2nd Year Innovation

“What a fascinating article! It’s creative and well worth reading again and again. Thank you for sharing what you have learned,” said one of the students who had read my previous article, First Year Innovation. “I read the article several times,” he continued, “as if I was studying for an exam. I enjoyed every single word.” These comments were typical of the reactions I received following the article’s publication.

Such was the response that I had to continue on my creative journey and so today I am writing about Second Year Innovation. This article should be helpful to anyone who wants to move forward and become more creative and more innovative.

What I am doing with these articles is creating a roadmap that is not only clear, simple, and concise but also easy to implement and as inexpensive as possible. Both were based on consultations with numerous experts from around the world and draw on my extensive experience which spans years. Prior to publication, they were reviewed by a number of colleagues.

One: Reading Creativity, Inc

Let us start by reading an inspirational book. Do you remember the movies Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Inside Out? All were created by one of the most innovative and creative companies in the world, Pixar. The book is called Creativity, Inc. and it is recommended by many entrepreneurs and innovators, including Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. It is co-written by Ed Catmull one of Pixar’s co-founders and over the course of its 368 pages explains how the company dominated the world of animation. Through stories and lessons, the reader picks up a lot of deep insights into creativity and learns how organizations can build a culture of innovation.

Do not miss the opportunity to read the entire book. If you don’t have the time to do so, I suggest you read it through Blinkest, a site that provides written and audio summaries of books. Reading the summary of Creativity, Inc. through Blinkest will take approximately 15 minutes of your time.

Two: Do Low-Fidelity Prototypes

Start by getting to grips with prototyping, since this is crucial. Building prototypes is a way to learn, explore needs, generate ideas, and gain allies. The process helps you to understand your customers before investing too much time. It is a way to fail fast and cheap if you have to fail at all, that is. As they say - "think with your hands" and "think to work".

I remember well when I started to make prototypes. I was like a child taking their first steps or uttering their first words. It was an amazing feeling!

Here’s what I think you should do. Start with a simple and short module. I recommend you focus on the first unit only, but if you like the subject and want to complete the next two units, you can do so in just one day.

The first unit covers application development, but most of the principles can be applied to different model types. Focus on understanding the purpose of building a model, how to adapt it, how it is presented to users, and then how to handle their opinions and observations.

Training Material: Low-Fidelity Prototypes and User Research

Course Duration: two days.

Cost: Free.

 Three: Unlocking Creativity

Would you like to boost your creativity and ignite the innovation power within you? Of course, you would. Therefore, I suggest the Unlocking Creativity training course from IDEO U, which is authored by IDEO, an award-winning global design company. 

In this course, you will go beyond brainstorming sessions to learn several methods to increase your creativity and vastly improve your ability to solve problems. You will learn how to change the work environment and how to change behaviors to stimulate new ways of thinking and new ways of working. In so doing you will gain confidence and lose your fear of failure. You will understand how to learn from your mistakes and how to treat failure as a price for success.

This course features methods to become more creative that IDEO has developed over the past 30 years.

Course Duration: the course will be available to you for 3 months.

Cost: $199.

You might find it a good idea to summarize the course and share it with colleagues at work or university, or follow up on Twitter or other social media networks.

Four: Designing a Business

Remember how we learned in First Year Innovation that any creative solution should be financially viable, technically feasible, and desirable for the client. Well, here we are going to devote our attention to the financially viable part of this equation by taking the Designing a Business course. It covers the concepts of business models, value propositions, and lean methodologies. Do not worry if you don’t know anything about them because you will soon be up to speed. By the end of the course, you will be able to build a business model for your idea as well as identify sources of income, marketing channels, and other key factors. This will give you greater clarity and confidence. 

This course and the one that follows are through IDEO. I advise you to take advantage of their learning community which in my opinion is the most important feature of their learning management system.  Participate in the Learning Circles and in the discussions. Ask the coaches and teaching assistants for their opinions and feedback on your completed assignments. This will help you a lot. Also, build relationships with other students, not just on the learning platform, but by connecting with them via LinkedIn. These relationships are very important.

Course Duration: 5 weeks.

Cost: $499.

There is a free course on building business models from the University of Georgia, USA which is provided by the Coursera website. In my opinion this is a good course, but it lacks the rich learning communities of the IDEO U courses. The structure of the educational material is acceptable, but not to the level we would like to see.

I recommend this course to anyone who wants to gain some knowledge and insights and would like to do so for free.

Course Duration: 4 weeks.

Cost: FREE without certification (obtaining a course certificate will cost you $99).

Once you have completed the course, tell us what you learned. Summarize and share your experiences with colleagues at work or at university, with your Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, and other social media followers.

Five: Practice, Practice, Practice

Practicing is very important. It strengthens your skills and helps you uncover any gaps or weaknesses you may have. Apply what you have learned previously (in the first and second years) and try to find a creative solution to one of the challenges you see around you. If a clear challenge isn’t obvious to you, I suggest one of the following:

1. How can we help employees to save money?

2. How can we reduce mobile phone use while driving?

3. How can we help children to read more?

Tell us what you learned from the experience and share your creative solutions.

Six: Do Storytelling for Influence 

Take the course titled Storytelling for Influence. It is essential and one of the topics I love! You will learn about the importance of stories and how to build a compelling one to persuade others and get them on your side. Whether you are an employee, entrepreneur, or business leader a story is your way to enlist the support of other people for your creative idea, and for your startup.

As I mentioned earlier, I advise you to take advantage of the course’s learning community. Participate in the Learning Circles and in the discussions, and build relationships with other learners.

Course Duration: 5 weeks

Cost: $399.

There is another good course about storytelling called Storytelling for Change by Acumen. The focus here is more about building a story to inspire actions. I tried the course and loved it! Even though there are no trainers, it is still a good course in my opinion. There is also a wonderful community which is different from those of the IDEO courses.

Course Duration: 8 weeks.

Cost: Free.

Sessions are held at specific times so visit the site to find out the date of the next one and arrange your schedule accordingly.

Remember to summarize and share the course and your experiences with your work or university colleagues as well as on Twitter and other social media networks.

Seven: Reading "Change by Design"

I suggest you read the book Change by Design by Tim Brown who is one of the pioneers of design thinking and a co-founder of IDEO. There are 272 pages and they cover the concept of design thinking in detail and how we can change the world through the use of this methodology.

If you do not have time for the entire book, you can read the abstract through Blinkest, the website I mentioned earlier.

Reading a summary of the book will take approximately 13 minutes of your time. (Book link)

Summarize what you learn and share it with your colleagues or followers on social media.

Eight: Participate, Practice, and Share

Now, as we reach the end of the learning year, I advise you to solve a challenge or problem you see around you. Apply everything you have learned and share your creative solution. If you complete the second year, I have a nice gift for you. Just contact me through LinkedIn.

If you do not find a problem to work on (even though there are problems and challenges everywhere) I recommend you visit the OpenIDEO website. There you can read about many global social challenges. I strongly advise you to participate in solving one of them, applying what you have learned this year, and sharing with the whole world your creative solutions.

OpenIDEO offers awards to participants who come up with the best solutions. The prize for first place in some of the challenges can be as much as half a million US dollars!

I also recommend you participate in a Service Design Jam in your country or city, or any similar innovation events and competitions. They provide superb opportunities for you to apply what you have learned and to build relationships with other participants and innovators. Take part in these events and competitions even if you did not complete your study plan, because you will learn a lot and be able to practice.

By the end of this second year, you will be more mature, more creative, and more confident. You will have benefited from the great books you have read and unleashed the creativity within you. You will be able to build a business model and its value proposition and create a compelling story around your creative idea and your startup. But that’s not all.

By sharing what you learn you will inspire and motivate others to be creative like you. In finding creative solutions for challenges and sharing them with the world you will become a reason for impact and change. Even if it is a small change with a small impact, you will still make a difference in this big world.

One day, I am sure I will see you at the very top of your organization and an influential member of your community. You will be a shining star enlightening, inspiring, and delighting those around you.