MónicaFajardo
Design thinking | Visual design
INNOVATION TOOLKIT
There is no single recipe or formula for innovation—and we were not the first to explore it. Through prototyping and piloting hundreds of design thinking workshops, we created a simple, step-by-step guide that combines practical activities and theory to democratize innovation for beginners.
A project designed with and for Pillow® with the collaboration of verynice.
The challenge
Develop an easy-to-follow framework to initiate beginner's journey in the Design thinking methodology.
Performance objectives
After using the toolkit, participants will frame and validate innovative ideas using the provided framework, leading to clearer problem definitions and testable solutions.
Learning objectives
-
Frame innovation challenges using the toolkit’s structured framework.
-
Generate and validate ideas through practical activities and early testing.
-
Share ideas and gather feedback to inform next development steps.
Creativity is one the most sought after soft skill but not everyone is looking to get better at it.
It seems like a skill only attributed to those who practice artistic inclined jobs when in reality it's a skill we use from the most ordinary of tasks to the most complex.
To not recognize it as such is shutting the door to opportunity and growth.
Where do good ideas come from?
A person in average has around 6200 thoughts a day. To transform a thought into an idea requires the brain to make unlikely associations between mental representations acquired by observation and past experiences. Following that train of thought then, we can say that everyone is creative.
But only those who actively train their creativity can grasp innovation, for like Steven Johnson once said, "innovation is like evolution" where ideas feed of time and experiences in order for the brain to make connections.
What business idea comes to mind?
To better explain how creativity works and how it fuels innovation we ask you to connect the following concepts and think a million-dollar idea.
Example: Suffering through an endless traffic jam? Open Bunnyoke, a car app that randomly groups you with other users to sing-along a popular song by memory (we don't want to distract you too much from the road).
Tip: Don't only think about each item as a whole, think about it's smaller parts to build your ideas
Rabbit
Street
Sing
The result
We developed the Pillow Innovation toolkit, a helpful guide that walks learners through four hand-on activities starting with the process of framing a problem, followed by brainstorming technique, how to measure your ideas, and sharing your ideas for feedback.
01.
Frame the problem
Use the What's the situation worksheet to identify challenging or opportunity situations through four different lenses.
02.
Pointstorming
After identifying and understanding the context and elements of the situation, use the Pointstorming tool to come up with as many ideas as you can.
03.
Measure your ideas
Idea storming values quantity over quality, so to sort out the good ideas, use the Radar of Good Ideas worksheet to evaluate each idea and move forward the best one.
04.
Sharing ideas
Share your ideas with your peers, your leader, or your grandmother and gather their feedback following the Structure of a Pitch guide.
For diversity
Your age, profession or cultural background adds perspective to the process.
Step by step guide
Just follow the instructions and let your creativity run wild.
A stepping cloud
At first, it will give you support that you can rely on while you learn the basics. Then it's up to you to take it to the next level.
We see opportunities
Each worksheet is designed to enhance the learning experience of the design process for non-designers.
Learn the basics
So feel free to improvise in the parts to make your own process but you can always look back to get things forward.
Key takeaways
Let's break the myth
We believe anyone can make innovation happen. You just need the right mindset and guidance.
Ready to download
We wanted to share our know how to encourage anyone to get going with their ideas and spread them to the rest of the world.
Download here.
