The Art and Science of Reframing: Part 2
Curt Carlson, Ph.D.
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University and Distinguished Executive in Residence, WPI
Everyone immediately jumps to a solution, and it is almost always wrong. Reframing is a powerful method for helping uncover the actual customer need and a solution.
Purpose
In a previous article, I described the primary reason would-be innovators fail -- they do not identify their customer's actual unmet needs. [1]?They identify a problem and then focus primarily on their approach. These are called Big-A presentations -- all approach with no need. [2] At the start, a productive presentation addresses in a complete, compelling, and quantitative way all four elements of an NABC value proposition. [3]
In that previous article, I described a family of reframing methods that underlie the i4i value creation methodology. Here I describe several additional concepts useful in different settings. Collectively these methods are analogous to a carpenter's toolbox. They are a family of methods, or "tools," that facilitate addressing different value creation issues. When used over time, they can become habits of mind applied almost subconsciously.?
The reframing methods I outline below help value creators ask the right questions and allow them to open up new perspectives and possibilities. Reframing means looking at a problem or situation from a different perspective, such as from the eyes of the end-user or funder.
To accurately report a story, journalists use the "5-W's – who, what, when, where, and why?"?Value creation also requires getting the facts correct, but innovators must also develop new, creative solutions. That is the art of value creation.
The 5-Why's
The 5-Why's starts with a statement of the problem and then asks five times, "Why is that?" Consider the example shown for the iPhone.?
In this example, the 5-Why's results in the Key Insight for the unmet customer need -- programability. It then followed that the Key Insight into the solution was to no longer build smart "phones," but to develop a hand-held computer with a complete operating system. The iPhone's "wow factor" was the development of multi-touch, which opened a world of new applications and services.?
The 5-How's
A variation of the 5-Why's is the 5-How's. The example shown below is for a university professor wanting to win tenure. The Key Insight into the solution is learning how to write better proposals.?After acknowledging that need, a few more questions and homework about options could lead to a solution.
The 5-Why's and 5-Hows are similar. However, if you talked to a professor worried about getting tenure, the 5-How's might be more effective. In this case, the professor develops the need and then the solution. It is always best for someone to discover their own needs and solutions.
Many new university professors are worried about gaining tenure. They have mastered their disciplines but have not yet learned how to solve problems that matter to others. In addition, addressing research "grand challenges" requires forming interdisciplinary teams. Today, few university teams have the skills for collaborating efficiently and effectively. We are helping address this need at major universities using the i4i value creation methodology. In addition, the NSF and other funding agencies are working to address this issue.
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Math Inspired Reframing
Next, I outline another family of reframing concepts inspired by fundamental mathematical principles and by a conversation with Drew Boyd. [4]?I built on an idea from Boyd to create the images and frameworks below. These are both mental models and reframing methods.?
The orange images describe graphical versions of Boyd's concepts for how to help uncover viable solutions. The green examples below came from a discussion with Norman Winarsky, a mathematician, about additional fundamental principles used in mathematics. The first one, "Take it to the limit," is what a mathematician typically does when looking at a new problem or solution. It is of great value in helping understand the scople of a problem or plausibility of a solution.?
Consider the example of smartphones with tiny physical keys.?In an ecosystem with exponentially increasing online services, in the limit, no number of fixed keys could address the need for convenient, efficient search. Adding a few keys could help incrementaly, which is what Nokia and the others did, but adding additional keys rapidly led to a bulky and less convenient phone. That one insight -- in the limit physical keys would not scale -- was enough to set the direction for a viable solution – a reprogrammable display. Thus, the solution had to be a computer with a full operating system and a large display.
Conclusions
I have described several reframing methods and mental models to help better define unmet customer needs and solutions. Critically, if the need is not properly identified, the innovation fails.
My colleague Rita McGrath wrote an insightful book called "Seeing Around Corners." [5] It is about identifying trends, developments, and inflection points that open new opportunities. This ability is at the heart of value creation and innovation.
Reframing, and the other i4i concepts and practices, are essential tools for helping teams identify opportunities faster and more efficiently than the competition. It is also a way to help teams avoid the biggest mistake they can make at the start – a singular focus on the approach. Because this issue is so fundamental, I will be posting more shortly.
If you have ideas or methods that work for your teams, please note them in the comments section below. I will comment.?
References
Extraordinary Innovations LLC "Our most important innovation is the way we work." CreativePro.AI ChatGPT Augmenting the Human Intellect for Transformation of Existential Risk Reduction and Openwater.Health Wearables
2 年Re: Siri “Augmented Conversations“ in Transformation of Risk Reductions “I see exactly what you see.” * June 6, 2022 - Croquet.io OS Building the Metaverse Infrastructure https://bit.ly/3xcVsvV [ …] “One early client is Hitachi, and David A. Smith (founder and CTO) said the Japanese conglomerate is looking to the operating system as a means to building software tools for industrial management. “You can imagine a factory floor,” said Smith. “What we want to do is to project information (from the factory) into the virtual world so that if you’re out somewhere you can actually see the current state of the floor and you can engage with it and modify it.”… Tech insights The OS for the Metaverse https://bit.ly/3MgJUNC Microverses are independent, interconnected web-based spaces and worlds created on the Metaverse. Croquet OS is a powerful and easy open way to build microverses. Billions of independent, interconnected microverses will make up the Metaverse. Most will be built with Croquet OS. Croquet OS is a browser based operating system featuring a bit identical shared virtual machine and JavaScript developer tools.
Vice Chancellor for Research and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Irvine
2 年Very interesting set of thoughts and ideas. Thanks Curt and Larry. I am curious as to how capacity for abstract thinking helps with creative reframings as hinted by Larry.
Professor of Practice, Northeastern University and Distinguished Executive in Residence, WPI
2 年This is great Larry: "That's a real need. It can be latent, but it must comprise significant potential energy. Think spontaneous combustion. Society has only so many abstract thinkers, less than 1%, who can reframe instantaneously to notice possibilities...and the other 99% may just miss recognizing the those pains that point to the biggest opportunities. Reframing is a valuable tool to overcome this theoretical limitation." Two points: First, an entreprenur friend of mine, Indre, describe what she does is spontaneous combustion" and that is right. There should be every behid the need and surprise and the solution. Second, no one gets it right at first. Most think "Idea = Need" which is never true as you note. Reframing is one powerful way to avoid the mistake. But you still need creativity to get the solution right. Thanks.
Artificial Intelligence | Growth Strategist | Digital Media Management We turn customer pains into prosperity. Is that what you want?
2 年Reframing is crucial to recognize potential new products and services. The MRI example illustrates the value of selecting and treating pain, especially the imaginary pains adults can't actually see...but children can. Another frame: Idea ≠ Need. Most New Product Development failure results from picking the wrong project to focus on (similar to buying the wrong lottery ticket). Any single idea selected is almost certainly the wrong project because it is simply picking one (random) possible target out of an infinite number of targets. Love at first sight? There is an alternative approach that reframing permits. If one were to eliminate from consideration any idea that fails to focus treatment on a serious pain, they would be left with only big fish in their lake-of-opportunity to choose from. If the fire department gets a call that there is a fire (a need) but with no address, they may head off in the hope that their intuition will take them to the fire. What are the changes of them reaching the fire? About the same as standard NPD success. It may not be enough to seek and address just the first need that comes to mind. To succeed you may want an intense, important, and profitable need. It needs to target intense pains to get traction, like a headache that makes you get off the freeway to buy aspirin. That's a real need. It can be latent, but it must comprise significant potential energy. Think spontaneous combustion. Society has only so many abstract thinkers, less than 1%, who can reframe instantaneously to notice possibilities...and the other 99% may just miss recognizing the those pains that point to the biggest opportunities. Reframing is a valuable tool to overcome this theoretical limitation.