If you are working on new product development, you may have seen that the most precious commodity is time.

Time to understand the problem.

Time to come up with truly elegant solutions.

Time to consider all the options.

Time to focus on the most important, ignoring all the distractions that are thrown in your direction.

 

It does take time and effort to create a good product. I’m sure you have heard about several innovative technology projects in the recent years.

Behind each successful project there are people that have one thing in common: they are efficient with spending their hours, focusing on the right thing at the right moment.

 

And no matter if it is a large corporation or a start-up, during the last 12 years I heard it from different teams again and again:

because of the time pressure, passionate engineers are keen on jumping right into solution design, without considering all the options to solve the problem, or, indeed, checking whether the right problem is being solved.

 

No wonder. When we experience time pressure, many of us tend to take shortcuts and to rely on the first idea that is good enough.

And it is not our fault really. Our unconscious picks what seems to be the shortest path to the destination at that moment. It does not mean it is the best or quickest.

Relying just on our gut feel is not enough. To find the most optimal path, we need to go throught problem-solving process consciously.

 

So, after about 6 years of research and training in creativity and product innovation, I have decided to create a simple yet effective tool that will help product creators, engineers and inventors to create better products by becoming better problem-solvers.

And this is without having to read a 300 pages manual on creativity and problem-solving skills.

 

Say Hi to the Innovation Deck.

It is a poker-sized deck of cards that will help you to generate new product ideas.

Without taking too much of your time.

 

Within these cards, you will find the best ideas and creative techniques that have proven to be effective over and over again in a variety of industries: from offshore engineering and telecom to consumer goods and medical devices.

 

It is meant to be an efficient problem-solving guide in a box, a check-list, a reminder to follow the problem-solving process properly.

That means: from any given problem, start with a problem understanding, then generate a wide range of ideas. And only then select the one that truly is the “best fit”. Then work on details, repeating the same problem-solving cycle again, but on a smaller scale.

 

The Innovation Deck consists of three parts:

 

“EXAMINE” cards help you to look at an existing (or future) product from various viewpoints. Use them to answer the question, “What does my customer care about? How can I add more value to my product? What needs to be improved further?”

Pick “EXAMINE” cards if you are reviewing an existing design or looking for additional opportunities to improve a product. So you can use them either in the beginning of a project  (to define the future product), or during the project for “mini design reviews”, making sure the product turns out the way you want to be.

 

“EXPLORE” cards assist you in discovering a range of solutions and answering the question, “What are all the options to solve this? What can be done? What else?”

They contain a set of creative techniques,  carefully chosen to be used in technology-heavy new product development projects.

Pick these cards if you are looking for solutions to a well-defined problem. For example, you can use them in a creative workshop with your team.

 

Finally, “EVALUATE” cards supply several techniques that will aid you to review solutions and choose the optimal one. They help you to answer the question, “Which idea should I invest my time in?”

 

You may want to keep this card deck in your bag, in the meeting room or on your desk – anywhere you might need an extra boost of inspiration.

 

If you haven´t tried out the Innovation Deck yet, download 24 cards for free here.

And please don´t forget to leave a comment below and let us know your opinion!