Innovate 2013

How do you beat fixedness? Tony McCaffery, a postdoctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, suggests a clever little trick – break items into their component parts and give them new, generalized names. 

ent and use it to perform a task that the product already accomplishes; choose an internal component and make it do something new or extra; choose an internal component and make it do the function of an external component (effectively “stealing” the external component’s function). 3. Visualize the new (or changed) products or services. What are the potential benefits, markets, and values? Who would want this and why would they find it valuable? If you are trying to solve a specific problem, how can it help address that particular challenge? 4. If you decide they are valuable, then ask: Are they feasible? Can you actually create these new products? Perform these new services? Why or why not? Is there any way to refine or adapt the idea to make it more viable? Don’t miss a post (4,450+) – Subscribe to our RSS feed and join our Innovation Excellence group! Drew Boyd is Assistant Professor of Marketing and Innovation at the University of Cincinnati and Executive Director of the MS-Marketing program. Follow him at www.innovationinpractice.com and at http://twitter.com/drewboyd  4 6 inShare2 table.sample { border-width: 0px; border-spacing: 2px; border-style: dashed; border-color: gray; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: white; } table.sample th { border-width: 0px; padding: 15px; border-style: solid; border-color: gray; background-color: #F2F2F2; moz-border-radius: 10px; webkit-border-radius: 10px; khtml-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; } table.sample td { border-width: 0px; padding: 15px; border-style: solid; border-color: gray; background-color: #F2F2F2; moz-border-radius: 10px; webkit-border-radius: 10px; khtml-border-radius: 10px; border-radius: 10px; } Related Posts Innovation Sighting -Task Unification with Fruit Labels Innovation Perspectives – Fixedness Social Media Policy – Whats and Whens Behind Your Guidelines Innovation Sighting – Toyota’s Mood-Detecting Car Simulating Innovation Previous Post: Re-Envisioning the Client-Agency Relationship Next Post: Tips for Managing an Agile Team This entry was posted in Innovation, People & Skills, Psychology, Research, cat

2. Select a component from the list. Assign it an additional task using one of three ways:  choose an external compon

students must learn to analyze and solve problems, collaborate, persevere, take calculated risks and learn from failure.

In most high-school and college classes, failure is penalized.