You might have noticed in my last blog post the diagram showing an ‘itch’. I just wasn’t happy with Vision as being the most central element of the innovation process - there’s another step before this.
POC2 Collection Management highlighted this. Before creating the vision we referred to our brief and asked:
- What’s hard about collection management?
This helped us to define collection management, enabling us then to create an informed vision.
This has changed my view on how innovation starts.
Innovation genesis does not require a ‘problem’ nor does it require a ‘eureka’ moment. At it’s most basic level, all it requires is a concept to focus upon. Opportunities to innovate are plentiful.
Hence the ‘itch’. It allows me to encompass issues, ideas, and concepts to act as a catalyst for innovative thought.
So now the itch is at the heart of innovation.
3 Comments
Bingo - this captures our conversatons most eloquently. Leaves room for both problem solving and play for the sake of sheer fun.
Nice work.
Fang
Tom, I really like what you’re writing about. The iterative diagram from itch to scratch is very neat. Hope you’ll collaborate with us in writing further?
Be very happy to. I’ll keep an eye on http://processofinnovation.com/
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[…] We often produce business-like phrases about ‘value’, written into carefully crafted vision statements. These are important, but we suspect the real spark for innovation is more basic and more human. Tom Cotton discusses this when he talks about scratching the itch. […]
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