Make Yourself Creative: Two Easy Idea-Generating Methods
Here are a couple of exercises to force yourself to come up with some brand new ideas. These methods can be used to give your business an edge, to overcome creative blocks, or just for fun - to prove to yourself that you can have some great ideas.
Method 1: "It's X meets Y"
Many movie critics use the "It's X meets Y" formula to help them quickly and accurately describe what a movie is all about. For example, the film Open Water was described by one critic as "It's Jaws meets Blair Witch". Anyone can now guess that the film involves sharks (or other water-dwelling monsters), and is a horror film filmed in a realistic way.
You can also use this formula to create brand new products, which can be easily understood by the potential market.
Choose 2 products from your industry (or choose 2 at random), with different features and audiences. Combine the two and consider the result. This is your brand new product. Do this a few times to create 5 different new products and then evaluate them to see which to go with. For example "It's Pop Tarts meets AllBran" could give you the idea to make a toastable breakfast health snack, or mini-Poptarts that you pour into a bowl and eat as a cereal.
Funnily enough, this method works really well with new movie-script ideas.
Method 2: "Redesign This"
This method allows a product to be developed very quickly.Consider an existing everyday item and improve it. Write down the item's main essential features - no more than the essentials. Then write down all the extra features you would personally like to see in the perfect version of this item. Then sketch out some ideas which have all the features you have though of.
If we consider a Kettle, what essentials features does it need? The ability to heat liquid, to be safe, easy to pour, easy to fill.If we think of it like this we could design a kettle that can have variable settings for different liquids - one to boil water, one to heat baby's milk, one to make hot chocolate (though it would have to be easy to clean!). Or we could make a more traditional style kettle, but with an extra wide spout to allow it to be filled without having to remove the lid.
These new ideas appear only when we strip an item down to its absolute essentials and start again from scratch.
Is your business as targeted as it could be, or are you providing unwanted features? Could you bring out some new redesigned products to complement existing ones?
It is very satisfying to improve an old classic.
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MORE RESOURCES:
Are Sleepless Parents More Creative? New York Times I ran the question by R. Keith Sawyer, an associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, and the author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of ... |
 Earthtimes (press release) | RESET: The Final Jury for the 2010 International ANDY Awards Announced CNNMoney.com (press release) After six weeks of voting across five continents, the passionate campaign that engaged the finest minds in creativity and digital media resulted in the ... Andy Awards' 'Crowdsourced' Jury Is Revealed |
Part of a Creative Powerhouse Behind Ephemeral Artworks Wall Street Journal Adding to the vision of two artists merging their creativity was the fact they shared the same birthday. Jeanne-Claude took the lead in raising funds for ... |
Williams says creativity will beat economy's woes Norwich Bulletin Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, encouraged Eastern Connecticut residents and government to show grit and creativity. “We ought to ratchet it up,” ... |
 Destructoid | Unleashing creativity with PS3-exclusive ModNation Racers Destructoid If you're familiar with Forza Motorsports' deep customization options, and the kind of stuff you can do with a little creativity, you're on the right track. ... |
Aspiration Women try Veg Jewellery items to showcase their creativity PunjabNewsline.com Out of the eight groups on Thursday, three were selected as winners for their best creativity in molding vegetables into fine jewellery items. ... |
Franco family's 'Metamorphosis: Junior Year' San Francisco Chronicle For the Francos, creativity is a family affair that plays out in the pages of books and the making of art. It recently spilled out into late-night ... |
All manner of human creativity on display ScienceBlogs (blog) - David Ng is Director of the AMBL at the University of British Columbia - fancy speak for a science teacher. "The world is full of light and life, ... |
Freedom, Creativity -- and Systems? Dynamic Chiropractic If you've ever gone to a seminars on practice growth, taken any courses on the topic, or even talked to people who have, then you know the ... |
 CNN International | Movie Review: Planet 51 MovieRetriever (blog) As much as vampire fiction has taken off with films like The Twilight Saga: New Moon and programs like True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, the creativity in ... Movie Review: Planet 51 Movie has smooth look, bumpy storyline Planet 51 - Movie Review |
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