Page 45 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

In practice

IDEO, a prominent American design company, believes that there
are several stages in deep-dive prototyping (for further information
see The Art of Innovation: Lessons in creativity from IDEO, America’s
leading design firm by Tom Kelley and Jonathan Littman).

• Understand your market, customers, technology, and perceived

constraints.

• Observe people in real-life situations.
• Synthesize and organize the key themes from the first two

phases.

• Visualize: this often involves intensive brainstorming and

discussion. Imagine new concepts and ideas around the main
themes of the design.

• Prototyping is next, and this involves building ideas and physical

brainstorming.

• Refine and streamline your ideas. Again, brainstorm ways to

improve the prototype and overcome obstacles, and narrow and
focus your concepts. Evaluate and prioritize your ideas, and
decide how they will be implemented.

Other valuable aspects of creative problem solving that may be
applied when time is tight include:

• Trying first (and asking for forgiveness later).
• Test marketing.
• Ensuring that teams are as varied and diverse as possible.
• Seeking external input.

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