Four Disciplines of Innovation

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mckayexplore · 1

The Four Disciplines of Innovation

- Using design methods effectively in organizations.

change through innovation

mckayexplore

© 2010 McKay Explore



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i4 booklet vers. 2.0 (c) 2010 by McKay Explore, all rights reserved

Text, Illustrations and Layout: McKay Explore Consulting Aps

Images: Jonathan Drewsen



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Intro: 4What is the i4?

Overview and philosophy

Co-creation andVirtual Creative Collaboration

Framing the challenge: 9

Insights: 10Gathering data

Pattern recognition

Ideation: 12 Creating 100’s of ideas

Filtering of ideas

Iteration: 14 Prototyping

Iteration Cyclus

Injection: 16

Communication AnalysisThe Pitch

Conclusion for i4: 18

i4 Vocabulary: 20

Contents




Innovators in organisations often face many challenges: They

need to understand the real needs of their customers and organi-

zation, they need to create appropriate ideas that can make it to

market under the given circumstances, they need to mature these

ideas into whole, strong concepts and they need to promote these

ideas to senior management. McKay Explore Design & Consulting

has matured a design process for these innovators: i4 - The Four

Disciplines of Innovation. This booklet captures the essence of

this approach to innovation and design. We hope it will inspire

and motivate our readers to start innovating themselves.

When it comes to innovation today, many different schools of

thought exist, and many different approaches are practiced at

different specialist companies. The i4 Disciplines were created

from 12 years of innovation work in a corporate setting,

working in the fast paced, expanding telecom industry.

Innovation has been defined in many ways from Schumpeters

Creative Destruction to Christensens Disruptive Innovation.

This practical approach views Innovation as a series of events -

the Y-model as we call it. The basic idea is that consistent inno-

vative ability in organizations happens when a constant stream

of NEEDS are mixed in to a stream of constant development of

CAPABILITIES in the organization. This is done in a systematic

CONCEPT MAKING process combining the needs and capabilitites.

Innovation is secured through a strong IMPLEMENTATION process.

The four disciplines, Insight, Ideation, Iteration and Injection

are seen as main mindsets/disciplines for succeeding in corpo-

rate innovation.

Introducing ”the four disciplines of Innovation”



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IDEATION: Advancing beyond

the thinkable. Utilizing data

appropriately for generating

100’s of relevant ideas. Broadly

founded processes involving all

the wisdom of the organization.

Imagine an organisation - mastering four disciplines,leading to successful innovation

ITERATION: Being experimental

with ideas. Staying within the box:

Shaping and forming fragmented

opportunities into presentable con-

cepts, utilizing economic, market

and industry frameworks.

INJECTION: Storytelling of

innovative ideas into the

organization. Understanding

the core of the idea and

communicating this

effectively.INSIGHT: Scoping, planning

and executing a consumer/

stakeholder interview and

building insights from this.




To do co-creation in a virtual corporrate setting requires significant focus and change of

ways of doing things. To cocreate, you have to develop and mature habits and methods

that opens your thought process towards others, specifically the “unusual suspects” -

customers, vertical partners, opinion leaders, colleagues and others. You have to find

ways to work that enables you to get input and use input at the right time in your

projects. Use several roles in your project (10 faces of Innovation).

Co-creation How to succeed in theorganization

To co-create, develop habits and methods that opensyour thought process towards the “unusual suspects”

The Premises of Innovation




In order to create true creative collaboration through virtual tools requires special attention.

Some activities are just better done while present. Find a local team of supporters to pull together for these

types of acitvities while keeping up with your virtual team through online collaboration tools. You need to

choose which activities to do locally and which activity to do in virtual collaboration:

Virtual Creative Collaboration

Activities suited for online collaboration* Status updates

* Decision meetings

* Light ideation, filtering and pattern recognition sessions

* Planning activities

Activities best done in physical presence:* Interviews

* Ideation sessions

* Complex filtering and pattern recognition

* Advanced Video (proto) Storytelling

The Premises of Innovation




* ) Divergent: Thinking that opens up the situation and adding more possibilities. Expanding and asking even more questions and giving even more opportunities.

Convergent: Thinking that leads to narrowing down the openness in the situation. Filtering and decision making.

The i4 flow. How the disciplines interrelate

Insights Ideation Iteration Injection

Data

Gathering

Pattern

Recognition

Idea

Generation

NABC’s and

prototyping

Analysis

- Protobuild

- test cyclus

Communi-

cation

analysis

PitchFiltering

Divergent* Convergent* Divergent* Divergent* Convergent* Divergent* Convergent*Convergent*This is how you do:The i4 disciplines areall front end methods

and does not have to beused in any particularorder. To understand

them, compare them tothe different disciplinesa n explorer needsto master in order to

succeed. Each disci-pline can be utilized

in random order, butthe general flow of theevents would centeraround this line up of activities:




When given a challenge, the first thing to do is to get an overview and form a

stance towards to task.

Framing the challenge. What seems to be going on? What could be the issue? What

is really at stake here? Who are the players? What is the big picture? Climbing on

top of the balcony to see the challenges as they really are.

Understand the context. Look for strategies inside and outside the company.

Gather trends from market and analysts. Work with your Market Researchers to

understand backgrounds and details..

Write up a framework for insights. Your research questions - which area seems

important, where do you need to start you insight gathering. It is important to

allow for other signals to arrise.

Framing the challenge ”Where to start”

This is how you do:

Find strategies and vision statements – What is thegrand plan of your organisation? What is the context?

Build driving questions – From your analysis, builda set of questions that lead you into your projectstatement. What is critical, where is the burning

platform?

Test your problem statement, Test your assumptionsand questions. Don’t test conclusions but rather tune

your curiosity to fit that of your sponsor.

What seems tobe going on?



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Iigts 1

From your framing of the challenge, prepare an interviewguide to help you stay with your topic. Agree with your usersto record the interview.

Mindset: Sit at the feet of the customer

How to address external people - to

know customers better than they know

themselves.

The primary objective is to go into the

task, exploring and discovering the

different facets. To forget your pre-de-

terminations, to empty your head from

ideas already present. The voice of

the customer is often very subtle and

lightly spoken. If you enter this phase

with already made conclusions, they

will overshaddow the really important

issues.

Remember the Gorilla-exercise. Don’t

let your predetermined ideas make

you loose sight of the Gorillas of the

reality. Look for Pain Points, Paradoxes

and your own Curiosities.

Gathering data ”User Interviews”

This is how you do:

Gather many data formats – interviews, images, brochures,

statistics, market data, trends, strategies, thoughts, sketches,videos ....

Remember to photograph, get names, dates and record inter-views for transcriptions. Authenticate the data!

Different ways of getting data: Interview, Fly-on-the-wall, par-

ticipatory observation, conferences and more.

Synergy: Suggestions for how to utilize your existing reserve in

markets, for instance sales forces, local R&D branches, universi-ties, local agencies.

Powerful questions

3 X why

How (show me)

What

Who, When, Where

Which, Yes/no questions

Less powerful questions

i 4



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Iigts 2

i 4

Pattern recognition ”Framingyour development question”

Iigts 2

Pattern Recognition

makes Clarity fromComplexity. It framesthe question for the

next innovation steps.

Find the strongest Pain Points,Paradoxes and Curiositites

from your data

This is how you do:

Download your data – What did we hear? What did we

Learn?

Build many frameworks – See the situation from many

points of view. Users- Stakeholder- Government etc.Draw pictures.

Use Bold Statements for insights, Be blunt in your

wording of what might be going on here. Don’t holdback. Sort and find patterns from the insights.

Write down the framing sentence– a short, concise sen-tence that points forward. Start with “so how might we”.

Pattern Recongition is about creating

clarity f rom complexity.

Data download: What did we hear, what

did we learn from that. So how might we

deal with this? Develop clouds of mean-

ing. Find common themes, that keep re-

peating in different versions. These are

your patterns.

Strong Pain Points: When we discover

strong elements of “pain”, meaning se-

vere discomfort and anxiety experienced

in the touch points, or lacking aid in con-

nected, undiscovered areas, we see a Pain

Point. If we act upon the pain point, there

is a strong chance that the customers will

accept the offer. The stronger pain point,

the higher chance of success. At the end,

make a strong frame for development

through asking “So How Might We”...

http://www.istockphoto.com/

file_thumbview_approve/11704818/2/

istockphoto_11704818-questions.jpg



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Iigts 1

i 4

Creating 100’s of ideas ”Go for Quantity”

Ideation. The translation of insights

into tangible ideas. Ideation relies

heavily on mindset and risk willingness.

Ability to be comfortable with being

uncomfortable.

Parallel Thinking is one key mindset to

carry into this discipline: Getting the

minds of the ideation team to work in

parallel, to support each other. There are

many ideation methods. Most imporatant

is to try many out, invent your own!

- Brainstorming. No critique. No “yes,

BUT”, rather “yes, AND”. Be proactive -

pick up where other s left.

- Ideation Flow: Make 50 ideas. Then

make patterns, Then make 50 more.

Repeat.

- Hollywood Brainstorm, imagine what

famous actors or other people would

have done.

- Probing: Add strong images, thoughts

or other stimulus to the team and

see what happens. Example: Handling

physical Lego Bricks to a group discuss-

ing Data Centers results in stackable

concepts!

- Analogous Situations: think of similar

but non-alike situations, like Race car

Pit Stops and Emergency Rooms.

Idei 1

Mindset: There are no limits and no

stupid ideas. You may have to go tononsense to make real sense!

Didactic ThinkingParallel Thinking(de Bono)

This is how you do:

Do many sessions – during your ideation phase,

stage many ideation sessions. Make them max45min of length! Involve colleagues, specialists,customers and partners as possible in the dif-ferent sessions. Facilitate ideation sessions on

your own site! Again, manage IP leak.

Frame the idea session, Make a strong sentence

or picture to frame. The stronger frame, themore loose and creative the flow can become.

Document afterwards Download data after-wards. Ideas - themes - hunches.

Mindset:Optimistic,The glass ishalf full!




NABC Value Propositions:

Needs: What is really needed?Approach: Which avenues will we travel to find our soluition

Benefits/Cost: User benefits and costs come first, then otheraspects, such as business and government.Competition: Which concepts will the marketplace favor, if your concept is NOT developed? How strong are they comp-

ered to yours?

Filtering of ideas ”Selecting the ideas to mature”

From 100’s of ideas, apply strong filters

to separate meaningful ideas from the

noise.

Develop strong filters, that are made

from both industry frameworks - Vi-

ability (what makes a great solution

in the future industrial marketplace?),

Desirability (what are key criteria

for creating user value) and techni-

cal filters - Feasibility (how does a

good product or service look like from

at technical implementation point of

view). The discipline is about evaluating

many filters and keep creating sense.

Eventually you have to decide on

which concepts to mature. Depending

on project resources, go for max 3,

preferably 2.

The few ideas that are chosen is then

translated into a meaningful value

proposition. We use the NABC - Needs,

Approach, Benefits/Cost and Competi-

tion (SRI)

Idei 2

This is how you do:

Constantly evolve your frame and filters test many

filters and keep running variants until you realize whatworks. Constantly use the framing questions for yourproject to test if you are on the right path. Combinesessions of zooming in- and out.

Be visual Filtering is hard. Share the load by using vi-sual graphics to better engage the team and externals.

At the end of the day: Decide which idea(s) to evolve: Remember that you can’t calculate and evolve it all.

Document the unused ideas well and go back if needed.

Examples of 2x2’s: Desirability-Feasibility, Ease of Implementing-Impact, Time to market-Innovation

height, User preference-Company preference, Ease of use-Cost, Innovation height-Ease of implementation

D e s i r a b i l i t y

Feasibility

Feasibility

iabilityyDesirabilit

2x2: Venn:




A prototype can be a sketch, a picture, a story, a videoclip, a box of wires, a lego-

brick, a Profit & Loss XLS sheet, a play, a cardboard box. Only your imagination setsthe limit!

The Rapid Prototyping process concerns

getting as fast as possible to a repre-

sentation of the idea, that can be tested

with the main stakeholders and users.

We need to understand that a proto-

type can have many dimensions and

many different formats. We deal with

Fidelity (how much of the concept is

shown in the prototype), Resolution

(how precise is the prototype). Invite

stakeholders and users to co-creation

by building Low Res + Low Fi proto-

types.

Prototyping ”Visualizing the idea”

Itri 1

This is how you do:

Plan your prototype phase – What are your main

issues with your idea? Which prototypes canhelp developing these? Video, mock up, func-tional technical prototypes, sketches, enact-ments etc, Think of fidelity and resolution.

Build flexible models – Understanding the areasyou may have to move in to and plan for this in

your prototype.

Make it simple – The faster and less precious

the better - avoid “falling in love” with yourcreation!

A two minute digital video is far more viral than a 100.000 USD physical prototype!

L o

H i

Lo Hi

Superficialmagazine

add’s

Paper, glue,light

R&Dprotobuilds

“textbased”

descriptionsetc

R e s o l u t i o n

Fidelity




Iteration Cyclus (Testing, Analysis & update)

Iteration means the act of repeating a

process usually with the aim of ap-

proaching a desired goal or target or

result. Each repetition of the process

is also called an “iteration”, and the

results of one iteration are used as the

starting point for the next iteration.

When iterating in the i4 framework, we

are staying true to the framework and

maturing the concept to better deliver

on the basic promise. We continuously

evolve the concept based on analysis of

test results.

Use the Watering Hole technique to rap-

idly tap the wisdom of your colleagues

in the organization. Use frequent user

testing to make sure you stay within the

desirable area of creating user value in

your concept. Practice the act of telling

just enough to each customer for them

to comment on the idea without taking

valuable insights and potential IP away

from the interview. Repeat your itera-

tions as much as possible. Focus on the

storytelling aspect of Video Prototypes

to create winning user experience inno-

vation.

Itri 2

This is how you do:

Gather many data formats – similar to user

interviews, use many formats. Plan what youwant to learn with each test.

Remember to photograph, get names, datesand record interviews for transcriptions. Au-

thenticate the data!

Test often and don’t tell the users what theyshouldn’t know! Be clever at not telling thefull story to any single user. Involve partners

for more intimate discussions.The physical mock ups play a bigger role

than pure illustration: By handling the

model, many details of the concept surface.

Invite for Co-Creation!

Mindset: Many cyclesat shortest cycle time




The challenge of Injection.

Creating strong, viable solutions is

not enough. Ideas do not migrate very

efficiently by themselves. On the other

hand, internal marketing for own ideas

is not an ideal! The Injection disci-

pline covers the planning, shaping and

practise of the Pitch. Both to peers,

superiors and externals. The Injection

discipline is one of the most important

enablers for implementation of innova-

tive solutions in the organization.

Injection consists of making strong

alliances to form the right preparedness

for recieveing the idea. Then a thor-

ough communication analysis, under-

standing each stakeholder’s needs and

points of view. Finally it comes down

to creating a strong, precise, focussed

pitch, which is not in selling mode but

invites for co-creation towards the

senior investors of the organization.

When Injecting, you only have a few attempts, then the idea isworn and you will have to rescope it. The senior managment teamwill have to make it their own before it is implemented.

Communication Analysis”Where to inject?”

Ijei 1

This is how you do:

Perform a stakeholder analysis – Gather who you

need to inject to. What is the path of your idea

to success? Use NABC, Story telling 3-act frame-

works etc.

Involve the key people, Pre-meetings, pre-

acceptance and clarification of drivers are key todelivering the right pitch.

Test with peers Prepare a test plan for your idea

- who needs to see it, how should you react to

their comments. Practice the speech1-2 times to

improve flow and quality. Time your talk.

The Senior Management team will have

to make it their own idea to engage

Yourself

Middle managenment

Organizational boundaries

Your helpers: The Champion, The Entrapreneur and The Investor The path of ideas in organizations.




The Pitch requires attention to details, a

strong concept and a willing audience.

When pitching, you have to keep close

attention to the details. Prepare the

session well in advance. You only have

1 or 2 chances in total! If you miss the

pitch, you may have to wait months

before next opportunity arises,.

The pitch requires the right conditions:

The right audience - check out what

senior managers are required. If the

critical one is missing, the pitch can

fail and you should avoid performing it

at all before the right audience is there.

Investigate how the investors want to

be “courted”.

Build the pitch from a skeleton of

the NABC - and remember to lift the

conversation up towards the strategic

level that CEO’s and Sr Managers typi-

cally reside in - this is most effective.

A good pitch is less than 15 minutes

long! Make sure you look like you mean

it! You will have to make them believe

not only that this concept fits to their

strategies, that it is viable, feasible and

desirable, but that you are able to see

the project through. This requires that

you are honest about risks and chal-

lenges in the implementation outlook.

Otherwise you render untrustworthy and

the pitch is dismissed because of that.

The Pitch ”Telling the story”

Ijei 2

The pitch is the mostcritical element insecuring buy in fromthe organization.

You have to touchboth emotional andrational elements aswell as giving visual,

auditive, tactile cluesfor the differentpreferences in the

audience.

You have to be shortand sharp. An eleva-tor pitch is only 1-2minutes long!

This is how you do:

Use many formats – stimulate all senses -

audio: speech, visual: video and images,tactile: models and products etc.

Speak in CEO tongue - Think like a CEO.Talk ROI, MEUR/MUSD, Strategy, Context,

Market, Industry, Business Case, RevenueStream etc.

Make a strong impression Both communi-cate on emotional and rational topics to

get the full attention and “surrender” of the recepient.

How do the investorslike to be “courted”?




Innovation is hard. It is difficult. It is tough, it carries significant risk of failure.

However it is the only way you can stay competitive and flexible as an organization

and as individuals.

With the i4 disciplines, you are prepared for entering the world of innovation.

Practicing and failing forward, you will learn and eventually your team becomes a

practitioning team in the 4 disciplines and it will be so natural, that you can’t stop.

Spread the gospel - involve others, That is i4 Passion for Innovative Solutions.

We wish you the best of luck using your new skills!

Michael McKay

McKay Explore · Design & Consulting

Conclusion



mckayexplore · 19

McKay Explore enables businesses and organizations to

utilize the intuitive thinking of the creative class. There-

by significant competitive advantage can be achieved.

Innovation is on everyone’s agenda these days. And rightfully so: The

world is getting complex and so are the challenges that organizations are

facing. McKay Explore will help you leverage innovation as a competitive

factor through optimizing innovation processes, liberating creative flowfrom employees, customers and other people and organize for innovation.

concept making practitioners. Contact us: +45 5118-0967 [email protected]


mckayexplore




i4 Vocabulary 2x2(two-by-two): A simple way to sort

multiple datapoints in a 2-dimensional

matrix. Make several 2x2’s to see more fa-

cets of your data. Use often, and mostly

during pattern recognition and filtering.

SWOT is a typical 2x2. FeasibilityxDesira-

bility is an other.

Analogous Stories: Your challenge is not

unique – find similar cases from other

worlds to get inspired from. For instance

is a pit stop at a racetrack an analogous

situation to the incoming reception in an

emergency room at the hospital.

Analysis: In i4 analysis is used as a non-

creative, logical thinking process in the

iteration discipline and other areas. Ana-

lysis is the process of breaking a complex

topic or substance into smaller parts togain a better understanding of it. Keep

decision making and analysis apart.

Approach: What is the unique approach

to the user’s need? Approach in i4 re-

presents the general direction that the

concept is taking, and allows the de-

velopment team to discuss vague ideas

around the solution and avoiding locking

in to specific details too early. Part of the

NABC value proposition.

Brainstorming: The classic ideation

method that includes rules such as no

critique allowed, all ideas are good,building on other ideas, go for quantity,

go outside the box. No ideas are crazy.

Postpone and withhold your judgment of

ideas, Encourage wild and exaggerated

ideas, Quantity counts at this stage, not

quality, Build on the ideas put forward by

others, Every person and every idea has

equal worth.

Co-creation: In this approach, the

company does not just try to please the

consumer but works with consumer to

co-construct the service experience to

suit his/her preferences. This will involve

joint problem definition and problem

solving in an environment in which con-

sumers can have an active dialogue and

co-construct personalised experiences

(Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004a).

Collaboration: Collaboration is key to

all i4 disciplines. Development phases

towards collaboration goes from depen-

dency to independency over interdepen-

dency. In i4, the goal for collaboration is

co-creation.

Commitment: It is important that the

company, the stakeholders and the team

members are committed to the task. Be

very open and symbolic on gaining com-

mitment before engaging in cross- orga-

nizational innovation.

Convergent Thinking: The overall thin-

king that leads to narrowing down the

openness in the situation. In i4, each di-

scipline has a divergent phase, followed

by a convergent phase. Teamwork is most

effective, when all members agree which

phase you are in!

Cross Pollenization: To take ideas from

one area and replant them into other,

non-related areas. For instance ”Jazz is

fundamentally the cross-pollination of

individual musicians playing together

and against each other in small groups”

(Ralph de Toledano).

Design Thinking: Design thinking can

be described as a discipline that uses

the designer’s sensibility and methods to

match people’s needs with what is tech-

nologically feasible and what a viable

business strategy can convert into custo-

mer value and market opportunity..“….

design thinking converts need into de-

mand” (Tim Brown and Peter Drucker)

Desirability: The User/Stakeholder point

of view towards valuing a concept: Will

they love it and be passionate about it?

Diverge: The overall thinking that leads

to opening up the situation and adding

more possibilities. Expanding and askingeven more questions and giving even

more opportunities. In i4, Divergent

thinking is applied many times, and the

fluctuation between Divergent and con-

vergent thinking can be very fast paced.

Again, teamwork is most effective, when

all members agree which phase you are in!

Evolutionary Innovation: The design

philosophy about adding small steps

onto existing solutions to gradually evol-

ve into better areas.

Failing Forward: The design image which

is about failing as fast and lightly as pos-sible, to allow for experimentation and

learning from mistakes while the design

process is active.

Feedback: Giving and receiving feed-

back is a key to improving performance.

Beware that your own actions and habits

as an organization and individuals deter-

mine the success of the feedback loop:

See feedback as a present, offer feed-

back with the notion that the recipient

does not have to act on it. Receive the

feedback as a gift and make sure not to

be defensive in the moment of receipt;

this will foster feedback to happen more

often. Feedback and trust are main ingre-

dients of the Watering Hole.

Feasibility: The degree to which the

concept is doable. Does it violate the

laws of physics? Can we produce it? Do

we have the technologies that it takes?

Can we make it in time?

Filters: Filters are used to actively re-

duce the number of opportunities duringa convergent phase in the i4. Test many

filters and apply them in sequence to get

down to the desired amount of opportu-

nities.

Framework: Is used to describe the bo-

undaries of design tasks. You can use

textual frameworks such as “how might

we…” to drive ideation, or you can use

numerical frames to keep design work

within certain boundaries. Make sure

you design your frameworks with enough

sharpness and focus to allow the ideation

within to blossom and grow.

Front End, Fuzzy-: Front end represents

the area of product and service develop-

ment which happens before product re-

quirements and company strategies are

frozen. Often Front End happens AFTER

technology development and other back-




ground, periodical research processes.

We talk about Fuzzy Front End and Front

End Tools.

High Fidelity: A High Fidelity prototype

describes in detail how a concept is reali-

zed. It is rich in visualized functionality.

Hollywood Brainstorming: The brain-

storming technique, where participants

ask each other “so how would nn think

…”. Using persona’s who are known by

all members. It can also be politicians

and known role models. i.e “How would

Hitchcock have told this user story”

Idea Scout: Copy and improve with pride.

In i4 we train teams to keep low barriers

for colleagues and other project teams to

enter and copy. We also encourage teamsto visit other teams for inspiration. De-

ploy “Idea Scouts” to hunt for ideas and

return to report.

Ideation: The Discipline of creating ide-

as based on relevant insights.

Ideation Methods: Several methods

exist for creating ideas, and no ideation

method is better than the other; it is the

idea that counts; not where it came f rom.

Ideation methods covered in the i4 Boot

Camp includes brainstorming, ideation

flow, Probing, Hollywood Brainstorming,

Analogous Situation and Systematic Ide-ation techniques.

Injection: The Discipline of delivering a

concept with the right timing, the right

angle, to the right person (s) with the

right tonality in order to see the concept

adopted by the organization and imple-

mented into the market. The Injection

process is sensitive to many issues and

implies orchestration, agility and atten-

tion to details. Injection can only hap-

pen a few times; then the idea has to be

rephrased.

Innovative Behaviour: The overall habit

of being open and creative, noticing the

minor details, living in the question and

continuously developing, discussing, ma-

turing and sharing ideas.

Insights: The result of a reflected data

gathering process. Insights are learning’s

and development questions that will

drive the innovation process further. In-

sights can be both weak and powerful.

The most powerful insights in i4 are PainPoints, Paradoxes and Curiosities.

Inspiration: A collection of material

that can probe thinking in different di-

rections than the ordinary. Make it into

a habit to collect inspiration for yourself

and your team whenever you leave your

desk. Whether this is a photograph of so-

mething you saw yourself, a physical ob-

ject you bring, a website you discovered

or a person you quote. Make inspiration

sharing an everyday event in your team

and in your life in general. Collect even

without knowing what to use it for.

Interview Guide: When entering an

open ended interview, bring an interview

guide. Do not stick to it too literately but

rather use it as a map to navigate your

interview into the right areas. Compare

interview guides with your team mem-

bers, be thorough about designing the

scope and framework into the guide.

Involvement, user- and stakeholder-: The i4 disciplines rely on outside invol-

vement, such as colleagues, users, stake-

holders, partners and other. Make an in-

volvement strategy in your project – who

do you need to involve to learn what?

What will the do in the project, how can

you bring in the right competences?

Low Resolution: The resolution of a pro-

totype is defined by the way the proto-

type is refined. A crude prototype, which

is not refined with right materials, scale,

dimensions and weight has a lower re-

solution. Low resolution opens up for

interpretation and is therefore ideal for

Co-Creation.

Low Fidelity: See High Fidelity. Low fi-

delity opens up for interpretation and is

therefore ideal for Co-Creation.

NABC: NABC is the format i4 uses for Va-

lue Proposition. The NABC is a collection

of Needs paired with Approach to the

needs, paired with an analysis of Bene-

fits per Cost and finally an analysis of the

competing concepts. (Stanford Research

Institute)

Outside the Box thinking: Within the

Ideation Discipline, the thinking andreasoning need to leave the standard

patterns in order to find new ways to

resolve the challenges. It is important

to see the standard way of thinking and

consciously leave this. Probing, inspira-

tion, change of scenery or inviting the

unusual suspects are ways to step out-

side the box.

Partnership: Agreements along the ver-

tical lines of the industry. Strategic Part-

nerships are often key to successful in-

novation. Decide which partnerships are

needed and co-create with these.

Passion: Find your passion and use it!

Use both creative tensions, willpower,

urgencies, burning platforms, competi-

tive spirit and other means to grow your

passion. No innovation has ever been

made without the presence of passion in

some sort. Beware that Passion can back-

fire if not managed and lead properly.




Probing: In Design Thinking we use Pro-

bing as a term for introducing specific

resources or notions into the process.

Probing is often very effective for crea-

ting radical concepts. For instance we

asked a team to hold LEGO bricks during

an ideation session for a Data Center, and

the team ended up developing an idea

about stackable, unified Brick like, self

contained Blocks…

Prototypes: Representations of solu-

tions, both products and services and

other. Prototypes can represent both the

physical object, the system and the user

experience. Prototypes have 2 dimensi-

ons; Resolution and Fidelity. Go for Low

Resolution and Low Fidelity to create the

best prototypes for Front End Innovation.

Radical Innovation: The design philo-

sophy about taking giant, unexpected

leaps into new, uncontested markets.

Inventing completely new categories and

stimulating needs that were not expres-

sed earlier. This approach is typical ly

more risk oriented but Radical Innova-

tion is a game-changing activity, which

can dramatically change an entire indu-

stry. Established companies find it hard

to launch radical concepts, since they

often disrupts their own, existing pro-

duct lines.

Research question: When entering intoa business anthropologic insight phase,

use the research question to focus the

interviews and other information gathe-

ring processes. For instance: “Is it true

that the main annoyance to using the

xxx concept is the lack of yyyy”. Don’t be

blinded by your research question, should

valuable new data present itself.

Scenery, change of-: To drive creativity

and outside the box thinking, often a

change in scenery can help. For instance

if doing products or services for televi-

sion consumption, a change of scenery

into a television studio or for instance

the Cannes Film Festival as a venue for

ideation can be quite fruitful. Smaller

changes, such as going outside or moving

to another room will also work.

Staying In the Question: (living in the

question). The idea that you do not an-

swer or do any decisions but rather keep

questioning. Pretend you come from

Mars and have landed here on Earth for

the first time! Everything will be aboutquestioning. Often used for Insight and

Ideation.

Storyboard: The systematic method

used for documenting a theater or mo-

vie script. We use it in i4 to create rapid

video and enactment prototypes. The

Storyboard consists of a series of process

steps, each depicted by a sketch, a de-

scription of roles and props. The Story-

boarding process itself is a powerful tool

for maturing an idea and is good at cap-

turing user e xperiences.

Strategic Industry Frameworks: Whencreating concepts it is important to use

Strategic Industry and Company under-

standing along with the User Perspec-

tive. In the i4 Boot Camp, we showed

a couple of them: “Value Migration”,

Experience Economy, Pine&Gilmore,

“Innovation types compared to Industry

Maturity”, Dealing with Darwin – Geof-

frey Moore, “Disruptive Innovation”,

Clayton Christensen, “Freeconomics”,

Chris Anderson. The idea is to find, in-

terpret and use many frameworks to un-

derstand how the concept will fit into the

industry and market in the future.

Systematic Ideation: Using a framework

for understanding a solution complex

can lead to valuable systematic ideation.

Tools such as Morphology, Solution/

Means trees and other can capture the

room of solutions effectively.

User Experience: When using a product

or service, the user has a series of expe-

riences, that are called User Experience

(UX). User Experience Design and Inter-action Design are areas, that address the

User Experience primarily, determining

physical and functional requirements

towards the rest of the design process.

By designing the UX first, designers can

precisely determine how the user feels

during the use of products and services.

Significantly important for mature mar-

kets.

User test: A test performed with a con-

cept, testing user reactions. Beware what

you show to which users, think about

protecting IP by splitting up intelligence

between several users. Use Partners tointimate testing.

Unusual Suspects: are the people and

organizations that typically are NOT in-

vited to co-create. They are relevant but

often forgotten. For instance, if creating

a service concept often the telephone

operators are forgotten in the testing

or when designing a utility building, the

janitor can offer valuable insights. Think

Unusual Suspects every time you invite

for insight, ideation and iteration ses-

sions. Receptionists are often unusual

suspects.

Viability: The dimension of a concept

that talks about the business side. Can

we make money on this? How is the ROI?

Does our current channels and business

models accommodate this concept?

Watering hole. A specific innovation

methodology, which offers a systematic,

iterative concept maturing environment.

In the Iteration Discipline we use it to

enable outsiders of the project to help

building the concept with the team, whi-le staying within the framework of the

idea. The Watering Hole technique of-

fers many other added benefits though.

(Stanford Research Institute)

Wildcard: To contain the intuitive, curi-

ous nature of Innovation further into the

innovation process, wildcards are intro-

duced to allow the team to add the “ideas

that won’t fit the metrics but drives our

curiosity and wonder”. Use Wildcards to

allow for the different, non-rational ide-

as to live longer in your project.



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Four Disciplines of Innovation

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