We had the opportunity to visit Fluxx, an innovation company that creates new products and services in order to drive growth for businesses by encouraging a start-up behaviour and mindset using design thinking methodologies. We had a lecture from Richard Poole on Ideation and Experimentation, and the power of ideas.
We discuss about the myths around ideas, and how sometimes we have the mindset that our idea has to be good, original, and how we need to have all the details fixed upfront. The guys at Fluxx shared with us how these myths might ruin an innovation process, and what we need to focus is on how to turn a product in being effective, and how it is important to be close to the user in order to understand their needs, and that all ideas are bad until someone makes them good.
Also, he shared three important elements we should considering when innovating: It has to be desirable (people should want it), feasible (it has to be possible to make it), and viable (be able to run it without spending a fortune). He also shared the importance of having a lot of ideas, and also understanding when things don't work, especially when testing them, and if they don't work, at least there is valuable learning in those ideas.
As a gift, Richard gave us one of the books published by Fluxx, called Unthinkable, the culture and politics of getting innovation wrong, written by Tom Hopkins. This book is a must read for everyone interested in innovation, especially when trying to set an innovation team within companies. It has been one of the books I have enjoyed the most.