According to consultant Michael Michalko, people tend to form a first impression of a problem or situation.
We form first impressions because they make things easier for our brains. A first impression gives us a starting point, but it also leaves less room for imagination and creative thinking. In addition, our first impressions often lead us to ordinary and familiar ways of looking at things.
Michalko says that, to use our imagination and generate new ideas, we need to look at a problem from different perspectives.
Put the Problem into Words
A useful first step in idea generation and problem solving is to describe in words what the problem is and what you want to solve.
In the case of an invention, defining the problem also means clarifying the purpose of the invention. What do you want to achieve with the invention? What problem do you want to solve?
Thinking about how to achieve it comes next.
Another useful approach is to ask: Who do you want to make happy? What would make that person happy?
Next, try describing the problem in different words.
Expressing the same problem in different ways stimulates the imagination and makes it easier to come up with possible solutions and new ideas.
Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Feynman, and Aristotle are all said to have consciously tried to describe problems in different ways in order to find new perspectives.
Ways to Rephrase a Problem
Michalko introduces several ways to rephrase a problem. Rephrasing can help us see a familiar problem from a new angle and can be a useful technique for generating ideas.
1. Break It Down into Parts
First, identify the factors behind the problem. Then break each factor down into smaller factors, and those factors into even smaller ones.
For each factor, ask, “Why did this happen?”
For example, suppose the problem is, “Sales of our new product are low.” You could divide the possible causes into categories such as “people,” “marketing,” “process,” and “product.”
For “product,” you might identify factors such as “poor design” or “delayed product launch.”
Then, if you ask, “Why is the design poor?”, you might arrive at an answer such as, “Because we did not make enough effort to incorporate customer feedback.”
By rephrasing the original problem of low sales as a different problem—poor product design—you may come up with a solution or idea such as, “Let’s incorporate more customer feedback.”
2. Change the Words
Again, suppose the problem is, “Sales of our new product are low.”
A natural question would be, “How can we increase sales?” Now try changing the words in this question, especially the verb.
・How can we attract sales?
・How can we expand sales?
・How can we maintain sales?
・How can we circulate sales?
・How can we renew sales?
Keep changing the words in this way.
Changing the words changes your perspective. This can switch your thinking into a different mode and lead to new ideas.
Words stimulate the imagination.
Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon, observed that groundbreaking games often have a key verb. For Space Invaders, it was “shoot.” For Pac-Man, it was “eat.”
When the Game Boy, a handheld game console, was introduced with a communication function, Tajiri came up with the verb “trade.” This idea eventually led to the development of the hugely successful Pokémon games.
The concept of Pokémon—collecting monsters, much like collecting insects, and trading them with friends—became extremely popular.
3. Change Your Point of View
Another way to encourage creative thinking is to change your point of view.
Try imagining yourself as someone of a different gender. How would that person see the situation? Looking at the problem in this way may give you a different perspective. Michalko suggests that changing the position from which you view a situation can change what you notice and how you think.
When developing an invention, you can also look at it from various points of view: the user’s, the investor’s, the manufacturer’s, and so on.
Einstein is said to have thought about problems by imagining himself as an electron or a beam of light. This kind of thinking helped him develop the theory of relativity.
Sometimes, putting yourself inside the problem can lead to new ideas.
Expressing an Invention
Expressing a problem in words and then rephrasing it can be a starting point for generating an invention.
For third parties, such as IP department members and patent attorneys, expressing and rephrasing the problem—or the purpose of the invention—can also lead to a deeper understanding of the significance and value of the invention.
The same approach can be useful in meetings for generating ideas or for further developing and expanding an invention.
As long as the theme—the problem—is clear, digging deeper into the problem and looking at it from different angles may take you to ideas and solutions that you never expected at the beginning.
(For more about the relationship between fixed ideas and new ideas, see this article.)