The Five-Step Creative Process
with Stefan Mumaw
Five-Step Creative Process
The five-step creative process looks like this: objective finding, data gathering, problem design, ideation, and selection. In our rush to get to the
ideation stage, we often compress or even eliminate the first three steps of this process. While this sacrifice may seem necessary in the name of
corporate efficiency, each step is important to developing innovative solutions. This is the complete creative process, first summarized by BBDO
co-founder Alex Osborn and Creative Education Foundation president Sidney Parnes. The formal creative strategy they developed was a six-step
process, but we are going to forgo their last step, which was to develop a plan for action, and leave that to you.
Objective
Finding
Data
Gathering
Problem
Design
Stay focused on
the ideal state you
want to create,
rather than just
the solution to the
problem.
The search for
insight starts with
the exercise of data
collection and ends
with the exercise of
deciding which data
is vital, interesting,
and insightful.
After identifying
objectives and
gathering data,
determine whether
the original problem
is still the right
problem to solve.
Start by finishing the following
question regarding your problem:
“Wouldn’t it be great if...?”
This is an aspirational statement,
something that forces you to imagine
the outcome of your solution.
Without insight, novelty in our
solutions is nearly impossible.
And without gathering the data
that informs that insight, we’re
just throwing darts at the problem,
hoping to hit on something unique.
So the first hurdle isn’t deciding
what data to gather, it’s deciding to
gather data at all.
The Five-Step Creative Process with Stefan Mumaw
Ideation
Selection
Don’t solve the
problem during
ideation; generate
as many possibilities
as possible and
leave the judgement
of those possibilities
for the next stage.
Be very specific
about what
constitutes a
solution to your
problem and
be ruthless in
determining which
ideas meet those
criteria.
Problem design starts with
evaluating the data you have
gathered and designing the problem
with your objective in mind. This may
lead to a new problem or an edited
version of the current problem,
or it may validate the problem
you began with.
To generate possibilities, you can use
a connection exercise like idea webs,
or engage in an input exercise to list
descriptive words or phrases about
the subject or audience. Or you could
even use the structure of story to
develop recognizable characteristics
within the problem you are solving.
Before selecting a direction
to pursue, spend a little time
strengthening or improving the
ideas you have identified as your
best possibilities. That may mean
combining some of the ideas
into one or removing parts of the
ideas that keep them from being
actionable. Then apply your solution
criteria to what remains.
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