Method for disruptive innovation

Imagine Innovation® is a method for disruptive innovation and business development, which everybody can learn, and it is free to use.

The method is inspired by the idea generation techniques applied in the film making industry; the psychological methods in NLP and the rational innovation tools from LEAN and Blue Ocean Strategy.

In Imagine Innovation®  we divide the innovation process up in 4 phases. Every phase apply its own way of thinking.

imagine inno overview stor str

In the first phase we explore the future vision of your case and the context (paradigm) behind the challenge you are facing. In popular speaking, it is to be able to see the forest for all the trees. It is often the hardest part of the process. We apply a holistic approach and you learn about how your brain will cheat you into taking the wrong decisions, if you are not approaching the case with the right mindset. Click here to see how a complicated problem was solved in a simple way by looking at the context rather than the problem.

  • We identify the context/paradigm of the challenge, which we shall focus on to solve the challenge .

  • We define a vision of how we wish your company’s and your customer’s world to be in the future.

In the second phase we create the desired future scenario. The generation of ideas and scenarios calls for a creative and holistic thinking. The future scenario will be created from the stakeholders’ basic needs and desires as identified in the first phase. We develop our desired scenario and our horror scenario (future burning platform). The latter, because it gives the organization the sense of urgency and direction. We humans, are fantastic creatures when it comes to change, but we need to be highly motivated by both the “stick” and the “carrot”, before we actually go from theory to practice. The future “burning platform” will be our “stick”.

  • We study future trends and their impact on our business challenge

  • We use storytelling as a facilitator to construct the future scenarios.

In the third phase we find the way forward to reach the future scenario. We can seldom jump directly into the future scenario, so we need to develop a step-by-step development path, with different versions of the solution. It requires constructive thinking and a positive motivation to implement the change. The motivation is best managed by working backwards from the future scenario to the present situation. So we create the optimal solutions for the scenario, and design transformative solutions from the future scenario back towards the present situation. You will find this much easier for everybody in the team. The participants are freed from the mental restrictions given by their roles, career plans and perception of the well-known “rocks on the road”, which they fight with in day-to-day work.  At the end of the process, you will find that the participants are likely to skip the intermediate steps and go directly to the envisaged future scenario. They have become familiar with the scenario and adopted it. So, why wait!

  • The customers universe – rather than our products and services – is the basis for our idea- and concept development. It helps us identifying new opportunities and partnerships.

  • We think holistically and look for solutions outside of our professional domain . That is typically where the best and smartest solutions exist! Most of the major innovations and business successes in the last 20 years comes from adapting a smart existing products or service in a new context.

In the fourth phase we need to prove to people around us, that the future scenario and solutions are worth investing energy and money in. Evidence in the form of a business case and a ” proof of concept ” requires structured thinking and critical evaluation. The Proof of Concept will demonstrate that the scenario and the solutions are right for the market and the organization, and that they are feasible in terms of timeframe, and resources.

  • We pretotype the future scenario and solutions. Pretotyping is an approach to developing and launching innovation that helps you to determine if you are building the right solution before you invest a lot of time and effort to build it right. Simply put, pretotyping is the art and science of faking it before making it.

  • We make a simple and dynamic business case, and we focus on the critical success factors.

 

 

 

 

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