Day 1: Introductory Concepts and Creativity Enhancement Techniques
Introduction and Course Overview. Defining creativity. Creativity Stages. Taylor’s hierarchy of creativity. Creativity obstacles, including fear of the unknown, fear of failure, reluctance to exert influence, frustration avoidance, resource myopia, participation reluctance, over-certainty, and structured thinking patterns.
Brainstorming and Painstorming. Brainstorming approaches. Brainstorming rules. Identifying areas of customer dissatisfaction. Sources of customer product satisfaction information. Examples. Group exercise.
Synectics. Disciplined idea harvesting. Documenting “I wish” comments. Including customer participation. Funneling ideas into manageable options. Examples. Group exercise.
Functional Decomposition. Identifying functional requirements. Inputs and outputs. Flowcharting. Identify functional interactions and conflicts. Quality Function Deployment. Making trades. Examples. Group exercise.
Biomimicry. Definitions. Seeking solutions by emulating nature. Finding appropriate emulation targets. Reducing cost and waste. Examples. Group exercise.
Axiomatic Design. The independence and information axioms. Matrix methods. Transforming customer needs into products. Examples. Group exercise.
Ethnography. Definitions and approach explanation. Gathering information by examining cultures. Understanding design impacts on individuals and cultures. Understanding the consumer experience. Examples.Group exercise.
TRIZ. TRIZ background and development history. The theory of inventive problem solving. Using the TRIZ matrix and the 40 design solutions. Analogical thinking. Examples. Group exercise.
Lateral Benchmarking. Finding best practices. Looking outside your industry for best practices. Strategies for identifying lateral industries. Not knowing what can’t be done. Examples. Group exercise.
Day 2: Creativity Stimulation Techniques and Application (continued)
Quality Function Deployment. The house of quality. Identifying, requirements, needs and wants. Prerequisites. The what’s, the how’s, and the how much’es. Benchmarking. The graphical approach. Quantification. Using Excel. Examples. Group exercise.
Kano Model. Product development and customer satisfaction. The attractive, one-dimensional, must-be, indifferent, and reverse categories. Relationship to quality function deployment. Examples. Group exercise.
Trimming. Identifying functions, developing approaches for alternative assignment, recipient functional assignment, function elimination, redesigning for improved functionality, and identifying new markets as a result of improved functionality. Examples. Group exercise.
Nine Windows. The nine windows grid. Considering innovation from the perspectives of time (past, current, future) and space (super-system, system, sub-system). Examples. Group exercise.
De Bono’s Six Hats. The Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono. Information, emotions, bad points judgment, good points judgment, creativity, and meta-thinking. Overcoming our natural tendencies toward black hat thinking. Examples. Group exercise.
De Bono’s Concept Fans. Discovering alternative solutions. Graphical presentations. Taking steps back to gain a broader perspective. Similarities to mind mapping. Examples. Group exercise.
Problem Focus. Expressing the right problem. Problem statement and restatement. 5 Why’s. Present state – future state discussion. Checklists. Trigger words. Situation analysis. Examples. Group exercise.
Bisociation. Blending elements from two fields previously considered unrelated. The comparison, abstraction, categorization, analogies, and metaphors matrix. Concept blending theories. Examples. Group exercise.
Course Wrap-Up. Course review. Questions and answers. Plans for future actions. Course critique.
