Creative Problem Solving Jumpstart Ebook

CPS Jumpstart A storybook by SeriouslyCreative to help professionals become dynamic problem solvers and change agents.

Continuous Improvement doesn’t start with ideas, it starts with problems.

If I only had one hour to solve a problem I would spend 55 minutes understanding it first. Once understood the solution would easily be created in the last 5 minutes.

You can think of it as two frequencies.

But we tend to think focus more on the second part.

We think we know a problem that needs to be solved and want to quickly deliver a solution.

Let’s start at the beginning where we make sure we have a good problem to solve and we understand it really well.

We need to first understand, so we can then create.

Opportunity Discovery

Idea Creation

Opportunity Discovery By spending the time to discover a problem and understand it really well; we often feel like we are going too slow and we should hurry up and deliver an idea. But this is a very important first step that makes sure we are solving a real problem (and not a symptom) and that the problem is worth solving. Think of it as “going slow to finish fast.”

This first phase is where we ask “But why?” We need to stop thinking about ideas and instead focus on asking questions like “why does this happen?” “what is holding us back?” “what is something we do that doesn’t add value?”

It’s like being a 6 year old child who asks questions all day long. It is also about being curious enough to dig into data, do the research and work hard to better understand a problem. It takes time and dedication to want to know more.

Finally, it is about being willing to challenge assumptions.

We need to be willing to look at something that the whole company takes for granted and challenge it, asking why it is the way it is.

✴See everything as it is the first time. ✴Ask “why is this; this way” often. ✴Observe what people do before assuming why they do it.

Opportunity Discovery

Beginner’s Mindset 1 5 Why’s This technique was created in the 1920s

by Sakichi Toyoda, founder of Toyota motors and father of what is the “Toyota Way of Continuous Improvement”, method which has influenced industries across the world in their drive to be better.

He believed in going to where a problem existed. For example: going to the paint shop of a car and ask “why” 5 times in order to discover the root cause of a problem. That way, he would make sure all efforts were put into the problem that needed to be solved; rather than waste time of symptoms or non-problems.

Example: 30% of clients are outstanding payments of over 60 days.

Why? Because they had an issue on their bill.

Why? Because there was an issue with their order being incorrect.

Why? Because the wrong items were sent.

Why? Because the order was taken wrong.

Why? Because it was taken too fast. Company incentives are based on speed.

Counter-measure: Change incentives so they are not not just on speed, but accuracy.

Sakichi Toyoda

Opportunity Discovery

Making Problems Visual

If we want people to understand something we should find ways to make it visual.

2 Journey Mapping The right side of the brain loves imagination. This is creative side where we value abundance of ideas, looking at the big picture, challenging assumptions and champion possibility.

Think of experiences or problems as journeys.

Think of telling a story‌ In the beginning, in the middle and in the end.

Make a timeline. Map out the most important moments of the journey and place them high as good experiences or low for those ones that are not so good.

See how many low interactions can be improved.

Maybe the issue is that there are too many interactions and the process should be simplified.

Either way‌ make the problem visible.

beg

Opportunity Discovery

Think Human Centric

Our interactions are neither business to business or business to consumer but human to human.

3 Problems are Human Look at these two problem statements.

The second is written to be about a specific kind of person. The person may be fictitious, but he challenge they face is not.

By making problems about humans, we do two things: 1. We make sure that the challenge is something we know from talking to real people. 2. It makes the problem more meaningful for the people looking to solve it.

A problem Improve the way orders are placed so that they are accurate and can be fulfilled in under 24 hours.

vs About human centric problem Help Mary, a online sales representative, capture all order information correctly and easily so that orders leave the next day.

Opportunity Discovery

Empathy Map 4

Put yourself in their shoes An empathy map is a tool that allows you to think, hear, feel and see things from the user or customer’s ver human perspective.

Make sure you place your customer/user’s name in the middle of the canvas. Put yourself in their shoes and answer the questions about a situation from their point of view. This canvas is also great for guiding interviews.

In the end, identify those Pains and Gains that are distinctly coming up and create a point of view. This gives you enough to turn a challenge into a more specific opportunity based on their human needs.

Create many directions to explore for good ideas.

Use questions to stimulate new thinking.

IDENTIFY PAINS AND GAINS

Idea Creation When it comes to generating ideas, the mind has to be set on possibility. In order to do this, we need to focus on divergent thinking.

This depends on us being willing to say ideas that we are not so sure about at first and being willing to be wrong.

That is why techniques should encourage individual contributions and anonymity. We do this with Post Its™.

In order to suspend judgement, you want people to think What if, Avoid “Yes but…”.and push for YES AND! Brainstorming is about going from DIVERGENT to CONVERGENT. We tend to rush to converge in business. Time is money and we want to deliver a solution fast. But this leads us to suggest the first idea we come up with, and that’s not always good. Too often that’s the most common idea that everyone, including our competitors have.

The best ideas take bit more thinking and bit more work.

So we need to suspend judgment just long enough for people to be divergent - to come up with all the choices before we kick into making a decision.

All possibilities Many ideas

Diverge

Creating Create Choices

Best possibilities Top ideas Converge Selecting Making Choices

Idea Creation

Create Choices 1 Yes. Brainstorming has RULES. i.Suspend judgement (we are going for quantity first. not quality.) ii.Write now, talk later iii.Headline & get visual iv.Build upon ideas of others v.Wild ideas welcome vi.Stay on topic

Diverge

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

-Albert Einstein

2

TECHNIQUES

LEAPROG Pass ideas to the left. Get others to improve or add-on to previous ideas.

SIMPLE SCAMPER SCAMPER is an acronym for words that help us look at the same problem but from different angles. It was originally created to help engineers improve product design but it works just as good for process. Here’s the 4 most provoking of those words: SIMPLIFY COMBINE AMPLIFY ELIMINATE

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.”

-Albert Einstein

Idea Creation

Make Decisions 3

4 DotMocracy

Cluster

Is a technique that helps groups start being aware of those ideas that are more popular in the context of “voting stickers” and colors. Mark your favorite ideas and classify them like this:

In order get a better grasp of all ideas, you want to then organize/group your post it’s by themes. You can also combine ideas that look like they could be part of a bigger picture or concept.

Green - Low hanging fruit Red - Could be transformative

5

Converge

Draw and Pitch!

Drawing your ideas is a way of prototyping.

Helps you quickly see things different. It also shows how (or if it doesn’t).

Also, it helps you understand how it interacts with the users and what it takes to implement.

Finally, remember… you could have the best idea in the world, but you need to communicate it effectively.

If it get’s lost in translation, it never was.… so pitch it like a “pro” and Good luck!!

About us We are an innovation firm with over 11 years of experience design thinking.

What makes us different Our simple, dynamic and structured approach to problem solving facilitates collaboration pushing teams to find the bolder solutions they seek, faster.

We believe in the power & willingness of people to work together, think beyond and create products and services that drive sustainable growth bringing value to the world.

design mindsets

Be Radically Collaborative

Iterate Throughout Process

Suspend Judgement

Prototype to Learn

Show & Tell Stories

Bias Towards Action

Be Human Centric

skills and process

150 clients and growing Dana Montenegro Disruptor

Angie Latorre Button Pusher

Mariela Martinez Agent of Change

Julissa Nieves Ducks on Row Specialist

Loreana Gonzalez Business Strategy, Planning & Process Improvement

Bryant Guardado Startuper

Experience in consumer product and service businesses, startups and working with B2B client branding and marketing efforts, culture and organizational shift, strategy and market launch.

1511 Ave Juan Ponce de Leon, Plaza Ciudadela/La Capilla - Suite 2, Santurce, Puerto Rico 00909 Tel. 787-283-6077 hello@seriouslycreative.com seriouslycreative[dot]com