Innovationdigging – the creative tool for structure-loving employees, researchers and engineers
Innovationdigging describes a method for finding innovations and is similar to a professional archaeological excavation: a systematic search on defined areas that are worked on – later also expanded and tested – by a team.
“Quick and Dirty” explanation of the Innovationdigging method
Scenario: You are a product development engineer looking for inspiration to improve or innovate your product.
Step 1: Take a colleague’s pad or another sheet of paper and draw a normal table – this will be our search box matrix.
Step 2: In the row headers of the table, write in the touchpoints that people have with your product. If it was a coffee machine, the row headers might read:
- Unpack coffee machine after purchase
- Set up coffee machine
- Read the operating instructions
- Pour in coffee
- Fill with water
- Adjust dosage
- Brewing coffee
- Serve coffee
- Cleaning process
- etc.
Step 3: In the column headers of the table, enter the dimensions of use (these are adjectives in their first form of intensification) that come to mind spontaneously:
- faster
- cheaper
- more comfortable
- more environmentally friendly
- safer
- funnier
- quieter
- erotic
- etc.
Step 4: Now, according to your own rules, go through the resulting search fields with your finger and speak the word combinations quietly to yourself, such as: “fill water faster”, “set up coffee machine more comfortably” or “clean more fun”.
Let the word combinations inspire you and see if there are any connections you have never thought about in this way before.
With inspiring regards,
Benno van Aerssen
PS: This is the shortest of all explanations of innovationdigging. If you want to learn more about the many other possibilities of innovationdigging, then click here.
