlooked and is therefore usually considered controversial or even irrational. In order to arrive at such an idea, one must be curious and approach the problem with the mind of a novice, a shoshin, that is, repeatedly freeing one's mind from the familiar in order to be ready to recognize the new. At the same time, however, you should also be able to understand the problem and the context in which it is located. Ironically, many brainstorming workshops are structured in such a way that they usually lead to superficial problem solving and group thinking. And if you follow R. Berth's 1992 study (Gabler's Magazine), only 24% of good ideas come from within the company, but 76% from outside. So perhaps these types of workshops are not the right path to enlightenment after all.
The process of developing innovative ideas always involves some creativity, but it is as much a science as an art, contrary to what many so-called creativity experts would have us believe. It's not about coming up with any ideas, but about facing the challenge in a problem- and solution-oriented, focused and goal-oriented way. The moderator has the crucial role of asking the decisive questions, initiating topics and motivating the workshop participants to get involved in the task.
If we look at helpful guidelines, we quickly see that they contain insights from both ancient and modern times.
1. Thinking in first principles
If you want to tackle the problem from the ground up, it helps to look back to antiquity, for example to Aristotle, who encouraged “thinking in first principles”. According to Benjamin Tallin (morethandigital.info), it is essentially about breaking down complex concepts, problems or beliefs into their basic components. Rather than relying on analogies, precedents, common methods or conventional wisdom, this method encourages us to dive deep into the essence of a problem, free from preconceptions and preconceived ideas. By breaking a problem down into its smallest elements, we can adopt a new perspective and understand the problem from the ground up - element by element. To use this method for targeted solutions, you should ask yourself the following questions:
This approach can mean that you suddenly stop brushing the problem aside with a simple “it can't be done” and thoughtfully move on to a “maybe we could do it, but it would mean...”.
2. Include obstacles
One of the main problems with the “think outside the box” principle is that in real life there is always a “box” in the sense of obstacles. These can manifest themselves in the form of ditches and walls or in laws and budgets. Every industry has its rules and regulations, such as personal and corporate codes of conduct and ethical standards. And customers have limited means to pay for products and services. While such restrictions limit the possibilities, knowing the limits can actually help tremendously. There are some important reasons for this, because restrictions
The key lies in the difference between hard and soft restrictions. For seemingly insurmountable ditches, there is often a bridge somewhere. And that bridge needs to be found so that a hard restriction can become a soft restriction. Laws are the classic example of hard restrictions. Laws cannot be changed, but sometimes different countries have different laws. So even if your own innovation is hindered by a law, why not look for a country that has not created this legal hurdle and then continue to work on it there? So most restrictions are actually soft restrictions. Funding can often be a seemingly insurmountable problem for a project, although it is always possible to either organize more budget or find new ways to solve the same problem in a more affordable way. This is where “thinking in first principles” comes into play again. It helps to find out which constraints you really have to live with and which ones you can work around in order to realize your innovation. In innovation, constraints are never only negative. Many innovators generally succeed quite well in generating and implementing new ideas despite the constraints imposed on them. Hence the saying “Necessity is the mother of invention”! If there are no or only very limited restrictions, it is easy to opt for the most obvious idea rather than the uncomfortable one.
Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, also recognized this correlation and said in an interview on mastersofscale.com in April 2020 that “constraints create creativity”. Without this, Chesky would probably not have made half of the creative decisions that have laid the foundation for Airbnb's success to date. And Brian Chesky will need creativity, because Airbnb has caused housing crises and protests in many cities and countries (NRW Aktuelle Stunde, 2016, Onlinehaendler-news.de, 2018 and 2020), which has led to new regulations and hurdles in Berlin, for example (businessinsider.de, 2016).
In addition, there have been situations such as the COVID crisis, for example, in which practically everyone was confronted with the same restrictions. In such an environment, restrictions can even become a source of competitive advantage. For example, providers of video conferencing software, headsets and notebook computers benefited significantly from the crisis, as did food delivery services. For example, if a country introduces more aggressive environmental legislation, this means that there is likely to be greater demand for new, more environmentally friendly products and services in that particular market. This is a great opportunity for those who are able to adapt to the changing situation. The situation can thus become a source of competitive advantage over those who are unable or unwilling to adapt so quickly to changing circumstances.
In order to solve a problem, you need to understand it precisely. It is therefore advisable to observe potential customers on site as they try to solve their problem. Especially in larger companies, too much importance is attached to quick quantitative analysis and abstract figures. However, it is the qualitative analysis, especially at the beginning, that enables a deeper understanding of the problem and the potential customers to be gained. The “Theory of Jobs to be Done” can be a supporting tool here (HBR 2016, Christensen, Hall Dillon and Duncan), as it describes why a potential customer buys a product or does not buy it. Together with “thinking in first principles”, this approach helps to understand which “job” really needs to be done in order to tackle the problem in a targeted manner. As an old cliché in economics already teaches, people don't actually want a drill, they want a hole in the wall (Howard Tullman, Inc.com, 2015).
And Jason Lemkin's “20 Interview Rule” is a good starting point to tackle this problem. This rule states that it takes about 20 in-depth interviews to really understand and narrow down a problem to be solved (predictable-revenue.com, 2016). However, when conducting these interviews, you should focus on finding out the root causes of people's problems and their deeper underlying desires, rather than what is clearly visible on the surface (remember: not drill...but hole in the wall!).
According to Impulse.de, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, once described it like this in his annual letter to shareholders in 2017:
Astro Teller, the head of Google X, said in an interview on wired.com in 2013: “Paradoxically, it's actually often easier to be 10x better than 10% better”. Because if you only want to be 10% better than before, the inevitable approach is to do more of the same, just with slightly more resources and slightly improved processes. However, if you want the result to be 10 times better, you have to think completely differently and find new ways to tackle the problem and achieve this goal. So it's about getting away from established routines and being prepared to explore new paths.
If you look at the smartphone industry, you quickly see that after the initial hype, a lot of resources have been invested in simple hardware optimizations, such as increasing the number of megapixels in the built-in lenses to improve image quality.
This traditional approach has been around for as long as there have been digital cameras. It is only in recent years that companies have been unable to make meaningful improvements using the same approach without compromising other areas of their design. A new approach to the problem of taking better photos was therefore necessary. The decisive changes came from two areas: A) more lenses to be able to image spatial depth and different distances, and B) optimization software. The latter in particular revolutionized image quality. Now the best cameras are no longer those with the most megapixels, but those that use the best software to process the images captured by the camera. It is now even possible to take smartphone photos that many people find difficult to distinguish from professional photos.
If you want to test your own ideas, constructive criticism from outside is the key to success. It's easy to ask friends and acquaintances for feedback, but the result of these surveys is actually already clear in advance: “Well, it's nice and I really liked this part...”. This may be great for your own ego, but it doesn't really help to improve the product, service or idea. Friends and acquaintances want to be nice and polite and not criticize.
To get really constructive feedback, you have to ask specifically what people don't like or what needs to be improved. We all know it...no idea is perfect at the beginning...not even your own! It takes some work and process loops to refine and perfect the idea. Constructive feedback and observations from the "Real World" are a key and very important part of achieving this.
Unconventional innovations are neither based on black magic nor are they purely a matter of luck. Generating them is a skill that can be learned. You have to be prepared to open up your mindset, face obstacles, recognize the root of the problem and constantly question yourself in the process of finding a solution and allow constructive criticism. And, of course, you have to put in a lot of work and remain humble and open-minded. It is important to know when to be persistent, when to take a different direction and when to simply give up on an idea. And don't be afraid to take your eyes off the peas on your plate and think outside the box - maybe there's a carrot on the horizon after all.
