Popular myths equate creativity with playful chaos & eureka moments. But professional creatives know that coming up with fresh insights in the face of everyday challenges requires a specific kind of discipline — in mindset & methodology.
In real art & design (vs. the decoration industry) there’s painstaking work needed to look deeper & differently at the world around us, notice different things, and reimagine the old in new ways.
The best artists & entrepreneurs share this approach, in a way. The result in both cases are new directions that are invisible to folks using purely quant, linear, or bureaucratic approaches, or relying purely on conventional wisdom.
It’s this rigor that’s your secret weapon in situations where traditional business & engineering methods fall short, and it’s particularly suited to business challenges involving innovation.
A few examples:
Creating new business ideas that you couldn’t come up with by just looking at the numbers
You don’t know the “right” answer in advance, and it’s not a multiple-choice test (you need rapid hypothesis generation & testing)
Trying to create new markets that don’t exist yet (so the data doesn’t exist either)
Going from a one-hit-wonder to broader, more repeatable innovation systems
Connecting dots that are not visible at the surface — unique value hiding in the ordinary & everyday
You have to understand people/customers differently - reframe markets & domains from a human standpoint, not your corporate orthodoxies
Unleash true cognitive diversity to solve complex challenges — different thinking & problem-solving styles, not just demographics
When becoming “part of the culture” is critical to the success of business & tech ideas (think Apple, Tesla, AirBnB…)
But it takes special skills, training, & experience to adapt & apply creative tools to “non-traditional” challenges that may not look “creative” on the surface.
More examples here.
