The Habits of Creative People

Creative Reflexes can be Built with Continued Practice

Empathize with Users to Inspire New Thinking

HMW CHALLENGES: UNLOCK POSSIBILITIES

“Fall in love with a problem, not a solution.”

REFLEX: CONVERT IDEAS INTO HMW CHALLENGES

1. Look at your initial idea and ask…
• Who is the User you’re trying to help with this idea?
• What is the key underlying Behavior / Benefit you’re trying to help the User achieve with this idea?
2. Then, structure a brilliant question as follows:
• “How Might We help / support [USER] to do / achieve [BENEFIT / BEHAVIOR]?”

What’s next?
A brilliant question starts you off on a journey of discovery – one that is very likely to eventually unearth a brilliant innovation.

Odds are that your first idea will not be your best. However, seizing that idea moment to develop a brilliant question kickstarts the creative process. Even if you ultimately run with your original idea, this reflex will help shift your perspective in ways that improve your ultimate solution.

Empathize with Users to Inspire New Thinking

SEEKING EXTREMES: ACCELERATE INSPIRATION

“Average needs often inspire average solutions.”

REFLEX: LOOK TO THE EDGES FOR INSPIRATION

1. Think about the user and topic identified in your brilliant question and brainstorm:
• Who is ultra passionate or experienced with this topic? Who has special or refined needs?
• Who is ambivalent, inexperienced, or unfamiliar with this topic?
2. From your lists, identify your priority power users and non-power users to observe and interview.

What’s next?
Once you’ve scheduled your interviewees, create an interview field guide designed to reveal your subjects’ actual behavior and approach to the topic.

Extreme users’ needs are magnified and are therefore easy to spot. Power users give us a glimpse of the future because they address needs with workarounds and hacks. Non-power users help us more clearly see some of the barriers that exist to adopting existing solutions.

Radically Collaborate to Imagine New Solutions

CREATING OPTIONS

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.”

— Linus Pauling, scientist, 2x Nobel Prize winner

REFLEX: IMAGINE RADICAL DIRECTIONS

1. Grab some sticky notes and markers and find others who can join you in a 10 minute idea stretching activity.
2. Clarify your “How might we…?” brainstorm topic.
3. Set the ground rules:
• Quickly state ideas, and move on. Don’t over-explain
• Defer judgment. Encourage by building on the ideas of others
4. Begin a rapid brainstorm as follows:
• (60 sec) Generate at least 3 ideas that would be EASY to do.
• (60 sec) Generate at least 3 ideas that would be IMPOSSIBLE to do.
• (2 min) Generate more ideas including ones that...
• Would get your fired
• Assume unlimited resources and time
• Assume no budget & must be ready tomorrow
• Involve food, time travel, or scrapbooking

What’s next?
At the end of your brainstorm, you should have generated a number of ideas. Ask your colleagues for clarification on any of the ideas if required. Next, you’ll select promising ideas to carry forward.

In a complex world, different perspectives (informed by varied experiences), can help us more quickly arrive at more robust, dimensioned solutions. By provoking our thinking with radical - even impossible ideas - we’re far more likely to arrive at something truly innovative.

Radically Collaborate to Imagine New Solutions

SELECTING IDEAS: MAKE CHOICES

“Explore the potential rather than the proven.”

REFLEX: SELECT IDEAS FOR “POTENTIAL” RATHER THAN “PROOF”

1. Quickly review the ideas generated and eliminate any that do not address your “How might we…?” question
2. Of those remaining, allow yourself to ‘vote’ for a maximum of three that both:
1. Inspire you because they feel like something you’d love to work on or have exist
2. Connect with a genuine user need you’ve seen or heard expressed
3. If there are obvious ways to bring all or some of your ideas together into a single idea, go for it. Just be sure not to lose the creative edges as you smush the concepts together! Moving forward with more than one idea is also a fine approach: it’s likely that you’ll quickly learn which idea has the most promise as you begin to prototype.

When we select ideas that have been proven elsewhere, we are committing to a well-traveled route. However, by focusing on those ideas that feel novel and interesting, we are much more likely to ultimately arrive at an innovative solution.

Rapidly Experiment to Implement New Ideas

PROTOTYPING: BUILD TO THINK

“Fail early to succeed sooner.”

— David Kelley

REFLEX: BUILD TO THINK

1. Decide if your idea is:
• A physical product (e.g. a toothbrush or car)
• A digital solution (e.g. an app for a phone or computer)
• A service or system (e.g. a delivery service or employee retention program)
2. If it is a physical product, try using everyday office materials to build a representation of your idea. Pay attention to form and don’t worry as much about functionality. Rather, use your creativity to signal how your product could work.
3. If it is a digital solution, quickly sketch up core interfaces and explore how one might navigate the digital experience. You may even decide to take pictures of your interface mock-ups with your device’s camera app so you can show your idea in the correct form factor.
4. If your idea is a service or system, quickly create a storyboard which shows both a) your user, and b) how your user interacts with your solution. Although you can use words to help describe the flow, pictures are a better way to make your idea concrete and invite feedback.

What’s next?
With your rough and ready prototype in hand, start gathering feedback from others.

When we build to think, we rapidly discover an idea’s strengths and weaknesses and can evolve it appropriately. Prospective users can provide meaningful feedback to help sharpen our focus on how to make an idea ultimately more desirable.

Rapidly Experiment to Implement New Ideas

GIVING FEEDBACK: SUPPORTING NEW IDEAS

“The world is often unkind to new creations. The new needs friends.”

— Anton Ego

REFLEX: GIVE FEEDBACK

Whether you’re asking for feedback on a new idea or giving it to someone else, we suggest this simple process:

1. IDEA Explanation:
   The idea owner should describe his or her idea in fewer than 5 minutes, showing a prototype if possible. The listener should ask clarifying questions along the way.
2. Feedback:
   The listener should identify at least two things they like about the idea (things that should definitely remain in the idea as it evolves) and at least one thing they wonder about the idea (something that needs further exploration). The idea owner should record this feedback, thank the listener, and then seek more.

What’s next?
Try building the next iteration of your idea incorporating some of the feedback. Then go seek further feedback.

Too often, the flaws in a new idea become grounds to eliminate it too soon. When we shift our mindset from ‘why this won’t work’ to ‘how might we make this work’ it allows a nascent idea more opportunities to prove its potential.