This post deals with how to innovate and move past what has come before. Whether it be for design or even a branding strategy it comes down to a single question - WHAT IF?
Throughout the ages, innovation has been fostered by imagining what is possible instead of what you can do with your current resources. The key way to innovate is to question the status quo and "ask the right questions" - not what can we do now, but what is possible. Companies large and small have been founded on this very idea.
What if someone sold socks that didn't match? In his new book Disrupt, Luke Williams, a veteran of frog design, talks about how that offbeat question was the impetus for the launch of Little Miss Matched, a company whose purposely mismatched socks proved surprisingly popular with young girls. It's one of a number of examples Williams cites of new business innovations that began with what he calls "a disruptive hypothesis." Another better-known one is Netflix, whose business model provided an answer to the question, What if a video rental company didn't charge late fees?
It’s interesting that when you deconstruct stories of innovation, you find that many of them start with a question--often one that could be considered provocative, naïve, or maybe even a little crazy. Even Einstein said that if he only had an hour to solve a problem and his life depended on it, he’d devote the first 55 minutes to figuring out the right question to answer.
In school, we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question. In that regard, we need to "unlearn" those practices and start asking the right questions.
