Innovation Flow

Look at your Problem through different lenses The first step to come up with innovative ideas is to look at a problem innovatively i.e look at the problem through different lenses. We tend to look at a problem from only one angle - but how to trigger our mind to look at it from different angles ? Try asking the question what would X do - X could be Steve Jobs or Buddha or Don Quixote or Gandhi or your own Grandfather or Mother-in-law - the idea is to bring a new perspective to the problem. I listed 100+ such people - studied their innovative thinking style - and asked myself "What would X do?" to create a new perspective to the problem that I work on. I conciously limit this exercise only to define the problem - i do not extend this concept to idea generation (for certain reasons that i will elaborate later). When you try to solve a problem innovatively, a trigger that you could use is: What would a Bumble Bee do? Bumble Bee: According to 20th centu...

How to evolve good ideas into valuable innovations I am fully confident that we, the community of Indian Technologists, are ready with the insights to address many of the technology challenges that face us. When we as a community share our insights, pool our resources and further build upon the insights through focused ideation, we will get good ideas. We are all trained to solve such technology problems and we routinely come up with good ideas, hence the journey so far is on well laid roads and smooth terrain. How do we take our ideas beyond this point? The trek beyond this point is on a difficult terrain, dense fog that blinds us, very less oxygen that make us gasp, slippery slopes that slow us down, unpredictable avalanches that threaten our lives, Yetis and whatnot. We need determination, guts, special gear, reserve oxygen, experienced guides, perseverance and most importantly a clear vision of the summit. There are many barriers that prevent us from realizing the true val...