[MUSIC] Welcome back to session three of Design Thinking for Business Innovation. This weeks topic is idea generation. But to get started, let's remind ourselves where we left off last week. In our first session together, we answered the question, What is design thinking? And in the second session, we looked at preparing our minds to innovate. We described one view of the design thinking process as being about four questions: What is? That describes current reality; what if? That envisions a new future. What wows? That surfaces the assumptions behind an idea and creates a low fidelity prototype for stakeholders to interact with. And finally, what works? They conduct small experiments in the marketplace. These four questions we argued, allow us to generate and experiment with ideas. And we also talked about the kinds of problems that design thinking is especially well suited to solving. We illustrated its use in practice by an organization. The good kitchen, who used it to address the problem of poor nutrition in the elderly through the redesign of a meal delivery service in Denmark. But design thinking was about about more than just a process in tools, we learned. Last week in session two, we stepped away from the process focus. And looked at the importance of mind set. We met George, a manager with a fixed mind set, and a dilemma. The practices and tools that have helped him succeed in a stable environment were now actually hindering his ability to innovate. And then we met Jeff, who had a very different approach. He had a learning mindset. A very human view of his customers and the ability to place small bets. All of this prepared Jeff to see and to execute an opportunity in an uncertain environment. So today's topic. Idea generation. This session, having looked at our own repertoire and mindset as leaders of innovation, we're returning to process to look in some more depth at the front end of the process, idea generation. That includes both the questions, what is and what if. Today, we'll focus on steps five through ten in our diagram. Previously, we would have selected an opportunity that we believe the design thinking methodology is well suited for. And made sure that the scope of our focus wasn't too narrow. Because we don't want to define the problem in a way that eliminates innovation opportunities at the outset. In our final step in preparation, we would have laid out a design brief that summarized our project and specified who our target was, the kind of outcomes we wanted to achieve and how we would measure success. We would then have converted our intentions into a research plan that specified. Who we would study, where we would find them, and what questions we might ask them, as well as the timeline we wanted to work within. And all of these resources will be available to you on 'Design at Darden." So now we're ready to begin asking the question, what is? And figure out what does it take to do the research, step number five, identify insight, step six, and establish design criteria in step seven. And then look at how we move into what if and brainstorming to achieve a napkin pitch. We will capture our new ideas in the form of a napkin pitch, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a quick, high level summary of an idea that you could fit on a napkin if you needed to. And remember, that we want a portfolio of napkin pitches, and not just one. To describe this process of idea generation in action. What actually happens during what is, and what if. I'd now like to tell you another story. This one's about design thinking and use in a startup firm in Boston, Massachusetts.
