Module-2 (9 Hours)

Sense Intent: Mindsets, Sensing Changing Conditions, Seeing Overviews, Foreseeing Trends, Reframing
Problems, Forming an Intent, Sense Intent: Methods, Buzz Reports, Popular Media Scan, Key Facts,
Innovation Sourcebook, Trends Expert Interview, Keyword Bibliometrics, Ten Types of Innovation
Framework, Innovation Landscape, Trends Matrix, Convergence Map, From To Exploration, Initial
Opportunity Map, Offering-Activity-Culture Map, Intent Statement.
Know Context: Mindsets, Knowing Context History, Understanding Frontiers, Seeing System Overviews,
Understanding Stakeholders, Using Mental Models, Know Context: Methods, Contextual Research Plan,
Popular Media Search, Publications Research, Eras Map, Innovation Evolution Map, Financial Profile,
Analogous Models, Competitors- Complementors Map, Ten Types of Innovation Diagnostics, Industry
Diagnostics, SWOT Analysis, Subject Matter Experts Interview, Interest Groups Discussion.
Sense Intent: Mindsets
• Detecting the latest happening in the world today, forming
speculations about what new situations may be looming on the
horizon.
• Recognizing what is new or in flux, and identifying hotspots of
potential growth.
• Helps to identify potential opportunities for innovation and form our
initial hypotheses.
• Hypothesis will be explored and tested, to provide sufficient early
direction for research and exploration.
Sense Intent: Mindsets…
• Sensing changing conditions
• Seeing overviews
• Foreseeing trends
• Reframing problems
• Forming an Intent
MINDSET: SENSING CHANGING
CONDITIONS
• Innovators need to have the mindset of continuously keeping up with
the pace of change whether political, economic, social, cultural,
scientific or technological.
• Changes, especially in areas where others have not yet fully explored,
often indicate fertile ground for innovation.
• In our information-intensive world the challenge of finding new and
unexplored opportunities is huge.
MINDSET: SENSING CHANGING
CONDITIONS
• The torrent of news and data can be overwhelming, and we must
think about where to gather information, how to categorize it, and
how to relate it to the goals and strategies of the organization.
• We should actively monitor various information sources—periodicals,
websites, books, broadcasts, podcasts—and opinions of leading
experts and thought leaders.
• We should regularly debrief about what these sources and experts are
saying, and discuss what trends we see emerging.
MINDSET: SENSING CHANGING
CONDITIONS…
• It is important not only to spot changes in trends but also to
understand how those changes have occurred over time, so that we
can foresee how changes might happen in the future and tell us
something about how our innovations will fit
MINDSET: SEEING OVERVIEWS
• In an unfamiliar place, observing surroundings and getting information
on the ground helps us navigate in that place.
• Cues in the environment, landmarks, and street signs are all helpful
sources of information for guidance.
• Also valuable are “overviews,” like street maps, navigation systems that
show GPS location, and radio broadcasts about traffic and weather
patterns.
• Innovators searching for opportunities greatly benefit from such
overviews as well. Parts, relations, patterns, and dynamics that are
visualized as overviews help us better understand the changing context
in which we intend to innovate.
MINDSET: SEEING OVERVIEWS…
• The insights that we gain from close-proximity and ground level
observations about people and context are a good source for
incremental innovations.
• Often radically new and disruptive innovations emerge from our
overview mindset, the ability to see big pictures
Gapminder chart
MINDSET: FORESEEING TRENDS
• Trends show us general directions in which something is developing
or changing.
• They emerge in our daily life all the time.
• For sensing innovation opportunities the most common trends that
we track relate to technology, business, culture, people, markets, and
the economy.
• We should identify and understand trends early on so that we are in a
better position to quickly and positively respond to their impact on
the future.
MINDSET: FORESEEING TRENDS…
• Recognizing trends is a skill that can be cultivated by carefully learning
to discern patterns of activities taking place around us.
• Simply being able to recognize which sectors of the economy are
growing and which are in decline can help us develop a provisional
sense of the economic opportunity.
• Staying on top of the latest technology developments and seeing
patterns of their adoption, we can begin to foresee how technology
trends may shape the types of products and services that will be
required in the future.
MINDSET: REFRAMING PROBLEMS
• Being able to recognize and understand the “conventions” that
operate in an organization can help us think about how things might
be approached differently.
• For example, in industries governed by Six Sigma practices, minimizing
variability in manufacturing becomes a primary driver of business
decisions.
• This practice makes sense for established processes, but may not be
the appropriate mindset when pursuing new-to-the-world businesses.
MINDSET: REFRAMING PROBLEMS…
• As conditions change, what was once true may no longer be so.
• To be truly innovative, new problems and opportunities need to be thought
through differently.
• Challenging conventional wisdom requires an understanding of how it came to
be in the first place and thinking about how best to reframe it to be appropriate
for a future possibility.
• Just as it is important to question prevailing conventions, it is equally important
to question how innovation challenges are framed.
• Is the innovation challenge about making a better mobile phone, a better mobile
communication device, or creating a compelling remote communication
experience?
• Moreover, mindsets for reframing problems broaden possibilities and help us
arrive at nonobvious solutions
MINDSET: FORMING AN INTENT
• After we develop a good understanding of the latest news,
developments, trends, and conventions, we switch to a mindset of
consciously forming an early intent for innovation.
• By consciously stating the prevailing and emerging conditions, it
becomes easier to define the type of innovation that should be
conceived.
• For instance, if a long-range trend indicates an aging population that is
expected to live longer than any prior generation, then our innovation
intent will prominently factor in the needs of people with potentially
limited mobility.
MINDSET: FORMING AN INTENT…
• Continuously keeping up with latest events and trends helps us
develop hunches about where the world may be headed and gut
feelings about the kinds of innovations that can be built on those
trends.
• Many businesses operate according to such hunches.
• But such an intuitive approach may be wildly off the mark and can
lead to unnecessary expenditures and failed products.
• More than asserting an intent based on best guesses, grounding an
initial intent statement in a fact-based context makes it both reliable
and credible
• Sense Intent: Methods, Buzz Reports, Popular Media Scan, Key Facts,
Innovation Sourcebook, Trends Expert Interview, Keyword
Bibliometrics, Ten Types of Innovation Framework, Innovation
Landscape, Trends Matrix, Convergence Map, From To Exploration,
Initial Opportunity Map, Offering-Activity-Culture Map, Intent
Statement.
Buzz Reports: Collecting and sharing information
about the latest “buzz” from a wide array of sources
HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: Allocate regular time to explore the latest in various sources.
STEP 2: Browse through sources of information for the current buzz.
STEP 3: Aggregate and share findings.
STEP 4: Have discussions in group sessions.
Buzz Reports
• EXAMPLE PROJECT: LEARNING APPS—PEAPOD
• LABS (2010)
• A team of three graduates from the IIT Institute of Design, who were former
engineers, founded Peapod Labs to create playful, educational apps for children.
They rigorously applied the process described in this book to develop innovative
learning apps. Their philosophy was rooted in the belief that learning should be
collaborative between parent and child and, above all, fun. Children share what
they learn on their apps, making it easy for parents to contribute to the learning
process as well. Following the same collaborative approach, the founders of
Peapod Labs used Buzz Reports to build an internal culture around sharing and
active discussion. Buzz Reports, which comprise e-books, articles, and journals,
were shared informally among all the team members.
• When a team member disseminated information, a comment was also included
about the relevance of the article to the team’s goals. This helped to keep
everyone on the same page and brought structure to the meetings where the
reports were discussed and topics debated. This method helped them keep
abreast of the current trends and news in their relevant industries such as
education, technology, and mobile devices.
Buzz Reports…
BENEFITS
1. Captures the latest
2. Organizes information for easy access
3. Promotes shared understanding
4. Inspires possibilities
INPUT
1. Latest information (news and opinions) from formal and informal
sources
OUTPUT
1. Evolving central repository of latest information
1.2 Popular Media Scan: Understanding key cultural
phenomena through a broad look at what is published and
broadcasted in popular media

HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: Identify broad topics related to the project.
STEP 2: Seek out information related to the topics.
STEP 3: Look for patterns.
STEP 4: Look at adjacent topics as well.
STEP 5: Summarize findings and discuss opportunities.
• EXAMPLE PROJECT: HEARTSENSE—ADDRESSING
• OBAMA’S HEALTHC ARE AGENDA (2009) The year 2009 marked an
important year for healthcare reform under the Obama
administration because it aimed to change U.S. healthcare by
providing coverage to the uninsured, reducing healthcare costs,
improving patient safety and quality of care, holding insurance
companies accountable for the services they provide, and investing in
prevention and wellness. Professor Larry Keeley asked his students at
the IIT Institute of Design to create a platform that addresses Obama’s
national healthcare agenda using design innovation methods. To
better understand the issues, the team performed a Popular Media
Scan to learn about the current and evolving healthcare landscape by
going through books and articles from leading authors such as Clayton
Christensen’s The Innovator’s Prescription. They also visited popular
media websites like the New York Times,
• EXAMPLE PROJECT: HEARTSENSE—ADDRESSING…
• The Economist, and the Fast Company and blogs like HelloHealth.com.
These sources revealed different perspectives of the healthcare crisis,
ongoing innovations, and future possibilities. They found key trends in
telemedicine, open source platforms, and social and cultural
medicine. The team designed HeartSense, a platform that helps to
reduce heart disease in low income African American women using
culturally sensitive outreach programs, targeted subsidies for healthy
foods, and easily identifiable claim labels supported by mobile
technology aiding better consumer choices in the grocery store.
Popular Media Scan…
BENEFITS
1. Shows cultural context
2. Reveals patterns
3. Provides direction
INPUT
1. Project’s topic
2. Sources in popular media
OUTPUT
1. Areas for further research
2. Opportunity areas for innovation
Key Facts:
Gathering key information to anchor the rationale for an intent statement

HOW IT WORKS
STEP 1: Define the general topic.
STEP 2: Identify sources of credible information about the topic.
STEP 3: Cast a wide net and conduct research.
STEP 4: Organize information by type.
STEP 5: Summarize the Key Facts into a coherent rationale.
• EXAMPLE PROJECT: NEW OPTIONS FOR OUT-OFSCHOOL
• YOUTH (2008)
• A nonprofit foundation and a philanthropic organization dedicated resources to
address the lack of opportunities for out-of-school youths. A team of design planners
from the IIT Institute of Design worked with the foundation to propose a solution that
would connect out-of-school youths with sustainable and satisfying careers. The high
school dropout rate is commonly referred to as the “silent epidemic” and it prompted
the team to uncover the causes behind the epidemic and its overall impact to the
individual and society. The team researched white papers and educational sites to
find Key Facts about the drivers behind the nation’s elevated high school dropout
rate. They discovered that while this epidemic crosses economic and ethnic
backgrounds, the situation is more dire in minority populations with almost as much
as 50 percent of African American, Hispanic, and Native American youth leaving high
school without a diploma. They also found that many of these out-of-school youths
were smart, but they were dropping out due to boredom, lack of motivation, and
misaligned interests relative to the curriculum. Understanding these key facts allowed
the team to build a supportive platform that would connect the skills of out-of-school
youths with businesses and communities in which everyone would benefit.
Key Facts
BENEFITS
1. Builds credible foundation
2. Facilitates quick and early discovery
3. Supports intent definition
INPUT
1. Project’s topic
2. Reliable sources of factual information
OUTPUT
1. List of Key Facts relevant to project
2. Areas for further research
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