BY DREW BOYD

& JACOB GOLDBERG

Summarized by Dan Pacheco

• 17 years at Johnson

& Johnson in

marketing, mergers

and acquisitions.

• Now at University of

Cincinnati teaching a

Master of Science in

Marketing Program.

This is the opposite of Christensen’s

Innovator’s Dilemma.

Premise: the most innovative products and

services use a pattern that anyone – or any

company -- can learn to be more innovative.

SIT: Systematic Inventive Thinking.

“You have to think outside the box.”

Start from a problem, then find a solution.

Brainstorm ideas that are intentionally out

in left field. “There’s no such thing as a

bad idea.”

Boyd skewers them all.

Rather than starting with a problem and

finding a solution, try going the other way.

Start with a conceptual solution, then work

back to find out which problem it solves.

1992: psychologist Ronald Finke

discovered that most people are better at

starting with a solution.

Connect all nine dots using just four straight

lines without lifting pencil from page.

Solution requires drawing outside the box.

In 1970s, this psychologist learned that

only 20 percent of test subjects thought of

this solution.

The rest felt confined to the imaginary

space of the square formed by the dots.

“You have to think outside the box”

became a cultural phrase.

Another test revealed the “trick” to test

subjects in advance. They knew they could

draw outside the box.

Only 25 percent were able to solve it – a

mere 5 percent more than in the original

test.

Boyd: it’s a myth that you must think

“outside the box” because most solutions

are staring you right in the face.

We tend to be most surprised at ideas that

are “right under our noses.”

The most surprising ideas (“Gee, I never

would have thought of that!”) are right

nearby.

Example: playing video in a Flash player

installed on every computer. This is how

YouTube started. Simple but powerful.

This is our tendency to believe that objects

or systems can be made only as they have

traditionally been made.

We perceive them as whole units and

expect them to retain the same familiar

structure.

Rather than seeing benefits of new

configuration, we try to “fix” them to be

how they “ought to be.”

Imagine the head of a flashlight falls off.

It looks broken – but how else could you use it?

Maybe the flashlight head could be stuck to a wall to work as a spotlight that’s remotely controlled.

Or maybe it could become a headlamp.

1. Subtraction

2. Task Unification

3. Multiplication

4. Division

5. Attribute Dependency

1) Reporting a breaking news story

2) Promoting a product or service

3) Charging for content

Innovative products tend to have

something removed that was previously

thought to be essential.

Often, the teams working on a product

react negatively to the suggestion of

removing something.

For example, removing a screen from a

heart rate monitor.

Sony’s Walkman was a “tape recorder”

without a record function. Sony’s CEO

thought it made no sense, but it resulted in

the first breakout portable music player.

Innovative products tend to have certain

tasks brought together and unified.

Usually these components were previously

thought to be unrelated.

Example: Crowdsourcing brings people

together to work on a large problem,

sometimes without realizing it.

When you fill out these forms, you’re

helping computers digitize books.

Innovative products often have one

component copied or changed in some

way that seems unnecessary at first.

Example: a double-flash in cameras

reduces likelihood of red-eye.

Double sided tape

multiplies the side.

Seemed

unintuitive at first,

but it has lots of

new uses.

Better than rolling

single-sided tape

back on itself.

Innovative products have a compoenent

divided out of the product, then put back in

a different way.

Example: taking a refrigerator drawer out

of the fridge and in a cabinet makes a

cooling drawer.

You used to have to check in at the airport and check bags at the same time.

Now, you can check in from home and drop off your bags at a kiosk, or carry them on.

Innovative products have two attributes

correlated with each other so that as one

changes, the other changes.

Example: sunglasses that get darker as

outside light gets lighter.

Attribute dependency is common in nature.

Chameleon’s color is dependent on other

colors around it.

Being mimicked by products, such as

sunglasses that change tint and coffee cup

lids that change color based on

temperature.

Claims this is responsible for 1/3 of all

product innovations.