There is a world of techniques, methods and process that generate ideas (creativity) and convert those ideas into reality (innovation). They are “tools in a tool box” with each having its strength and weakness for solving a variety of problems. Mycoted provides a wiki of creative and innovative techniques that breaks these down into five categories:
Problem Definition – including problem analysis, redefinition, and all aspects associated with defining the problem clearly.
Idea Generation – The divergent process of coming up with ideas.
Idea Selection – The convergent process of reducing all the many ideas into realistic solutions.
Idea Implementation – Turning the refined ideas in reality.
Processes – Schemes and techniques which look at the overall process from start to finish.
The first four categories of defining the problem; generating and selecting ideas; then implementation roughly map to the stages of Design Thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Testing.
There are many ways to look at the creative process for innovation. This is a good place to start your investigation. I will explore some of these techniques, methods and process in depth in coming posts.