Problem finding

Innovation experts like Roy Luebke, Jorge Barba and Gijs van Wulfen strongly advise to always “start with a problem”. Structuring a successful innovation requires a lot of energy and time from all parties involved. Why should a company attempt innovation if there is no problem?

 

Learn to look at problems first!  In the words of Stefan Lindegaard: "An understanding that failures are learning opportunities; and a willingness to reward those efforts and that way of learning.

 

Failure is a way of life for companies that pursue innovation seriously, and a leader’s response has a huge effect on company culture and, therefore, on future projects. Celebrate failure and learn from it!"

 

Below you will find articles from innovation experts and a collection of useful tools and techniques on problem finding.

KarinLackner Sunday, July 6, 2014 - 11:54

Increasingly innovation experts recommend that businesses look for problems first. Here we would like to present one interesting article by Gujs van Wulfen: "One of the main reasons innovation is difficult, is because your potential users need to change their behavior. They will have to find, buy and use your innovation. And why should they? That’s the question! You will have to give them a strong reason why! This applies both to consumers and B2B markets."

KarinLackner Sunday, July 6, 2014 - 10:00

Soren Kaplan, author of the book "Leapfrogging" and innovation consultant working with global firms such as Red Bull, Disney, NBC Universal or Philips, stresses one important fact we would like to share with you: "When it comes to innovation, we know that open-mindedness, deferring judgment, including diverse inputs from diverse people, and fostering collaboration inside and outside the organization are all success factors when going for big ideas that will make a big difference."

christof Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 17:24

Things look different when you change perspective. When you're stuck on a problem, it often helps to look at it from another perspective. This can be all that you need to do to come up with a great solution. However, it is sometimes difficult to think about what these perspectives might be.

christof Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 16:50

The aim of this technique is to break a problem down to its constituent parts so that a solution can be planned for each of the problem’s elements. At a first glance the method might seem too simple. We recommend to try it.......Find the description of the Drill Down Technique method in this article.

christof Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - 16:47

Dynamic Facilitation is not directly a problem finding method. Rather, it supports the discussion of a problem and it looks for problems that are connected with the original problem. Dynamic Facilitation is particularly suitable for issues such as the definition of the problem, the solutions tabled and the objections to these solutions that are expressed by participants in the process.

KarinLackner Sunday, June 8, 2014 - 13:18

This method helps to initiate an innovation process. It combines the resource-based view (RBV) and the market/environment-based view (MBV) to find new fields for innovations. With this method a search-box is created that leads to potential changes or new products for a company.

KarinLackner Thursday, June 5, 2014 - 12:32

This tool is designed to collect and prioritise problems. The procedure facilitates the common goal finding and innovation process. The idea of this method is to look for the goals which are behind problems and situations that are not satisfactory. Targeting the goals automatically leads to change and innovation processes.