S-72.3510 Product Development of Telecommunication Systems

An Overview to Innovation Techniques

Human Mind and Creativity*

filterbank

conceptextraction

ideagenerator

dreams

personality

New concepts are used to understand things different way

New information understood by usingnew concepts

ways to understandand act

society &genotype

*T. Korhonen, A. Ainamo: Handbook of Product and Service Development in Communication and Information Technology, Kluwer Academic Press, 2003

Process of Creativity

accessing ideagenerator

conceptformation realization

filteringideas

convergentdivergent

innovative logical

Cycle of Creativity

passion

fear

Pendulum of creativity

'Objective'observations:

seeing &knowing

security, values

individual social

Phase of clarity & knowledge

Phase of new concepts &new problems

Phase of fuzziness & ambiguity

Cycle of Creativity for High-quality Outputs

divergence,inspiration, way of arts

convergence,rationality, way of science

quality references

quality control

source references

Process of creativity is nonlinear!groupwork

own wayof thinking

social team and individual input

books, journals, web

cultural evolutiongenerated information

New, applicable concepts and inventions

disintegration

integration

divergence, disassembly,inspiration, way of arts

convergence,synthesisrationality, way of science

Brainstorming

• Used especially to introduce you to problem framework - Don’t discuss about the (best) solutions too early!

• Method:• Collect problems to Post-It notes, or use a

program (FreeMind)• Group/associate problems• Collect more data for each problem• Grade problems

• Group members: Session leader, Secretary, Tool-assistant, Customer representative, Social facilitator, Technical facilitator, other Group members

Group Members• Session leader:

– guide and facilitate – not to interfere with own opinions – track time – encourage the participants

• Secretary: – documentation – assist to track the session flow

• Tool-assistant: – aware of ideation tools – tools include

• computer programs • independent methods (as Fish bones diagram,

SWOT-analysis …)

Group Members (cont.)Customer representative (Check Point -

phase): -Practical perspectives of the brainstorming

objectives -Interferes only after substantial amount of

ideas have been mapped and there seems to be not many new ideas appearing

- Responsible to carry in customer's objectives initial opinions of company's executives practical constrains as - money - time - personnel resources

Group Members (cont.)

• Social facilitator: – has formed himself a framework of the brainstorming

themes – should not decide what the solution is, or even, what

the problem is – He is aware of the laws of group dynamics and

human personality – Well prepared to boost group creativity based on this

framework

Group Members (cont.)

Technical facilitator: technology related matters as

product development tools production technology general commercial aspects

Group members: open attitude communication skills able to visualize their ideas fluent oral presentation wide range of disciplines and cultures

Double Team*

1. Present the problem-framework2. Innovate solutions in the teams of two

- a pair selects five ideas to present3. Pairs explain their ideas shortly4. Ideas are grouped into logical categories5. Pairs innovate more ideas into categories

- Pair selects two ideas they present6. Pairs explain their ideas 7. Grading of each idea with scores 1-38. Select the best ideas so far9. Discussion10. Select the best idea(s) after discussions

*Recommended for generation of long list of solutions

555

5

Problemframework

Grouping

222

2

Grading

Discussion

Mind Mapping

new product

production

estimates

buying

planning

transportation

logisticsbusinesspartners

feedback

info

education

marketing

stocking

transportation

B2B B2C

customerselection

sales promotion

Fish Bones

Five Whys (& Hows!)

Problem: A machine does not work!

Why: Fuse blown!How: Voltage spike? something got jammed? overload? etcWhy: Why overload?How: Component malfunctioned! high resistance! no maintenance! etcWhy: Why there was no maintenance?How: Pump malfunctioned! a spare part was old a spare part was wrong! etcWhy: Why did the pump malfunctioned?How: Pump has overheated! electricity problems? etc.Why: Why did the pump overheated?How: Cooler filter was jammed!

So, We replace the filter and check in regularly …. Why and how this can be reassuredin the future ….?

Ask ”WHY-HOW” 5 times (at least):

Getting More out of Brainstorming

*Axon 2002 - program: http://web.singnet.com.sg/ ~axon2000/index.htm

facts: figures, information needs and gaps

intuition: feelings and emotions

logical negative:judgment and caution

logical positive:why something works

creativity: alternatives, proposals, what is interesting, provocations and changes

meta-cognition:creativity process control

• Method of Six Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono) or Six Eyes* (Rodney King) can be used to get Brainstorming to work better.

• Idea: group members are assigned hats:

SWOT Analysis• SWOT is applicable for sorting unorganized knowledge

bases and analyzing current status• Successful SWOT yields structured mapping of the

problem at hand• For instance in product analysis

– identify strength and weaknesses of the product– search through possibilities and threats (for instance

for product launch)• Realization: List all the relevant properties and sort

them into SWOT boxes!

Strength WeaknessWeakness

OpportunityOpportunity ThreatsThreats

inside

outside

A case of SWOT: WAP-based Knowledge Base

Service*Strengths

Expandable, flexible, easy to use, dynamic, easy to personalize,

bypassing of telephone exchange, more

effective graphics, utilization of location information

Strengths Expandable, flexible, easy to use, dynamic, easy to personalize,

bypassing of telephone exchange, more

effective graphics, utilization of location information

WeaknessesNeed for WAP terminal

managing, search routines require

Dedication

WeaknessesNeed for WAP terminal

managing, search routines require

Dedication

OpportunitiesIf first at the market may

be a killer-kind app.Due to usage of immediate

location info by GPS or GSM location technology

OpportunitiesIf first at the market may

be a killer-kind app.Due to usage of immediate

location info by GPS or GSM location technology

ThreatsNo popularity,

one applies terminal specificcatalogs, competitive

techniques may hit markets

ThreatsNo popularity,

one applies terminal specificcatalogs, competitive

techniques may hit markets

*S-72.124 spring ‘99

Force Field Analysis• FFA is a method to analyze factors for and against an act• Objective: To create an unified description of the factors

forming the problem. This is used to alter the process state to the wanted direction!

• Benefits– Describes all the relevant forces– Allows to plan

• contra strategies for negative forces• supporting strategies for positive forces

• The FFA method: Identify, Sort and Grade the different forces and illustrate the problem by a diagram including the forces!

• The first result of this method describes the current state• Alteration of forces can change the current state to the

objective state!

Force Field Analysis: Example