The following is a series of methodologies to structure the problem solving or creative process.
I describe them here briefly with the purpose of indexing the methods I have found.
If you want to know more about a particular one, I'd suggest you Google the term, since the majority of them were found on the Web during my research.
15 Sparks
A method originally used for internal staff training by the advertising agency McCann Erickson, but by now extensively tried by myself and others in academic practice throughout Latin America.
Although oriented at, and illustrated with, examples from advertising and marketing, it has also proven useful in classes and seminars on branding, innovation, strategic thinking, and so forth.
As the name suggests, it consists of 15 statements directed at changing the mind-set: Instead of asking who we are talking to, ask who we are NOT talking to, Turn your biggest threats into opportunities, Co-create with your consumers, How can your brand, product or service become a tangible part of culture? and If you product were a service, what would it be?, among others.
Adaptive Reasoning
A problem solving strategy that adapts thinking to address a problem as it changes and evolves and includes reasoning based on pattern, “Analogy” or “Metaphor”(see Ideation).
Algorithm of Inventive Problem Solving (ARIZ)
A method that contains 85 step-by-step procedures that incrementally evolve a complex problem to a point where it is (or should be) simple to solve. TRIZ, USIT and SIT all originate from ARIZ.
Ideal Final Result
Description of the best possible solution for the problem situation and a basic concept of TRIZ, however, it can also be used universally to create a “vision” or ideal future. The fundamental proposition of TRIZ is that systems evolve towards increased ideality, where the “Ideal Final Result” marks the end point of this evolution. The IFR has all the benefits and none of the disadvantages and/or costs of the original problem.
Journalistic Six
A checklist which allows to cover all the “angles” related to a given event: What happened?, Where did it happen?, When did it happen?, How did it happen?, Why did it happen?, Who is involved?
Obviously, the “Six” can be phrased in many different ways, allowing to focus on different topics: What is the Problem?, Where does it occur?, When do we need to solve it?, How can it be solved?, Why do we need to solve it?, Who owns it?, etc.
LARC Method
Left and Right Creativity. A method that stimulates right-side (creative) brain activity in association with the left (logical) side of the brain. There are 5 versions of LARC, each one with a higher level of abstraction and complexity, to deal with increasingly complex problems. The basic functions that all LARC versions – with the exception of LARC 1 – have in common are: Drawing, Smashing, Creating, Rearranging.
Memes
Concept first coined by Dawkin (1976) to denominate the imitation units that he considered the building blocks of culture, much like genes are the building blocks of evolution.
Jay Conrad Levinson, in his book “Guerilla Creativity” (2001), further developed this concept by placing it in a social communication context.
Levinson defines memes as enticing symbols, claiming them to be the most powerful communicators known to humans. A Meme is not a logo; it is an idea unit, something that is simple to remember and – at the same time – a single-minded summary of what a product or brand have to offer.
Although not easy to create, when the generation of a Meme is defined as a problem or objective, virtually any creative technique may used to create one.
Preliminary Questions (5x W 1x H)
See: “Journalistic Six”.
Six Thinking Hats
A framework for innovative thinking, both linear and lateral, created by Edward J. de Bono.
White hat: facts and figures. Red Hat: intuition and feelings, no logic required. Black hat: judgement, logic and caution. Yellow Hat: why it will work. Green hat: creativity, alternatives, proposals. Blue hat: overview and process control.
Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT)
Unlike all other described methods, SIT actually contains practical, creative thinking tools. Although derived from or related to methods such as ARIZ and TRIZ, the creators of SIT were apparently the first to realize that laying out a process or model may be conductive to systematic thinking, but not to creative, innovative thinking.
The company has created specific models for Problem Solving, New Product Development, Marketing Communications & Advertising, Strategy and Conflict Resolution.
I have extensively and successfully used the Marketing Communications & Advertising model, which contains nine creative thinking tools: Absurd Alternatives, Activation, Extreme Behavior, Extreme Consequences, Extreme Efforts, Inversion , Metaphor, Problem-as-a-Solution and Unification (See Ideation).
For more information, visit the Sitsite
TRIZ Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch. Althuller (1959)
Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS), TRIZ is a method directed originally at improving on the random approaches to problem solving – habitual at the time of its conception – specifically in engineering complex systems. Althuller categorized known solving techniques into 5 levels of inventiveness, each next level demanding a higher level of abstraction.
The method evolves around three basic principles: resolution of contradictions, the evolution of systems and the ideal (final) result (IFN). The basic concept of TRIZ is resolving the contradiction(s) that arise from placing mutually exclusive demands on a given system. It includes a series of different solving tools, 40 inventive principles and contradiction tables.
For more information, click here
Unified Structured Inventive Thinking (USIT)
A simplification of TRIZ which makes it simpler to learn and apply while – methodologically – similar to SIT, without the creative thinking tools, however.
I describe them here briefly with the purpose of indexing the methods I have found.
If you want to know more about a particular one, I'd suggest you Google the term, since the majority of them were found on the Web during my research.
15 Sparks
A method originally used for internal staff training by the advertising agency McCann Erickson, but by now extensively tried by myself and others in academic practice throughout Latin America.
Although oriented at, and illustrated with, examples from advertising and marketing, it has also proven useful in classes and seminars on branding, innovation, strategic thinking, and so forth.
As the name suggests, it consists of 15 statements directed at changing the mind-set: Instead of asking who we are talking to, ask who we are NOT talking to, Turn your biggest threats into opportunities, Co-create with your consumers, How can your brand, product or service become a tangible part of culture? and If you product were a service, what would it be?, among others.
Adaptive Reasoning
A problem solving strategy that adapts thinking to address a problem as it changes and evolves and includes reasoning based on pattern, “Analogy” or “Metaphor”(see Ideation).
Algorithm of Inventive Problem Solving (ARIZ)
A method that contains 85 step-by-step procedures that incrementally evolve a complex problem to a point where it is (or should be) simple to solve. TRIZ, USIT and SIT all originate from ARIZ.
Ideal Final Result
Description of the best possible solution for the problem situation and a basic concept of TRIZ, however, it can also be used universally to create a “vision” or ideal future. The fundamental proposition of TRIZ is that systems evolve towards increased ideality, where the “Ideal Final Result” marks the end point of this evolution. The IFR has all the benefits and none of the disadvantages and/or costs of the original problem.
Journalistic Six
A checklist which allows to cover all the “angles” related to a given event: What happened?, Where did it happen?, When did it happen?, How did it happen?, Why did it happen?, Who is involved?
Obviously, the “Six” can be phrased in many different ways, allowing to focus on different topics: What is the Problem?, Where does it occur?, When do we need to solve it?, How can it be solved?, Why do we need to solve it?, Who owns it?, etc.
LARC Method
Left and Right Creativity. A method that stimulates right-side (creative) brain activity in association with the left (logical) side of the brain. There are 5 versions of LARC, each one with a higher level of abstraction and complexity, to deal with increasingly complex problems. The basic functions that all LARC versions – with the exception of LARC 1 – have in common are: Drawing, Smashing, Creating, Rearranging.
Memes
Concept first coined by Dawkin (1976) to denominate the imitation units that he considered the building blocks of culture, much like genes are the building blocks of evolution.
Jay Conrad Levinson, in his book “Guerilla Creativity” (2001), further developed this concept by placing it in a social communication context.
Levinson defines memes as enticing symbols, claiming them to be the most powerful communicators known to humans. A Meme is not a logo; it is an idea unit, something that is simple to remember and – at the same time – a single-minded summary of what a product or brand have to offer.
Although not easy to create, when the generation of a Meme is defined as a problem or objective, virtually any creative technique may used to create one.
Preliminary Questions (5x W 1x H)
See: “Journalistic Six”.
Six Thinking Hats
A framework for innovative thinking, both linear and lateral, created by Edward J. de Bono.
White hat: facts and figures. Red Hat: intuition and feelings, no logic required. Black hat: judgement, logic and caution. Yellow Hat: why it will work. Green hat: creativity, alternatives, proposals. Blue hat: overview and process control.
Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT)
Unlike all other described methods, SIT actually contains practical, creative thinking tools. Although derived from or related to methods such as ARIZ and TRIZ, the creators of SIT were apparently the first to realize that laying out a process or model may be conductive to systematic thinking, but not to creative, innovative thinking.
The company has created specific models for Problem Solving, New Product Development, Marketing Communications & Advertising, Strategy and Conflict Resolution.
I have extensively and successfully used the Marketing Communications & Advertising model, which contains nine creative thinking tools: Absurd Alternatives, Activation, Extreme Behavior, Extreme Consequences, Extreme Efforts, Inversion , Metaphor, Problem-as-a-Solution and Unification (See Ideation).
For more information, visit the Sitsite
TRIZ Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch. Althuller (1959)
Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TIPS), TRIZ is a method directed originally at improving on the random approaches to problem solving – habitual at the time of its conception – specifically in engineering complex systems. Althuller categorized known solving techniques into 5 levels of inventiveness, each next level demanding a higher level of abstraction.
The method evolves around three basic principles: resolution of contradictions, the evolution of systems and the ideal (final) result (IFN). The basic concept of TRIZ is resolving the contradiction(s) that arise from placing mutually exclusive demands on a given system. It includes a series of different solving tools, 40 inventive principles and contradiction tables.
For more information, click here
Unified Structured Inventive Thinking (USIT)
A simplification of TRIZ which makes it simpler to learn and apply while – methodologically – similar to SIT, without the creative thinking tools, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment