Inventing Elephants

You've borrowed an idea and extended and baked it into something new.

Eureka!

Maybe.

Because just maybe it's a BAD idea. And, yes, when it comes to ideas you're planning to put into action, there are bad ideas.

The fifth step in Murray's innovation process is to judge your ideas.

Ideas take time. They take work. And judgment is the thing that manages that work. - David Murray

First you listen to your head, stepping back and objectively considering the idea as it relates to your original definition of the problem you were trying to solve. After all, Picasso would likely have been just as upset if he'd created David as Michelangelo would have been if he'd created Guernica.

Find the weaknesses.

Where does the solution not fit the need? What will be the barriers to its success, such as cost, unlikely buy-in from key players, or a dependance on a technological solution that hasn't been fully tested yet?

Find the strengths.

What is worth keeping about it? What are the best parts? How is it better than the previous solution?

Figure out how you feel about it.

Having done the logical analysis, what does your gut say? This isn't a question designed to throw away your analysis, but to attempt to enhance it with input from your subconscious.

This is where you begin to find the perfect idea, or as close as we can get anyway, that you can actually implement to address your problem statement.

More on Borrowing Brilliance

This post is the fifth in a series looking in the principles of the book Borrowing Brilliance. You can find the others at:

1. Build a Foundation for Innovation with Problem Definitions
2. Use Existing Ideas to Construct New Ideas
3. Innovate Through Metaphorical Connections
4. Give Your Subconscious a Turn
5. Compare the Solution to the Problem