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\nI’ve had my share of uninspiring\u00a0ideas over the years, but I’ve also had a number of\u00a0keepers\u2014like the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar, which have endured far longer than I ever imagined in 1993.<\/p>\n
\nI’ve had my share of uninspiring\u00a0ideas over the years, but I’ve also had a number of\u00a0keepers\u2014like the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar, which have endured far longer than I ever imagined in 1993.<\/p>\n
Based on what\u2019s worked for me, I think I can help you come up with better ideas. Here are five\u00a0tactics that may\u00a0increase your chances of success:<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say you\u2019re trying to improve the experience of hospital patients. Sure, you should spend time in hospitals and see what goes on. But I\u2019d suggest that you study some other field, and use that different perspective as a starting point\u00a0for innovation. For example, I bet that hanging out at a Ritz-Carlton and learning about high-end hotels would give you plenty of food for thought.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re like me, the first few ideas you have will be conventional and unimaginative. Too many people stop there. Don\u2019t make that mistake. Force yourself to keep going. You might need to produce ten middling ideas before you\u2019ll be in position to come up with a promising one.<\/p>\n
Bouncing ideas off other people can be helpful, but in my experience, it\u2019s best to wait a little while before doing that. New ideas are fragile, and even the most well-intentioned feedback can be harmful. Take a day or so to consider what you\u2019ve come up with before you involve anyone else.<\/p>\n
Work hard on your project, then put it aside. You need to recharge your mental reserves. And while you do other things\u2014in particular, mindless activities like showering or walking\u2014you may find that ideas occur to you unexpectedly. Just the way that computers have background processes, we seem to have unconscious thought processes that continue after we\u2019ve stopped paying attention.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t hold out too long for an astounding idea. Those are rare. Instead, once you\u2019ve come up with a decent idea, figure out a way to get started quickly. Make a rough prototype or write a first draft, then put it in front of an audience. By moving ahead with an average idea, you may find that a great idea occurs to you along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had my share of uninspiring\u00a0ideas over the years, but I’ve also had a number of\u00a0keepers\u2014like the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar, which have endured far longer than I ever imagined in 1993. Based on what\u2019s worked for me, I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8787,"featured_media":855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[503],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/files\/2017\/08\/sea2.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Tgb2-df","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/danieloran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}