Whether you are planning a brainstorming session, an ideas campaign in an
idea management system or innovation process management system or simply need innovative solutions to business problems, you
need to start with an innovation challenge. This article by Jeffrey Baumgartner explains
how to turn a problem into the kind of challenge that encourages creative solutions.
Creative thinkers – and bear in mind that business
innovation is the result of implementing creative ideas in order to generate value – turn problems into creative
challenges (also sometimes called “innovation challenges”).
In order to turn a problem into a creative challenge, you
need to deconstruct the problem so that you can identify its causes and consequences.
Step 1: Why Is This a Problem? x 5
This will enable us to identify the negative consequences of the problem.
Step 2: Why Has This Occurred? x 5
This ensures that we think about the problem in detail. Very often the first
reason we give for a problem is not the primary reason.
Step 3: How Urgent Is the Problem?
If the problem is urgent, solutions need to be quickly implementable.
Step 4: What Are Your Competitors Doing About This Problem?
you probably do not want to take the same action against the problem as
one or more of your competitors has done
Step 5: Putting It All Together
The Challenge of Challenges
This last step of transforming the key factors into challenges is something
of an art form and it takes practice. There are no clear cut rules. However, potential challenges should meet a few
key criteria.
- A challenge should be a short, concise question.
- A challenge typically begins with “In what ways
might we..?” or “How might we...?” or “What new...might we...?”
- A challenge addresses only a single issue. If there
are two issues involved, the challenge should be split into two separate ones.
- A challenge should neither be so broad as
to invite irrelevant solutions nor be so narrow as to prevent any potential solutions from
fitting it.
As you become accustomed to deconstructing problems into challenges,
you will find it becomes more and more natural. And once this happens, the process becomes easier and that, in turn,
makes it easier for you and your colleagues to innovate on behalf of your firm.
