Constraint-driven innovation

Doesn't matter if you are thinking inside or outside the box, playing with boundaries will always help you think differently. You can relax them or make them more stringent. They can be imagined and self-imposed or concrete and enforced.

Here are three examples:

• Imagine you are working on a new product or service. How could it look like if you had to price it 10 times higher than the market leader? How would you attract customers? What would the product have to have? Then imagine a different boundary. How would the product look like if it had to have only three features? How would that look like?
• Imagine that regulations governing your industry did not exist. How would you improve your offering then? Now think backwards; are some of these improvements possible despite existing regulations?
• Imagine you are trying to come up with new business models. How would they look like if you decided to serve the same customers? How would they look like if you decided to keep the same operating model for different offerings and consumers? What if you had to change your pricing model?

When stuck, cycle through boundaries, move them around, and see what you come up with. There are endless possibilities. Recognize constraints for what they are—your most potent creativity triggers.

If you'd like to learn more practical ways to increase your innovativeness—as well as multiple ways to to think and act on innovation—join the workshop I'm organising on November 26th: