Innovation in Practice

Simulating Innovation

People can improve their innovation skills by mentally simulating the use of innovation tools.  Chip and Dan Heath in their book, Made to Stick, talk of the importance of mental simulation with problem solving as well as skill-building. 

"A review of thirty five studies featuring 3,214 participants showed that mental practice alone - sitting quietly, without moving, and picturing yourself performing a task successfully from start to finish - improves performance significantly.  The result were borne out over a large number of tasks.  Overall, mental practice alone produced about two thirds of the benefits of actual physical practice."

Mental simulation is the imitative mental representation of some event or series of events.  It is our brain conjuring up scenarios and imagining how they will play out.  We do it all the time.  We mentally simulate driving to the grocery store, talking with our boss, or getting a back rub.  It prepares and sharpens us for things that lie ahead.  Mental simulation can also be used to practice activities that you do or want to learn.

Here is how I use mental simulation to strengthen my innovation skills with the S.I.T. method:

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification with Gifts

Task Unification is a hard working innovation tool.  Task Unification assigns an additional task to an existing resource or component of the product or service.  Here is a clever example from Springwise. It is a service  called "Itizen."  It allows you to physically tag a special item such as a gift or heirloom that links to a website where the collective history of that gift or heirloom is recorded and kept forever. 

For example, suppose your grandfather gives you an antique hammer that's been passed down through generations.  It was used for many significant projects, and your grandfather gives you a written history about it.  You use the hammer through your lifetime, recording special stories about it.  Then you give it to your son.  Imagine how your son might use that hammer through time.  He records his experience with the hammer so he can pass it to the next generation with the complete historical record.  The value of our worldly possessions increases as the collective history is recorded. The item has been given the additional "job" of telling its story (with a little help from Itizen).

Here is how it works:

Innovation Sighting: Cannes Lions 2010

Cannes Lions, the International Advertising Festival, is the world's only truly global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry.  It celebrates advertising winners each year in a variety of categories.  The 57th festival was held last week.

The Young Lions Film Competition is held the same week.  Two creatives have 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a 30-second commercial. At the beginning of the week, the teams receive a brief from a charity chosen by the Festival. Forty-eight hours later, the teams' work is judged by the Film Lions jury.  Here is a winning commercial from this year's Young Lions Film Competition:

This commercial is an example of the Unification tool, one of the eight advertising tools described by Dr. Jacob Goldenberg and his colleagues in their new book, Cracking the Ad Code.  The tool works by making new use of existing resources.  There are two unification approaches: use components of the medium, or recruit a new medium in the environment.  In this example, a water goblet has been given the additional "job" of "sounding the alarm" about the lack of access to water.  Commercials using this tool tend to be cost effective, memorable, and most importantly, creative.

Here are all eight of the advertising tools.

1. Unification
2. Activation
3. Metaphor
4. Subtraction
5. Extreme Consequence
6. Absurd Alternative
7. Inversion
8. Extreme Effort

If you had only 48 hours to innovate an award-winning commercial in Cannes, these tools would be the best  place to start!

Innovation Sighting: Double Down - Two Innovation Templates in One Bite

Here is an example of two innovation templates in one product.  The Double Down sandwich from KFC removes the traditional bread slice (demonstrating the template, Subtraction), and it assigns the additional job of "sandwiching"  to the two slices of fried chicken (demonstrating the template, Task Unification). 

What I like about this idea is that it shows the power of innovation templates to break fixedness.  Sandwiches have been around for a very long time, yet this idea transforms us to consider other components than bread for this critical role of "sandwiching" - bread slices holding one or more fillings between them.  The use of the Subtraction template in this example is obvious - remove the bread.  But then giving the additional role of holding the other components of the sandwich between two slices of chicken is quite novel. This pattern is called Task Unification.

How would you extend this idea?  Consider applying a third template such as Division. Take one of the components of this product and divide it one of three ways:  functional, physical, or preserving.  Look for additional consumer benefits, markets served, or new efficiencies.

Special thanks to my graduate student, Luke Kim, for sharing this example. 

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template on a Cell Phone

LG Electronics is about to announce their third annual Design the Future Competition.  Last year, more than 800 entries were submitted by consumers with their take on the future of mobile communications.  The winning entry is the focus of this month's Innovation Sighting.  From LG:

"LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) recently named Emily Albinski from Wading River, NY the winner of its 2nd Annual Design the Future Competition.  The idea competition challenged participants to create a concept to define the future of personal mobile communication.  First place winner Albinski, a professional full-time freelance designer, created the CC on the theme of connectivity. The winning concept of a modular phone, which could be used by LG in the future, includes a “core” phone that can be inserted into a touch screen or netbook shell depending on the user’s needs.  By design, the winning concept would allow users to connect in many different contexts and environments. Albinski, a science and technology enthusiast, refined and laid out her concept in just four days."

Her concept demonstrates the Division Template of the corporate innovation method, S.I.T..  Division works by listing the components of the product or service, then dividing out a component either physically, functionally, or by preserving the characteristics of the whole.  Emily "divided" out functionality of the traditional cell phone, then embedded it into different environments and platforms to create new innovations.

To make it even more interesting, it is useful sometimes to place the divided out function into less obvious environments.  For example, imagine the cell phone functionality is embedded into an alarm clock. A musical instrument.  An umbrella.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM thinking, imagine how this would work.  What problems would it solve?  What benefits could it deliver?  Who would want such a device?  For example, perhaps your umbrella is notified when it should be carried with you that day.

Congratulations to Emily and all the winners.  I am looking forward to the next round!

Innovation Sighting: Subtraction on CPG Products

Here are two CPG products from this week's Best New Product Awards.  I tried them at home and noticed a pattern.  That pattern suggests a different way to use the Subtraction Template of the innovation method, S.I.T..  The question is whether that pattern can be replicated on other products to create line extensions and new categories. 

The first product is the Bounce® Dryer Bar from Procter & Gamble.  The second is the Scrubbing Bubbles® Toilet Cleaning Gel from SC Johnson.  See if you can spot the pattern in each:

Did you see it?  Each product has had an important step subtracted in how the product is used.  The conventional way to use the Subtraction Template is to list the components of the product or service, then remove a component, usually an essential one.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM innovation, we take the hypothetical solution (The Virtual Product), and imagine problems that it solves.  These two products were created by listing the steps of how the product is used instead of the components.  The step: "consumer places product onto usage area" was subtracted.  In essence, the product has to "get" itself to the usage area or be installed in the usage area permanently so it can be used on demand. 

Let's see if we can replicate this idea with other CPG products.  Here are nine products and how a new product could evolve using this same pattern.

1. Deodorant:  Instead of applying deodorant with an applicator, the product now has to reside under the arms on its own.  How?  Perhaps it could be embedded into clothing or undergarments.  Perhaps it is woven into the armpits of undershirts.  After a number of uses and wash cycles, it is replaced with a new dosage.
2. Shaving Cream:  Instead of slathering on shaving cream out of a can, we remove that step and embed shaving cream into the handle of the shaver.  It dispenses as the shaver is used.
3. Lip Balm:  We remove the tube applicator of the lip balm and place the balm somewhere else so it can be called into service when needed.  The question is: where?  This is a tough one because there is no intervening element such as a shaver, toothbrush, or washing machine as with the other examples.  Perhaps it could be stuck to your lips like the tiny, thin teeth whitening strips.  When you press your lips together, you get a dose of lip balm.
4. Detergent:  Instead of pouring detergent from a bottle, the product is pre-loaded into a container within the washing machine.  The washer knows how much product to dispense based on how much laundry is placed inside. 
5. Mouthwash:  Here is another tricky one because there is no intervening element.  Here is how it might work.  Instead of pouring mouthwash out of a bottle into your mouth, we have the product dispensed to the back of the tongue (where bad breath starts).  From where?  Sinus cavity, a tooth area, lips, etc.  Applications onto the body are  tougher because there are "less forgiving" areas to pre-install product as with the two cleaning product examples.
6. Toothpaste:  Instead of squeezing toothpaste out of a tube, we pre-load it into the toothbrush.  It dispenses automatically.  This is the same idea as the shaving cream.
7. Eye Drops:  Instead of using an eyedropper to pour liquid into the eye, we place a thin coating on the eyelid.  When you squeeze your eye shut, the eyeball is moisturized.  This one is a stretch, but the concept could hold true with the right technology.  It would make it much more convenient than leaning your head back and taking aim with that little bottle.
8. Hair Spray:  Similar to the shaving cream and toothpaste examples, we pre-load hairspray into a specially-designed hairbrush that meters it out as needed. 
9. Floor Cleaner:  The cleaning solution is pre-loaded into the handle of the mop or somehow stuck to the floor where it can be accessed when needed.

Perhaps we will see some of these at the Best New Product Awards of 2011!

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification with the iPhone

The iPhone is an incredible platform for innovation.  As it becomes more popular, it invites even more innovation.  Many of the iPhone's functions demonstrate the Task Unification template of the corporate innovation method called S.I.T..  Task Unification is a pattern that assigns an additional job to an existing resource or component within a product or service.  To use Task Unification in practice, we start by listing the components of the product or service.  Then we assign non-intuitive tasks to some of the components randomly.  The idea is to create weird, ambiguous "virtual products" that don't seem to make any sense.  Then we work backwards from this hypothetical "solution" to a possible problem that it addresses.  Linking the solution to a problem creates an idea. 

Here are two recent examples of Task Unification in the iPhone.  What is unique is the use of a resource that is often overlooked: the charger receptacle.  The device shown at left plugs into the charger receptacle and turns an iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote. It’s made by L5 Technology, and was launched at CES 2010.  It controls any compatible device within 30 feet using a free app from the App Store.

Another clever example of Task Unification shown at CES was the Mophie credit card reader device. It lets you take payments with your iPhone using a third-party app and a device that attaches directly to your phone.  I have seen a similar device used exclusively at Apple stores, but this is the first available for the consumer market.

Check out more iPhone innovations yet-to-be-seen.

Innovation Sighting: The Multiplication Template and Virtual Reality

People are fascinated with the idea of human cloning after researchers cloned a sheep in 1997.  The debate about the risks and benefits of human cloning rages on.  What if you could clone yourself in a virtual sense?  Even better, imagine cloning yourself into another person's body?  What would you feel?  What would you learn?  How would your life be better?

Dr. Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist from Karolinska Institute in Sweden, has pioneered a method of allowing us to get out of our bodies and into the body of someone else...virtually...so that you sense whatever the other person senses.  We "clone" ourselves everyday with simple technologies like a mirror or camera. But this is different.  This technique clones you into another form so you can experience life from that point-of-view.  From CNN: 

This is an example of the innovation template, Multiplication.  It works by taking a component of a product or service, then creating copies of it that are different in some way.  Using SOLUTION-TO-PROBLEM innovation, we imagine potential benefits of the hypothetical solution.  Dr. Ehrsson believes this technique could help us improve our self-esteem.  It might help amputees put a sense of feeling into a prosthetic limb.  Or it might help us identify with other cultural, racial, or gender groups by "living" in their bodies.

This last idea is particularly intriguing.  Imagine you had the ability to mandate when someone else uses the technique to become YOU.  You would use this is critical situations when it is essential the other person understands your point-of-view: spouse, lawyer, negotiating partner, customer, boss, etc.  The ultimate cloning experience is not making another copy of yourself, but rather having others clone to become you.

 

Innovation Sighting: Social Innovation Using S.I.T.

How do you get people to be more socially responsible?  Here is an example* that demonstrates the use of Task Unification, a template from the corporate innovation method called S.I.T.:

To use Task Unification, we assign an additional job to an existing resource. Then we work backwards to envision the potential benefits of such a scheme, how it would work, and how to adapt it to make it better. In the example above, we create a statement as follows: "The stairs have the additional job of making people want to use the stairs more." Then we innovate ways to make this happen.  Having the stairs play music as you walk in the form of a piano is novel, useful, and surprising.  It meets all three tests of innovativeness.

Let's turn this around a bit to make the point even more.  Let's create a new statement (our Virtual Product):  "The escalator has the job of making people want to use the stairs more."  Now let's imagine ways to make this happen.  Here is what I came up with:

• The escalator slows down as more people use it.  As people approach the escalator and see others on it already, they will be less likely to use it.  Perhaps it makes a groaning sound as it slows down (thanks, Amnon!).
  
• The escalator has a repeating taped message encouraging people to consider the health benefits of walking the stairs (perhaps by comparing the amount of calories burned by using the stairs instead of the escalator).
• Put a handicapped sign on the escalator, or perhaps some other indicator that the escalator is for those who are not fully fit.
• Make something happen at the top of the escalator that people typically want to avoid such as an unpleasant message or homeless person asking for spare change.

Here is another example:  (both of these are from TheFunTheory.com sponsored by Volkswagen):

* Special thanks to Gary Vince from Toronto for sending me these examples.

Innovation Sighting: Smart Floors Using Attribute Dependency

In a world where gravity is ever present, floors are essential.  We spend most of our waking hours standing or walking on them.  But we tend to ignore them.  That is a pity given the nearly constant contact we have with them.  What if the floor could be innovated?  What could it do for us that it doesn't do today?

Here is an innovative technology worth standing up for.  Future-Shape GmbH, a German technology  startup, has developed Sens-Floor, a layer of textile sensors that monitor human movement and can be installed underneath almost any type of flooring.  The product works by sending a small electrical charge through a conductive fabric containing integrated sensor plates and radio modules.  When someone walks over a sensor, a small change in charge capacity triggers the system.  The company offers a few suggested applications such as home security, activating room lights, and monitoring the elderly.

However, to reach its full potential, innovating with the Attribute Dependency template will link this technology to many more things that take place on a floor.  Imagine, for example, the floor can detect a specific person (through body weight, foot size, etc) to activate things in the room related to that person (lighting preferences, sounds, smells...anything with an "on" button).  Taking it further, imagine the floor can keep track of how many people are on the floor and what they are doing (standing, dancing, sitting, etc).  The floor can tell a party host when it's time to serve dinner or to enliven the party with different music.  Think of the sports applications - score keeping in tennis, required elements in gymnastics, or basketball three second violations.  What about retail store applications?  The floor could keep track of customer movements - where they shop, where they stop, and how they go from product to product.  Perhaps the floor can detect when to raise prices on popular items or drop prices on a slow ones.

The company calls its core product, Smart Textiles, and this idea is embedded in its other products.  To make them truly smart, it will take a bit more work on the application side.  As an investment, Future-Shape might be an excellent "ground floor" opportunity.

Innovation Sighting: The Division Template in Elevators

What is the first thing you do when you step into an elevator?  For most people:  push the button of the floor you are going to. Not so with a new breed of elevators manufactured by Schindler North America.  These elevators have the buttons on the outside, not inside.  The buttons for selecting your floor are on each floor. Instead of just pushing a single up or down button to hail an elevator, you push the button for the floor you want as though you were inside.

The Division Template is the culprit here. In this innovation sighting, the elevator floor button panel was divided out and placed back into the system...outside the elevator cab.  Very novel, useful, and surprising.  To use Division, make a list of the components, then divide out a component. Divide functionally or physically and place it back somewhere in the system.  Use Function Follows Form to identify potential benefits, feasibility, challenges, and adaptations.

The benefit is better elevator customer service.  Elevator cars operate more efficiently which means you get to the right floor faster. How?  By selecting your floor sooner (while waiting for the elevator to arrive) the elevator's computer has more timely input about peoples' destinations. It can calculate the optimal pattern of pickups and dropoffs, then execute it faster than traditional elevators.  Here is how this new elevator, called the Miconic 10, operates:

Innovation Sighting: Web Site Morphing with Attribute Dependency

Imagine a Web site that detects a visitor's "thinking" style and "morphs" its look and feel to suit that visitor's style.  Professor Glen Urban and his colleagues at M.I.T. describe an approach in the Sloan Management Review article, "Morph the Web To Build Empathy, Trust and Sales."  They collaborated with BT Group, a UK telecom company, to create a Web site that learns whether a person is more analytical versus holistic, and whether the person is more visual versus verbal in how they process information.  Once the Web site learns this (based on a few preliminary clicks on the site), it adapts itself to present information in an optimal way:

This is an excellent example of the Attribute Dependency Template, one of five templates in the Systematic Inventive Thinking method of innovation.  Attribute Dependency takes internal and external attributes of a product or service and combines them to create new dependencies (or break existing dependencies).  With Web site morphing, for example, the two attributes that have been linked are:

• Web site appearance (an internal attribute)
• Visitor's Cognitive Style (an external attribute)

Dependencies can be passive, active, or adaptive.  Passive dependencies are static - they don't change once they have been established.  Active dependencies are dynamic - an attribute changes only when another one changes.  Adaptive dependencies change the way they change.  In other words, they learn as they go.  Attribute Dependency is a great tool for creating "smart" products - those that know and adapt to user preferences or environmental conditions.

Does Web site morphing work?  The MIT researchers report that Web-originated purchase intentions for BT's broadband service could increase 20% after morphing the site to match individual cognitive styles.

Innovation Sighting: Multiplication at Taylor Guitars

Here is an example of the Multiplication Template, one of five in the corporate innovation method called S.I.T..  It is from the Taylor Guitars, one of the leading companies in the category and one of the most innovative.  The Multiplication Template makes copies of components but changes the copies in some way from the original.  Taylor has multiplied the pickguard of their electric guitar series, but changed the configuration with different styles of magnetic pickups (the part that translates the sound from the strings).  It is a clever idea because guitar owners can re-configure their guitar for different playing situations.  It helps Taylor Guitar extend their product reach into the aftermarket for guitar parts and maintain a more loyal following of customers.

 

Innovation Sighting: Task Unification at Airports

Placing advertisements on objects such as billboards and taxis is nothing new.  But here is a new twist using task unification.  It is one of five templates in the corporate innovation method called S.I.T.  Task Unification assigns an additional "job" to an existing resource.   Here is an example as reported in USA Today: