Situation: Last year's simple 3 step creative strategy -'break-it-down, search, combine'- was a good first step but is now a bit too simple for the growing level of sophistication here in Airdrie.
Goal: make Airdrie into the city with the most creative designs produced per capita of any city in North America and do it in one year.
Method: Innovation-Spiked Design Methods.
For this we'll use the methods in the book 101 Design Methods, Kumar, 2012
which articulates 7 design modes laid out on 2D grid, with one dimension being real-abstract and the other being understand-make
(or see the prettier diagram from Kumar's book)
For so-called 'agile' or iterative design, you would zigzag around these 7 modes a number of times before converging on a design.
Modes:
1. sense Intent - monitor the environment for trends and changes
2. know Context - don't get tunnel vision - see the whole picture
3. know People - observe real people
4. frame Insights - analyze / generalize / abstract what you observed (the break-it-down step in creative strategy)
5. explore Concepts - try fitting different ideas (the search step in creative strategy)
6. frame Solutions - combine concepts into a package solution (the combine stage in creative strategy)
7. realize Offerings - implement. In an early iteration it would be a prototype for feedback sessions
(the book articulates several design methods per mode)
SPIKING DESIGN METHODS WITH INNOVATION
To 'spike' design methods with creative strategy, we will modify Mode 5. explore concepts to 'look in different domains' for solutions to elements found in step 4.
Example:
1. sense intent - (monitor environment)
A news story said Canada slipped several points on OECD PITA math tests, relative to other countries. Something could be happening in school math.
2. know Context
Googling a bit, it turns out Alberta slipped more than BC or Quebec, in part some say due to a recent change in the way math is taught in Alberta.
3. know People
Asking a parent of affected child "The PITA tests are unfair - the Alberta method will pay off in a few years"
4. frame Insights
Looks like there's a debate about how to teach math, how to test for it, or more precisely a debate behind the scenes that the public hasn't been chiming in on.
5. explore concepts
(except spiking, we go outside the current domain of education, into other domains like entertainment)
Debates can happen in several ways. Public debates can be done around news stories. Or TV documentaries or shows.
First there needs to be some information, perhaps some comparison.
One way to compare things is with contests.
TV contests are often reality TV series, like Iron Chef.
6. frame solutions
MATH CAMP TV Reality Series - 5 teachers compete against each other, each using a different method of teaching math. Students are pre-tested a few ways, and divided up equally among teachers. The teachers are then given 24 hours to prepare on a new topic, and 2 hours to teach it. Then a test to see which way got the idea across.
7. realize/implement
In the first iteration, implemented as a web page for collecting further feedback: MATHCAMP
Then depending on the feedback or new information, another iteration through some of the modes might incrementally improve the design, produce something entirely different, or nullify the design.