Page 72 - Transforming an Idea Into a Business with Design Thinking

Stage 2: Devise Solution to Determine Feasibility ◾ 51

External Prompts.

◾◾ Think of your favorite brand; how would that brand solve this prob-
lem? For example, how would Apple or Google or Amazon solve this
problem?

◾◾ Think of another industry; how would that industry leader solve this
problem? For example, if your problem is in the consumer products
space, prompt the team to think about the hotel industry, the airline
industry, the banking industry or another industry.

◾◾ Think of your biggest competitor, how would they solve it?

Prompts around Constraints.

Constraints are a great way to push you to think of novel ideas. Using con-
straints helps in generating unique ideas that no one could have deemed
possible before. Introduce some constraints to see how the ideas evolve.
Some examples of constraints are as follows:

◾◾ What if we only had a quarter of the funds that we currently have –
how would we solve the problem?

◾◾ What if one of the team members left due to a family emergency – how
would we solve the problem?

◾◾ What if we didn’t have access to X – how would we solve the problem?
(X could be any important asset or capability you are relying upon).

◾◾ You may also think about the assumptions you have made. Focusing on
the critical and major assumptions, consider how you would solve the
problem if those assumptions were proven wrong. Review the assump-
tions section in stage 4 (6.1).

Contrarian Prompts.

Most of the novel business models are a result of teams thinking totally
opposite to the conventional wisdom. For example, the conventional wisdom
dictates that one should never let strangers come into one’s house, let alone
spend the night inside. However, AirBNB challenges that exact assumption
and built a business exploiting the contrarian approach of generating value
from renting a portion of a house to strangers. Another famous example is
around hitchhiking. The common cultural narrative is filled with horrific
stories, including torture, kidnap and murder when someone hitchhiked
with strangers. Parents continue to remind their young and older children
to refrain from riding with strangers and avoid taking rides from strangers.