I Just Don’t Understand What an Innovative Idea Is and Is Not?

Guest critiques graced the halls of our studios this week. The experience allowed new perspective into our group projects on the AMS food service businesses. It also introduced me to the idea of 7 for market research. By the time you have interviewed 7 people you will begin to notice patterns about your consumer.

What I learned in 4

A running theme with design professionals is “dream big or go home.” Innovation is about growing/building/stretching an idea to its limits.

Go with an idea until everyone in the room starts giggling, then take the idea and shrink it down.

Dreaming big is the romantic side of design. It draws innovators in and feeds the fire of creativity, but what happens when the scale and scope is out of your reach?

Unfortunately, you dilute and make compromises. So at what concentration does an innovation become linear?

David vs. Goliath

Then there are the David ideas: small, seemingly insignificant, but pack a punch. If they were crafted and tempered with design thinking, can we call these design innovations or are they just linear business paradigms wrapped in sheeps clothing?

My intuition says yes and no.

The distinction requires a critical voice which can look at the obvious and non-obvious. If visualization of observations within a design framework  is able to shed light on patterns and stimulate REthink on a problem

Is a cover of a song innovative?