In this section we provide you with useful links to the websites of the American and European Patent Offices and other patent databases for a general overview.
The Five Whys and the Drill Down Technique are two methods to identify and understand the root causes of problems that hold up a growing business. Both have the advantage of being simple and easy to use. The idea is to use constant questioning to move beyond a surface problem to identify the root causes of an issue.
SWOT-analysis is a tool where you can find out your own Strengths and Weaknesses as well as looking for Opportunities and Threats you face now or will face in the future. It is a simple method but nevertheless quite powerful to help you understand your business and how to act in the future.
This creative technique is used mainly for product improvement or modification. It involves applying a series of words, verbs, adjectives or phrases contained in checklists or tables to an existing product or service or its attributes
This is one of the best known and most used in the business world group based creativity process for problem solving. It is a method of getting a large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time. It can be used for generating a large number of ideas or solutions for well-defined strategic or operational problems, such as for engineering design processes. It forms also a basic framework or constitutes the initial phase for the implementation of many other groups based on creative techniques.