How to Develop Innovative Ideas
In today's business world, where competitors are almost evenly matched in terms of resources, innovation is the key to achieving success. Developing innovative ideas is not difficult, provided you are willing to spend time and effort on it. Contrary to general opinion, innovation is not always about merely the spark of inspiration. It involves a process of observing things, analyzing them and thinking about them -- often from a hitherto unexplored or unconventional angle -- to chance upon solutions.
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Instructions
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Review customer feedback, market survey reports or the past year's performance report. Find out areas that are problematic or that provide a scope for improvement. Dig for the underlying cause of problems. Use this analysis to determine the goal on which you should focus while developing innovative ideas.
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Get as much information as possible on how others have handled such problems. Read books on the topic, and speak to other people in the same industry to learn about possible solutions. Compare all this information and look out for patterns. See if you can combine existing ideas to come up with a new solution.
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Generate new ideas using techniques such as brainstorming. Sit in a quiet, undisturbed place and think of potential solutions. Make a list of all the ways in which you can do the same job, including those that are against the norm, or that appear impossible, because you may find a seed of thought in these that leads to an innovation.
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Think of a situation that is the exact opposite of the one you want to solve, and flip the solutions you think up for this. For example, if your aim is to create user-friendly accounting software, think of all the ways in which you can make it complicated to use. Then flip those ideas to get a list of features you can include that make it easy to use.
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Imagine how you would handle the same situation if you had to operate with constraints of time, material or manpower. Use these ideas as a base to develop situations.
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Conduct brainstorming sessions with a group of people who are relevant in achieving the goal you have in mind. Give them similar premises to work on: imagine opposite situations, and certain limitations. Note the ideas that develop during this session. Combine these with your ideas to find tentative solutions.
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Experiment using your solutions on a small scale and gather feedback to help you fine tune certain aspects. Incorporate changes you believe will help improve the solution, test this out and gather more feedback. Be willing to take small risks and make mistakes when you implement the solutions you develop.
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