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31 : THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING STRONG IDEAS

cleaners did not work satisfactorily. By the same token, he challenged
the conventional product concept of washing machines, undertaking
research to reveal that the conventional wash action did not flex the
fabric sufficiently to release dirt quickly. In fact, research suggested that
washing by hand gave better results than a single-drum machine.

Idea generation is the second step in the idea development process.
Dyson had been faced with the problem that air filters in the Ballbarrow
spray-finishing room constantly clogged with powder particles. He
observed that the air filters clogged just like a vacuum cleaner bag clogs
with dust. He solved the air-filter problem by designing and building an
industrial cyclone tower which removed the powder particles by exerting
centrifugal forces greater than 100,000 times those of gravity. His brilliant
insight was that if the air-filter problem was similar to the vacuum-cleaner
problem, then perhaps the solution could be similar too. This analogical
thinking eventually delivered the first breakthrough in vacuum-cleaner
design since the product was invented in 1901, namely the Dual Cyclone.

Dyson’s design solution for unsatisfactory washing-machine
performance was not to make a yet more powerful version of the
conventional product concept but rather to build on the superior
effectiveness of washing clothes by hand. From this insight was
developed the world’s first washing machine with two drums, the
Contrarotator, which replicated a hand-washing action to manipulate
and flex the fabric to release dirt more quickly.

Idea generation can also be provoked by simple direct questions. Dyson
company folklore has it that the casual question ‘I like your vacuum
cleaners, but when will you make one you don’t have to push around?’
was the trigger that led to the creation of the Dyson DC06 robot,
designed not only to clean properly but also to move around more
logically than a human would.

Dyson’s belief in the power of challenging conventional thinking and of
rule reversal in order to stimulate idea generation was even
demonstrated by his design of ‘The Wrong Garden’ for the Chelsea
Flower Show in 2003, when he noted that doing the opposite of what
should be done often stimulates creative innovation.

Idea evaluation and selection is the third step in the idea development
process. Typical ideas are not born ready-made for the market and must
undergo a process of significant challenge and development. In the
M