Six strategies to 🎙️"Ignite Your Creativity and Validate Concepts"

Freezer. No matter how much ever concepts I make, I'm still not satisfied. And I keep iterating a lot. Even though I have to satisfy the clients or boss or even my customers or even myself. So that is the kind of dilemma I have always been there. Even after making hundreds of brainstorming and thousands of concepts and everything. Right, we still have that problem. So this particular podcast is going to address that. Guys. Okay, so welcome, welcome to the Design for Change podcast. Yet another episode with me. Thank you for staying tuned in. So now let's dive deep into this topic. Okay, so being a designer, whether it's a digital products or physical products, we always have this kind of infinite loop running in. Okay. Like how much ever concepts we make and how much ever time we spend on generating new concepts. We don't have a format to self check. We don't have a structure to tell whether this concept is good or not or that. Right. Because design itself is very abstractive and to a certain extent we can logically make a decision. But I come from an engineering background. I know it's little difficult to really rationalize over a formula based answers and a design based answers. So that is why this podcast is going to give you a six tips of how you can make sure your ideas are good and then you just land it in your market right away. Either it would be freelancing or you work for an mnc, or you just work as a design consultant or you even start up. Okay. Yes guys. So the first point, what you have to do is make sure to check whether you are in the creative zone and your ideas are good is to check whether you're following a process. Okay, process. What I mean is it could be anything. You define that there need not have to be a design thinking process. What so called design community calls like you have to research, ideate, prototype, test it. That's okay, you can follow that. You can follow a process of double diamond, you can follow a process of how much ever diamond you want. That is totally up to you. There is no hard and fast rule. But you need to have a process based on the customer based on the problem statement. How are you going to address it? Don't just randomly start with concepts. If you have a process, you will have a conviction to show somebody or maybe your clients or yourself that this has a followed process to do it. If you're able to do it, then to a certain extent you can able to substantiate it. Okay, so this is the first tip which is having a process which you can define again, there are a lot of templates like Ideo toolkits and there are templates what Frog Design Studio has created for solving design problems. And certain studios like you know, a world class design studios from Dieter Ram's 10 principles of design. So from this also you can able to derive a process on your own. That is totally fine. And it's up to you. Okay, this is the point. The second is self retrospection. This is very, very important guys. You have to really think whatever problem, what you're solving, how it's going to be solved in the past. Like let's say you're having a problem of drinking a water. Like let's say you have a problem to design a water bottle. Think thousand years before how people would have solved it. Self retrospect yourself even without a technology, even without any resources and formal education or design or something how people would have solved that go to that particular time back dated and then solve it. You know what? Surprisingly you will find an amazing answers fitting in this context. And you can take it future also you can take it hundred years from now how the world would be and how people would be drinking water. Whether people would be even having a water bottle to drink. Or is it something beyond like any, any kind of a tablet pill if we take then hydration will be normal. Like I don't know, like we have to think both ways. This is to really make a self retrospection of ourselves either in the past or future. Larger chances you will end up in lot creative ideas. And I did it. And a lot of people have also did. I've seen that they got an amazing idea. Because when you go back you think okay, how people have got to drink water even though they don't have a container. Will they have drunk in their hand or do they have any kind of natural, what you call leaves or any kind of shrunk or bark of a tree to carve it and use it as a container. How do people really take out then you bring a lot of perspective in your designs. This is a beautiful way to check again out of the six tips. Do not just follow one tip, guys. You have to make it mix it. You have to make it combination or maybe sometimes it stands alone also. So make sure you use that combination wisely to create it. Again as I said, it's a creative zone. So we need to be applying creatively also the six tips, okay? It's not a direct formula you're going to apply. This is the second one self retrospection going back and forth in timeline. Third is you will have to really think about what you call doing a greater design iteration. Like let's say if you're making a benchmark, okay, your competitors, the products in the market, please make sure somebody would have definitely arrived this kind of a process or a project, or a product or a service. So go and do a very deep research. Even after following a design process, you can still do it. You don't have to necessarily go a lot of things deep into the research and do it, but you can do it in comparison. And you know what you will find. Lot of products and offerings will be there across the market. Maybe if it is completely new, what you're designing, that itself is a unique point that you can deliver to your customer or client to sell this concept. See, always remember, you need to be a salesman to sell your concept. If you don't know what is sales and design, probably your concepts are just going to lie only in the papers or in your documents and case studies. That's it. It will not end up in real time solution. You need to know how to sell the benefits of the concepts. What you're doing that is largely important. That comes majorly from your improvement of communication skills or even showcasing your communication through design, through sketches, through models, through prototypes, through mock ups, etc. Okay, so this kind of a research will actually make sure you go very deep into your competitor analysis and set it up. Yes, this is the third one to verify that you are in a creative zone and your ideas are good. Fourth way you can affirm is you can think like a visionary. Again, there is a huge difference between being innovative and visionary. I'll tell you two case studies. Okay, there's a guy called Karl Benz, 19th century's beginning. So he was the one who actually first did this new automotive. If he would have not done that, we would be still running horses. Okay, go and read about Karl Benz and how the Mercedes Benz company really started. I've been there in Wolfsburg, Germany. I had a chance to go and visit the first car. What he actually did, it was mind blowing. I got a goosebumps when I was standing near that. So if Carl Benz would have did a research or a so called design thinking process with any of the customer, would anybody have told him to design a car like that? No. Right. So that's actually called visionary thinking. If he would have done some, let's say primary research or secondary research, people would have given him answers like okay, bring me a faster horse, bring me an efficient horse, bring me a lightweight horse. Maybe people would have, because people have not seen that big picture to be very correct. People don't know what they want. As a designers, we create a future for them. Right? That's why honesty and integrity and your values will determine your designs and final concepts. If that is not there, please go and rework on your inner engineering and mindset that largely impacts your concepts, what you make. Okay? Design is not just a tool and template. You apply and then you bring some concepts. It's completely reflection of your personality. So that visionary thinking, if you have, you will go and find in that particular Carl Benz mindset what made him think about making this internal combustion engine, IC engine. Right? We called. So far no customer would have said in the research, oh, Karl Benz, please design me an internal combustion engine with 800cc with the four stroke. That's not possible. People don't know it. Right? Yes. There is a second case study, okay. There is a guy called Henry Ford. We know Ford as a car brand and. Right. So Henry Ford was a founder and he was actually redefined the whole automotive industry by introducing mass manufacturing, you know, the line manufacturing. One of his colleague in Ford has actually went to a butchery shop in Switzerland, okay. At the start of 19th century. So he was actually watching that meat getting assembled in a line section. Okay. Just imagine how the meat hangs in that particular movies and all so same like that. So each and every section, they cut each and every pieces of the meat and then they assemble it. So this guy was fascinated. And then he came and told to Ford saying, hey, can we use this for our system? You know what, this is a difference. When he was an innovator, he would have just thought a lot of things, whether it'll work, not this, that, but being a visionary, he brought a good light for this idea. He started manufacturing things in a line, in a batch. Like people will be assembling wheels, people will be assembling chases, people will be assembling the entire, what do you call the suspension. Then the entire car comes in. You know what if that has not happened? Probably we would be waiting six months to one year for getting each car manufactured. Because that is the actual waiting time at that point of time. Even in 40s, 50s, 1970s, after this line, mass manufacturing happened today, you know what, in just 48 seconds, Maruti Suzuki is able to roll out one car outside in just 48 seconds. Imagine how fast I think it's two, three years before now they would have even got better. So look at that particular idea, how entire thing is getting changed so this is where you also tune in your creativity to bring those idea. And when I was working in tafe, also in every three minutes there used to be a tractor rolled out. So imagine the kind of fast. There will be a guy for wheel, there will be a guy for engine, there'll be a guy for body, everything and then it comes out. So bringing and thinking like a visionary will actually make sure your ideas are damn good. And then you're creative and you will have a more conviction to talk to your customers to sell your ideas. Again, there is a huge difference between innovation and visionary which I explained you. Okay, so apply that. The fifth one is convergent and divergent. This is really important, guys. See, convergent is like a funnel, okay? Pointing towards like let's say if you're designing a product or service. Like let's say if you're designing a water bottle or an application for your water bottle, go deep into that particular concept. How it can help people, how it can solve the problem, how it can be very innovative. Go, go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep into that water bottle, into that application. What do I application really tell? So how much the person drank the water and how's the cleanliness of the water. Your application can show how much of turbidity is available in the water and how much of calories has been burned. So your application could have a lot of different, different things, right? Like a smart water bottle or whatever. Your concept, you can apply it to anything. So going deep into one particular concept and then you bring up lot of innovation. You know what you'll have to do two, two hours of chunk if you wanted to get a good results. Just thinking for two minutes of conversion thinking will not give you any ideas. Okay? You will have to discipline yourself to converge, converge Deep, deep. Two hour session, give a break and then two hours, end of the four hours you will be surprised. You will have so deeper ideas that nobody would have even thought of in your competitors. Okay? That's the first thing. Second is the divergent. You'll have to now go out of the water bottle. Now you'll have to just separate the ways. Okay? Divergent is like a upside of a funnel. You'll have to just go abroad. Abroad in the sense not countries like broad. So you have to bring ideas from different industries. Okay? How can the water bottle drinking problem is actually solved in different areas. Like let's say how defense is solving. Like let's say how aircraft is solving. How do F1 Formula 1 drivers drink water bottle? You know that they drink through straws. And the water bottle is behind and it comes from the suction action. Go and watch it. It's an interesting mechanism. Okay. Because Formula one drivers cannot drink water bottle in one hand, then the car will crash. So you need to think how people have thought about in different areas, different fields and different technologies. Bring that in. Same like what Henry Ford's employee suggested. So you'll have to bring that divergent area and put it. Many of the TED talk speakers and innovators and design thinkers have really proven this convergent and divergent ideas working in very, very creative field. Please do apply it. It's a wonderful thing. Okay, so the sixth and last technique is verify your ideas to actually have a meditation of yourself. Meditation is not literally sitting for hours. Just close your eyes and sit for 10 minutes and just focus your mind in one thing. You know, focus is one of the biggest asset more than money, diamond, gold or anything. If you're able to calm your mind, all these distractions and clutters, your boss, your tension, your colleagues, your peer pressure, your financial problem, your relationship problem will go out and then you'll clearly see through what needs to be done. Okay? Customer only needs this problem to be solved. Why am I complicating it? You will end up in a very simple design, right? Minimal design. Bauhaus design people have come to that simplicity, removing all those clutters. You may be surprised by these ideas. The other way to approach is you can completely distract from your world, take a break and then come back to your problem to solve. Because if you're too much thinking about the problem for a longer time, probability is you will get stuck, right? So you have to disengage and come back. See again, Jagdish. I'm working in a corporate area. I cannot go and sit and close my eyes and people will think crazy. Make sure your entire team does it. Then it won't sound like crazy, right? Again, you'll have to sell your team this concept. Like, hey, if you sit for five minutes or few minutes, maybe we'll end up making a great idea. Convince your boss also, he'd be also happy to do it, right? So just make sure your workplace is really creative and dynamic. It doesn't feel like a desk, office work kind of a job. So it did. Let it be very creative and you remove all your desk under chairs for some time and everybody sit in the floor and just do it. Try it. It works. If you wanted to dance, you can dance for few minutes. Not much. Many creative design studios does it Guys, don't think I'm sounding crazy. Go and watch case studies of how creative design thinking process has been applied. We do it in sometimes in institutes, but in many design studios they do it. They have a conversation, they have what you call a drink, they have heartflow conversation, they go and walk, they go and talk like then and only this kind of a creativity can be done. And then with that process outcome you can trust it will be a most creative idea. Okay. And I'm going to be giving you an extra tip, okay. Which is a golden tip which works even though the six doesn't work. Okay, listen out carefully. You have to iterate lot of concept. Let's say if you're not sure, let's say if your boss is not accepting and then you are very scared whether whether you are doubtful, you having made all this design thinking process, you're still not able to do it. Go and iterate a lot of ideas. When you're able to come up with hundreds and hundreds of ideas. Like let's say if you're designing a pen. Okay, so think about how different ways person can write. Think about how much different ways the person can able to write even without writing. Is there any mechanism I can give my user to make sure he communicates his ideas? So think about in a very, very different way. So the first i50 ideas will be scrap. Next 50 ideas you will see totally different different concepts coming out. You know what, if nothing saves you, this lot of ideas will save you. If you think in multiple possibilities for a longer time, you will end up in very good ideas. Guys. Of course nature evolves in that way, right? Natural selection and selective breeding. So you evolve lot of you make lot of concept and automatically something will evolve out of it. So these are all the ways guys you can able to make sure that you are in a creative zone. I hope this particular information what I gave you six plus one seven tips to make sure you are in the creative zone. Again, it requires a habit and a continuous practice and a consistent to make sure it happens. Hearing this podcast will not give you any benefit. Going and applying each and every one. And make sure you check that if you would have taken this notes of whatever I said, it's really good. Then you go and apply it and then you make sure you get results. Okay? I hope this information is useful for you guys. So take action. Thank you so much for tuning in this episode with me for the Design for Change podcast. So stay tuned. I'll be sharing you lot many things and if you wanted to take up my coaching and mentoring to learn design in a more deeper way. You wanted to travel with me or if you wanted to suggest some of your friends who are in that need, please feel free to reply in this email what I've given you in this podcast and you can subscribe to Spotify channel and you can give rating if you find this podcast. Okay? So thank you guys. Thank you so much. We'll stay tuned in another episode. Thank you. Take care. Bye bye.

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