CREATIVE QUESTIONNARROW DOWN, BROADEN OR DEEPEN THE ORIGINAL BRIEF INTO A COMPELLING QUESTION THAT BEGS TO BE ANSWERED

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WHEN NEEDED RATIONALE

CREATIVE QUESTION

Leverages the new findings from your

Sensing work

Helps to articulate a more relevant way

to look at the original brief. It should be

much different from the first brief and

should feel relevant to you

Provides a direction and even paints

the contours of a ‘solution space’ that

will be your springboard for generating

many new ideas

I want to get to

the real problem

to be solved

I want a potent

starting point to

generate ideas

I want to disrupt

the current

system

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ESSENCE POINTERS

CREATIVE QUESTION

Narrow down,

broaden or

deepen the

original brief into

compelling

questions that

beg to be

answered

Formulate a Creative Question (CQ) based on intriguing insights, user needs and/or inspirations. Use this formula: HMW [Action Verb] for a [User] who [Insight] and/or with [Need]

E.g. HMW improve education for kids who cannot afford private school?

Aim to “have your cake and eat it too”: find the right level of tension or paradox for the CQ to stimulate your creativity

How might we give poor kids a better learning experience at a lower cost?

Take an unreasonable stance to stimulate radical rather than incremental innovation

E.g. How might we give poor kids the best learning experience in the world for free?

Pick the right level of abstraction for the CQ: don’t boil the ocean, don’t boil an egg. Ask “what” if too abstract, ask “why” if too concrete

Too abstract: How might we redesign desert?

Too concrete: How might we create a cone to eat ice cream without dripping?

Just right: How might we redesign ice cream to be more portable?Source of Inspiration: IDEO method cards; Stanford d-school

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