Посты с тэгом: SIT

Innovation Sighting: “Sweaty” Billboards That Fight the Zika Virus

Published date: April 27, 2016 в 7:32 pm

Tags: inside the box,SIT,sweaty billboard,task unification,zika virus

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus is a global emergency. To fight it, humans have to find a way to kill the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
Two marketing agencies in Brazil have designed a novel way to do just that. They call it The Mosquito Killer Billboard. It’s a great example of the Task Unification Technique, one of five in the innovation method called Systematic Inventive Thinking. Here’s how their innovation works:

The board releases a mixture of a lactic acid solution that mimics the smell of human sweat and carbon dioxide, which is in human breath. Its inventors have released the blueprint for free and are encouraging people around the world to make them. So far, they have installed two of the Mosquito Killer Billboards in Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil.
From the BBC:

“It’s impressive how many mosquitoes you can trap and how many lives you can save with this idea,” Otto Frossard from Posterscope told the BBC. Mr Frossard added that the board would cost “a few thousand Reals” (1,000 Brazilian Reals is $280/£194) to make. “I think anything that can be done to reduce the prevalence of the mosquito is a good thing,” said Dr Chris Jackson, a pest control expert at the University of Southampton. The insects are drawn to the aroma from the board from a distance of up to 2.5km away, the board’s inventors say.
“Particularly devices like this that attract and kill females that feed on blood, as it is only female mosquitoes that bite,” he explained. Dr Jackson said that, while the science behind the billboard was effective, putting them in public places and attracting human attention – as well as insects – could be a problem.

To get the most out of the Task Unification technique, you follow five basic steps:
1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.
2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task, using one of three methods:

Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product accomplishes already
Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
Choose an internal component and make it perform the function of an external component, effectively “stealing” the external component’s function

3. Visualize the new (or changed) products or services.
4. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this, and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge?
5. If you decide the new product or service is valuable, then ask: Is it feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it viable?

The Division Technique: Cut Your Challenges Down to Size

Published date: April 11, 2016 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: division technique,inside the box,SIT,systematic creativity

The division technique works by dividing a product or its components functionally or physically and then rearranging them back into the product. Division is a powerful technique in the SIT Method because it forces you to break fixedness, especially structural fixedness. Division forces you to create configurations by rearranging components in ways you were not likely to have done on with on your own.
To apply the division technique, you start by listing the product’s internal components. Next, you divide the product or one of the components. There are three ways you can do this.
First is functionally, where you rearrange along some functional role. Look at this example. A water sport company took the controls of the speed boat and then functionally divided them off and placed them into the handle of the waterski tow rope. Now, the water skier controls the movements of the boat without having a separate driver.
Next is physically, where you are cutting the product or component along any physical line. Physical division is different than functional in that we are actually making a cut along some physical line of the product itself or component.
Take a look at this car radio. In this example, the faceplate has been physically cut away from the main radio. When you leave your car, you grab the faceplate by pulling it away from the main radio, and taking it with you. That makes the main radio completely worthless so thieves won’t break into your car to steal it.
And the third type is called preserving. That means you divide the product into smaller versions of itself. Each smaller unit preserves the characteristics of the whole. A real simple example of this is what you see here. Cupcakes are essentially smaller versions of a normal sized cake.
Many food manufacturers use this technique by taking a normal full-size product and then cutting it down into smaller individual portions. These smaller units have just the right amount of food needed by the customer. This saves them money, the product is easier to store, there’s less wasted food, and it gives the manufacturer more ways to sell its products.
So once you’ve rearranged the components, this now becomes your virtual product. Using function follows form, you visualize the virtual product. Then you identify potential benefits and target markets. Finally, you modify and adapt the concept to improve it.
The division technique cuts your biggest challenges down to size so you can see new innovative opportunities.

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification and the Oombrella

Published date: March 21, 2016 в 1:23 pm

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: closed world,inside the box,kickstarter,oombrella,SIT,task unification

I love umbrellas and the many versions that demonstrate the five patterns of Systematic Inventive Thinking. Here’s a new one that demonstrates the Task Unification pattern. Task Unification is defined as: assigning an additional task to an existing resource. That resource should be in the immediate vicinity of the problem, or what we call The Closed World. In essence, it’s taking something that is already around you and giving an additional job.
Oombrella is a beautiful smart connected umbrella that alerts you before it rains and sends you a notification if you leave it behind. From their website:

What makes oombrella unique is its notification services that alert you before it rains and if you leave your umbrella behind. ombrella’s hyper-local weather data and tracking keep you informed and notified. Yet oombrella is an umbrella. It means that it protects you against the rain, and its ribs make it really wind-resistant.
As an umbrella, it can be adapted to you. This means you can pick the color, go for the Shiny edition, a very elegant White Edition or choose the revisited yet classic Black edition. In terms of size, you can choose too! Go for a classic size or one that fits in your bag.
The good part of oombrella is that you can also track all your activity and see the weather you experienced during your trip. How? Thanks to the sensors that are integrated into the handle: temperature, pressure, humidity and light. We use all this data to create the notifications “Take me with you. It will rain in 15 minutes”

Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product accomplishes already
Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
Choose an internal component and make it perform the function of an external component, effectively “stealing” the external component’s function

Innovation Sighting: Putting Space Aliens to Work

Published date: March 14, 2016 в 1:30 pm

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: inside the box,SIT,systematic creativity,task unification

The Task Unification Technique is one of five in the SIT methodology, and it produces remarkable clever ideas – the ones that make you slap your forehead and say, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?”
Task Unification is defined as: assigning an additional task to an existing resource. That resource should be in the immediate vicinity of the problem, or what we call The Closed World. In essence, it’s taking something that is already around you and giving an additional job.
Here’s a great example of how to find aliens by using a rather resource – the aliens themselves. As reported in the Christian Science Monitor:

A new study suggests that perhaps we should be looking for aliens who are looking for us in the hope of finding each other and communicating.
The idea is to flip our current approach around. NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered more than 1,000 exoplanets by watching for the light of a star to dim as an orbiting planet passes by. Scientists now suggest that we target worlds that could use that same method to spot us in a new paper to be published in the journal Astrobiology.
Here’s how it would work: Earth can be detected using the same methods from only a small strip of space. The dimming of our Sun as our planet passes by could only be spotted from what’s called Earth’s “transit zone.” And that region boasts some 100,000 potential alien habitats.
So if they’re there and they’re looking for us, perhaps they’ve broadcast a signal in an attempt to get in touch with us. And if we listen, we may discover each other.
“The key point of this strategy is that it confines the search area to a very small part of the sky. As a consequence, it might take us less than a human life span to find out whether or not there are extraterrestrial astronomers who have found the Earth. They may have detected Earth’s biogenic atmosphere and started to contact whoever is home,” Dr. Heller explained in another press release.

I love this idea because it is using the object of your efforts as the solution. In our book, Inside the Box, we describe a similar innovation on how to get rid of tsetse flies by using male flies that have been sterilized so they can’t reproduce. Eventually, the whole colony disappears.
To get the most out of the Task Unification technique, you follow five basic steps:
1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.
2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task, using one of three methods:

Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product accomplishes already
Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
Choose an internal component and make it perform the function of an external component, effectively “stealing” the external component’s function

10 Valentine’s Day Surprises Created With S.I.T.

Published date: February 14, 2016 в 1:01 pm

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: creative valentines day,creativity method,innovation method,SIT

Today is Valentine’s Day, and to celebrate, here are ten creative ways to show how much you love your partner. I generated some of these for a TV interview yesterday on FOX19-WXIX morning news is Cincinnati. They wanted me to share how to use S.I.T. to be more creative on this special day. So here is my extended list:
1. Flowers are very common on Valentine’s Day, with the most common gift being a dozen long-stem red roses. So to be more creative, apply the Division Technique. Divide the 12 roses into single versions, each in their own vase. Place them throughout your home. That way, you get twelve little surprises instead of one big one.
2. Building on the first idea, place eleven of the roses throughout your home, but hide or hold on to the 12th rose (the Subtraction Technique). When your partner realizes there are only eleven, he or she will wonder where the 12th rose is. That’s the time to place it somewhere strategically (hint: pillow) or give it to your partner directly. Nice touch!
3. I love the Task Unification Technique for challenges like this. I like to pick a component in the home randomly and force it to take on an additional job. These ideas that leverage a resource in the immediate environment (Closed World) tend to create surprising, forehead-slapping ideas that make you utter, “Gee, why didn’t I think of that?” For example, take the garage door. Imagine taking your traditional Valentine’s Day card and taping it to the bottom of the garage door so that when she opens it, the card will dangle invitingly from the bottom. Clever!
4. Here’s another example of Task Unification. Take shaving cream and draw a big heart with the words, “I love you” somewhere fun like the inside of your shower (make sure it’s on the inside or you’ll be in big trouble.)
5. Food is another way to inspire love. Instead of making a plain old salad, try taking tomato and mozzarella cheese slices and make a heart shape on the plate. Easy, cheap, and one of those little touches your partner will appreciate.
6. I found this idea on the Internet, but I love it anyway because it demonstrates the Multiplication Technique so well. Take a bunch of different size envelopes or perhaps boxes and place them inside one another (like Russian nested figures). In the last one, place your favorite love poem. Maybe corny, but it works!
7. We have a computer in our kitchen, and I love to use the screensaver function to surprise my wife with fun and loving things (especially if I’m in trouble from something!!). Try this by placing a big heart shape on the screen, perhaps with an image of the two of you together (wedding photo?). It’s a winner every time.
8. Building on that idea, change her screensaver or background photo on her smartphone to show an old, nostalgic photo of the two of you. (Be sure you have a way to get her previous image on there, though, or you’ll have a problem).
9. Attribute Dependency is a great pattern seen in the majority of innovative products and services. As one thing changes, another thing changes. Here’s how to use it. Create a special smartphone playlist of all love songs. Put it in her library (when she’s not looking). Show it to her after she gets out of the shower where you placed the big shaving cream heart shape. Play it for her. You’re gonna have a good day!
10. Perhaps because I use dry erase markers so often in my work (teaching, speaking, facilitating), that I just love them. You can use them to write on lots of surfaces, and they can be erased just like on a white board. So take a (red) marker, and place loving messages all around the house on glass surfaces – bathroom mirrors, microwave winder, car window – you get the idea.
Have fun and enjoy the day!

The Three Faces of Attribute Dependency

Published date: October 26, 2015 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: attribute dependency,creativity method,inside the box,SIT,systematic creativityxac

When using the Attribute Dependency technique, you’ll reach a point in the function follows form process where it’s time to make adaptations to your concept. That’s where you try to improve the concept and put more definition around it.
One way to make adaptations with Attribute Dependency is to change the type of dependency. There are three ways to do it: passive, active and automatic. Think of these as what has to happen within the product or service for the dependency to take place. Let’s look at each type.
Passive dependencies, just as the name implies, are passive. Nothing has to happen for the dependency to take place. There doesn’t need to be an intervening element to cause the dependency.
Look around and you will see that many products and services are examples of passive dependency. Here is a simple example of mixing bowls that come in different sizes.
Now you may ask, “Is this really an example of the attribute dependency pattern?” It certainly is. As one thing changes another thing changes. In this case, as the needs of the user change, the size of the bowl changes. It’s a passive dependency, though, because the bowls simply exist in various sizes and shapes. In fact, any product that comes in different sizes such as clothing, hardware items, even homes are examples of passive attribute dependency.
But some dependencies require an active, intervening element to cause them to occur. A very simple example is Happy Hour, when the price of drinks in a bar is reduced. But for this to happen, somebody has to do something. That active element, of course, is the bartender. At the appointed happy hour, let’s say 5 o’clock, the bartender simply lowers the price of the drinks presumably for an hour. Then again at 6 o’clock, the bartender raises those prices back to their normal level. Because of the active intervention, we call this an active dependency.
And finally, we have automatic dependencies. These are unique because they happen, as the name implies, automatically. The product or service is designed so that as one thing changes, the product automatically changes by itself without some intervening third-party element to make that change.
Transition sunglasses are one of the best examples of an automatic dependency. As the brightness of the light changes, the lens automatically darkens in response to that change.
Products that have this type of dependency seem almost smart. They know when it’s appropriate to change in response to some other variable, either an internal or external. The consumer doesn’t have to do anything because the product does it all by itself.
How do you know which type of dependency to use? It depends on a lot of factors such as how much convenience you want to deliver to the customer. Is it technically feasible to create a particular dependency? For example, your engineers might be able to make a mixing bowl that automatically expands as you put more things in it. But that also adds a lot of cost and complexity. It’s probably a lot easier for the customer just to grab the right size bowl to make a cake.
It also depends on how much control you may need in a situation. Do you want the customer or another person making the change? Look back at the happy hour example. You could create a cash register that automatically adjusts the price of drinks based on the time of day. The bartender wouldn’t have to think about. You would have complete control over the prices throughout the day.
Passive, active, and automatic. That’s three ways to give your customers very cool products with the Attribute Dependency technique.

Structural Fixedness: A Barrier to Creativity

Published date: October 19, 2015 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: division technique,fixedness,inside the box,SIT,structural,systematic creativity

Imagine you’re driving down the highway, and you notice a flag waving in the distance. But something’s not right. The flag is upside down. You’d notice it right away because it’s not in its usual position that you have seen hundreds of times before.
We all have this tendency to notice things that are out of order. We have an innate sense of how things are structured, and it helps us make sense of the world around us. But this sense of structure is also a barrier to creativity. Here’s an example:
Take a look at this and tell me, which is the odd one out? Do you see it?
1) 17
2) 19
3) 13
If you’re like most people, you selected one of the three numbers you see here: 17, 19, or 13.
But I want you to step back from the problem and see it in a different light. Now, I want you to consider all the numbers on the page, including the ones on the left side – 1, 2 and 3.
Now, out of these six numbers, which one is the odd one out? You should have no difficulty seeing that the number 2 is the only even number on the page. It’s truly the odd one out.
But why do people have such a difficult time seeing the number 2 as part of the set of numbers? It’s because we all have another type of fixedness called structural fixedness. Like functional fixedness, it’s a cognitive bias. It blocks us from considering other structures than what we’re used to.
Look back at our list of numbers. We’re so used to seeing a list with numbers and parenthesis that we treat the numbers behind the parenthesis differently. We have this structure so fixed in our mind, we don’t consider other configurations.
Structural fixedness makes it hard to imagine different configurations of a product or service that could deliver new benefits to the marketplace. This type of fixedness is a big concern with services and processes, because they tend to happen in a fixed sequence, one step after another. Without a way to break fixedness, we’re prevented from seeing new creative options.
The good news is that you can break structural fixedness just like you do functional fixedness. You do it with one of the five techniques of Systematic Inventive Thinking.
One in particular, the Division Technique, is your tool of choice.

Check out all of my courses.

Innovation Sighting: The Task Unification Technique for Young and Old

Published date: September 28, 2015 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: closed world,innovation method,inside the box,SIT,systematic creativity,task unification

The Task Unification Technique is great because it generates novel ideas that tend to be novel and resourceful. It’s one of five techniques in the SIT Innovation Method.
Task Unification is defined as: assigning an additional task to an existing resource. That resource should be in the immediate vicinity of the problem, or what we call The Closed World. In essence, it’s taking something that is already around you and giving an additional job.
Here are two great examples, one about a very young person and the other about a new and nifty device for old people. I love both of them:

To get the most out of the Task Unification technique, you follow five basic steps:
1. List all of the components, both internal and external, that are part of the Closed World of the product, service, or process.
2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task, using one of three methods:

Choose an external component and use it to perform a task that the product accomplishes already
Choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra
Choose an internal component and make it perform the function of an external component, effectively “stealing” the external component’s function

Innovation Sighting: Adjustable Airline Seats

Published date: August 17, 2015 в 3:00 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: adjustable seats,attribute dependency,inside the box,SIT,systematic creativity

Here’s a nice example of the Attribute Dependency Technique, one of five in the innovation method called Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT). It’s a great tool to make products and services that are “smart.” They adjust and learn, then adapt their performance to suit the needs of the user. Attribute Dependency accounts for the majority of innovative products and services, according to research conducted by my co-author, Dr. Jacob Goldenberg.
From Fox News:

The airline legroom wars may finally be coming to an end.
Engineering firm B/E Aerospace has filed a patent for a “legroom adjustable” seat design that allows flight attendants to move a seat forward or back depending on the size of a passenger, reports the Telegraph.
The seats, which all have moveable wheels, sit on rail tracks lining the aircraft floor. If a taller man or woman is seated in front of a child, for example, the cabin crew will have the ability to move an occupant’s seat several inches back via smartphone or tablet, allowing for extra legroom.
“While passengers come in many sizes, children, adolescents, adults, men, women and with large height differentials within these categories, seat spacing in the main cabin of passenger aircraft is generally uniform except at exit rows,” the designers stated in their patent application, submitted in November.
“The one size fits all seating arrangement can cause discomfort for tall passengers, while a child or relatively small adult may be seated in an identical seat at the seat pitch, with more than ample leg room and in relative comfort.”
The legroom adjustable seat, however, leaves the final spatial arrangement to the discretion of crewmembers, not individual passengers.
“Even a relatively small incremental increase in seat spacing for the tall passengers can provide additional comfort with no loss of comfort to the much smaller passengers seated in front of the tall passengers,” B/E Aerospace said.

To get the most out of the Attribute Dependency Technique, follow these steps:
1. List internal/external variables.
2. Pair variables (using a 2 x 2 matrix)

Internal/internal
Internal/external

3. Create (or break) a dependency between the variables.
4. Visualize the resulting virtual product.
5. Identify potential user needs.
6. Modify the product to improve it.

Master the Method: Innovation Suite #18

Published date: August 11, 2015 в 3:13 am

Written by: boydadmin

Category: Uncategorized

Tags: corporate innovation,creativity method,innovation suite,inside the box,SIT

I invite you to join the upcoming Innovation Suite in San Francisco, November 16-18, 2015.
Innovation Suite brings together executives from around the world to share their business innovation experiences and to learn how to embed a culture of innovation within their teams and organizations.
This time around, the event will have two specialized tracks: one for Innovation Users, and another for Innovation Architects. In the Innovation User track, participants will learn how to develop an innovative mindset and learn practical tools for approaching routine work differently.
In the Innovation Architect track, participants will learn how to set up the right structure, gather the right people, and develop the right processes and mechanisms in order to embed innovation in their team, department or whole organization.
Register before August 20 to receive a 10% discount Please contact SIT LLC with any questions.

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