Creativity

Are you searching for a creative idea for a new website? Are you trying to start a business but cannot find a good idea? Millions of people are in your shoes and I want to spend some time covering ways of thinking and go a little into the process of finding innovative ideas and products. Most of what I have below comes from Goldenberg and Mazursky’s book “Creativity in Product Innovation.”.

Let’s say you want to create a product to sell but have no clue what product to build. How do you acquire the idea for the product? One process that you can start with entails finding two independent variables (a change in one does not cause a change in the other) and establishing a new dependency between them. A variable is a an element that is subject to measurable change. If you think of a computer desk, the type of wood, color, height, and surface are internal variables of a computer desk while height of user, size of computer, and distance from electrical outlet are the external variables.

Another method of generating ideas entails utilizing resources available in the immediate environment to replace a component that fulfills a needed function of the product. This method was used to create a Hands Free Car Kit for your cell phone usage while driving by replacing the cell phone speaker with the available resources in the car, the car’s speaker system.

Another way to generate ideas is to look at the potential problems and issues with current products and services and try to build something better. This is a method of thinking you are probably already doing quite often. You can also consider this method on a macro level by continually evaluating changes in the market. New and improved products and services create formerly unrecognized needs. For example, when Microsoft Windows 7 came out there was a need for a forum to discuss Windows 7 issues that you could have created.

People often get discouraged when they see that their newly created idea has already been done but remember that it’s not always clear whether being the first person is advantageous. Execution of the idea is usually the most important aspect and being the a follower sometimes gives you many advantages. The originator could have build a user base and defined what works and what does not work well with the new idea or product, and this is something that you as a follower can now utilize. Remember, there was MySpace before Facebook and there were many local classifieds websites before Craigslist took over that market. So, instead of getting discouraged, think of improvements to current solutions and products.

But, how do you think of new and interesting ideas? There are many different brainstorming and creativity-enhancement methods but one I like to use often is called Mind Mapping. You draw a circle in the middle of a paper and inside write a short description of one problem. Then, draw and new circles around the page representing associations (not solutions) to the problem and link them to the original center circle. Now, each new circle is an origin for a new bundle of associations. Draw more circles around the new circles and when the page is filled with circles all linked to each other you can look at the map of circles on the page and focus on one small cluster of circles in order to try to find a solution to the original problem.

Are you interested in learning more?