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733 : STEP ONE – SEEKING AND SHAPING OPPORTUNITIES

left-brain market research reveals a lack of data. You move back to
divergent thinking to consider other ways of getting the data you need
and what other data you could collect which would serve as proxy
data. And so a series of convergent and divergent episodes ensues.

You must learn to feel comfortable actively managing the transition
between left- and right-brain thinking because this dichotomy
underpins the entire idea development process. As Albert Rothenberg, a
clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard University and a leading
writer on creativity in the arts and sciences, has argued: ‘The creative
process is a matter of continually separating and bringing together,
bringing together and separating, in many dimensions – affective,
conceptual, perceptual, volitional and physical.’

the creative capacity of questions Asking questions is one

of the simplest and most effective ways of challenging assumptions and
convention, creating additional perspectives on existing opportunities
and highlighting new and unexpected gaps in the market.

We saw in the first chapter how the creative trigger which unleashed
the Dyson DC06 robot was the casual question, ‘I like your vacuum
cleaners, but when will you make one you don’t have to push around?’.

the creative process is a matter of
continually separating and bringing
together, bringing together and separating

casting fresh light on the familiar Asking questions

intensifies your interest in, and understanding of, ideas and concepts.
Tom Wujec reports the unusual but inspired way in which
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum stimulated interest in Rembrandt’s famous
painting The Night Watch when it was returned to the gallery after
restoration.54 The curators asked visitors to submit questions about the
painting and prepared answers to the 50 most popular questions. The
questions and answers were not restricted to ‘conventional’ art-related
issues – they included issues of forgery, the value of the painting,
technical errors in the painting and so on.

The curators published the questions and answers on the walls of an
adjoining room through which visitors had to pass before viewing The