How to foster creative ideation process
of innovative products & services?
Pr. Jérémy Legardeur
ESTIA
Biarritz/Bidart
France
Location
In the heart of the Basque country:
the ESTIA Campus
An engineering school
A business incubator and an enterprise zone
A research laboratory
A companies’ « foundation »
How to foster
creative
ideation process of
Research
Methodology
innovative products & services?
Based on Action-Research approach [Lewin 1951] within companies
Transform reality and elicit new knowledge concerning these
transformations taking into account:
Human & social phenomena, non determinist, singularities…
=> complexity of these sociotechnical processes of innovation
A multidisciplinary approach:
– Creativity tools & methods, Engineering approaches…
– « Systemic » & « Complexity » [de Rosnay 1975], [Le Moigne 1977],
[Checkland 1981], [Morin 1990]…
– Sociology of innovation
• [Bucciarelli 1988], [Callon et Latour 1985], [Rogers 1986], [Alter 1990]…
– Management of innovation
• [Moisdon, Hatchuel, Weil], [Leavitt] [Cooper]…
Some examples of industrial fieldworks
A double output:
– Innovation as a result: the new product or service on the market
– Innovation as a process: creativity, maturation of ideas,
innovative project management…
=>
New knowledge about the understanding of the management
of the creative process within companies
Creativity and Sustainable innovation
Discovering matrix
C-K
6 hat
storytelling
Brainstorming - Brainwash
TRIZ
9 screens
ASIT
ecoASIT
Ideas generation, creative thinking, eco-creativity
Ideas development
 Experimentations during creative workshops for
companies
 Ideas Lifecycle Management
 Model of hybridization of creativity tools and
methods
 Development of eco-creative tool
 Collaborative software tool
Crowdsourcing and open
innovation
Source: The Daily Telegraph
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words & language
present & past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/
pattern perception
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Brainstorming (A. Osborn)
• Quantity => Quality
• First time: generation of ideas
– no judgment of the ideas of myself and of the others
– no hierarchy (only in theory!)
• Second time: evaluation and selection
• The results depend on the facilitator & the group
The 6 hats (E. De Bono)
Training
By drawing 4 connected lines, try to go over
all the dots
Training
By drawing 4 connected lines, try to go over
all the dots
The 9 screens from TRIZ (G. Altshuller)
Systemic view
Temporal view
Previous
Macro Systems
Current Macro
Systems
Future Macro
Systems
Previous
System
Current
System
Future
System
Previous
Sub-Systems
Current
Sub-Systems
Future
Sub-Systems
Training
How to divide this form in 2 identical parts?
Training
• Divisez
la forme
2 parties parts?
How
to divide
thissuivante
form in en
2 identical
égales
Training
How to divide this form in 3 identical parts?
Training
How to divide this form in 3 identical parts?
Training
How to divide this form in 4 identical parts?
Training
How to divide this form in 4 identical parts?
Training
How to divide this form in 5 identical parts?
Training
How to divide this form in 5 identical parts?
Morphological analysis (F. Zwicky)
crayon
pen
brush
aerosol
stylet
chalk
Support
paper
paper
canvas
wall
screen
granit
Material
bois
Plastic
horsehair
nozzle
plastic
chalk
Ink
graphit
acrylic
paint
paint
digital
chalk
Users
children
adult
artist
tagger
designer
teacher
Line
thin
large
trace
spray
modular
large
Color
unicolor
unicolor
multicolor
unicolor
digital
unicolor
Discovering matrix (A. Moles)
Domain A
Domain B
Item A1
Item A2
Item A3
Item…
Item B1
Item B2
Ideas ?
Item B3
Item…
Item: product, service, function, process, technology, parameter, users…
Training
Moving only 2 matches to set the box
outside of the shovel
Training
Moving only 2 matches to set the box
outside of the shovel
SCAMMPERR (A. Osborn & B. Elberne)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
S: Substitute
C: Combine
A: Adapt
M: Modify
M: Magnify/Minify
P: Put
E: Eliminate
R: Reverse
R: Rearrange
Training
By moving only 1 match, make a square
Training
By moving only 1 match, make a square
Training
By moving only 1 match, make a square
= 2²
TRIZ (Altshuller)
2
1
3
TRIZ
Standard
Problem
Problem
Standard
Solution
Specific
Problem
Specific
Solution
?
4
ASIT (R. Horowitz)
• ASIT (Advanced Systematic Inventive Thinking) adapted from
TRIZ
• Problem solving method
• ASIT: 2 conditions and 5 tools based on the used of sentences
that can be used during a brainstorming session
The C-K Theory (Hatchuel and Weil)
Training (last)
What is the result of: « 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9 »?
The possible methods:
- n(n+1)/2 with n=9
- Mental calcul or calculator
- Add the extremum (1+9, 2+8…)
- Know the result
- Read the result at the bottom of the page!
Result is not creative, but the methods to obtain it
could be more or less complex.
The aim of a good creative method is to do the
opposite!
The result is 45
Brainstorming
C-K
Discovering Matrix
ASIT
6 Hat
9 Screens
Storytelling
TRIZ
Brainwashing
Morphological Matrix
SCAMMPERR
EcoASIT
The limit of creative session
Starting point
« Good
Ideas »
« Bad
Ideas »
Creative session
The limit of creative session
Originality
Incremental
Individual
=> Creative conceptual ideas
=> Incremental ideas
Group
acceptance
Toward ILM (Ideas Lifecycle Management)
ILM =Generation + Maturation of ideas
Point de départ
Ideas not
developped
Divergence
Creative session
Emergence
How to support this
exploration, classification
and reuse of ideas?
New propositions of Products & Services
Bad
Ideas
A simplified example of the PST model
P
S
« Why? »
« For whom? »
« When?»
« Where?»
…
T
« A system (product/service) for what? »
« A system composed of what? »
A light and small system to bring water
during a ski/snowboard session
without
« How? »
« Which technology? »
« Which means or
processes? »
Fill a tank with
water
In mountain
hard bottle Soft bottle
ski
Soft tank
by using the snow
by…
In station
?
and melt it
Freeride
Knowledge on the
market, usage…
Material Process
By energy supplying
with a filter
?
Filter technology?
Solar Mechanical Chemical
Knowledge on the enthalpy of
the change phase of the snow
General recommendations
Do not believe in the “myth of the nugget’s idea” (bad interpretation of
success stories) during creative sessions!
It is not possible to evaluate the robustness and the value of the
proposed ideas during creative sessions
The main objective of the creative sessions is to foster the variety of the
proposed ideas and identified existing and lacking knowledge
The maturation of ideas must be done by the review of the “cloud of
ideas” in a “classified three” in order to elicit a roadmap of exploration of
the proposed concepts
The creative sessions are only the beginning of the long adventure of
innovation!
Exam
Take a sheet of paper,
Put your name and surname,
In 30 seconds,
you have to design, to draw, to prototype and to test
a flying object that must reach the target
Fixation effect
The education, the organisation,
the society…
The setting of the problem, the
need, the objective…
The location
What we learned from this (scientific and
robust) experimentation?
•
•
•
•
•
A worldwide competition…
– Against the time, the competitors…
– Work in urgency and stress, with unplanned events…
… that imply to develop innovative (or routine) products…
– Fuzzy creativity vs mental block
– Complex product vs Simple solution
…. according to the market, the usage, the real need…
– A good understanding of the customers needs and theirs requirements
… and taking into account of the competitors and stakeholders…
– Market advantage and positions
… in a more and more sustainable development perspective
– Eco-design (green and friendly materials, end of life, re-use…)
– Ethical and Societal considerations
– and traçability !!
What we learned really?