Does your business conduct prototype engineering and testing of clever idea creation? How about trying new ways for innovation?

Effective prototyping may be the most valuable competence an innovative organization can hope to have.

-Michael Schrage

Before I give you some modern examples of prototype engineering, let me tell you an interesting story about Alexander Fleming. Have you ever heard of Alexander Fleming?

Here is an example of idea creations shown in this video.

With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on Spotting Intelligent People

When Alexander Fleming, a brilliant but sometimes haphazard scientist, returned to his lab after vacation holiday in 1928, he found his work ruined. A bacteria culture he had been growing was contaminated by fungus and, as it grew, it killed all the colonies it touched.

Most people would have simply started over, but Fleming was very curious about what had happened. And his curiosity caused him to switch his focus from the bacteria to the fungus itself.

First, identified the mold and the bacteria-killing substance, which he called “penicillin,” then he tested it on other bacteria cultures. Seemingly in a single stroke, Fleming had created the new field of antibiotics.

Is that how you see innovation? That’s how most of us see innovation. A flash of brilliance and Eureka! a new world is born. But not so fast.

The truth is far messier. In fact, it wasn’t until 1943—nearly two decades later—that penicillin came into widespread use and only then because it was accelerated by the effort helping World War II efforts.

But we need far better and faster results, don’t we? To achieve that, we need to discard old myths and deal with a process of change and innovation as it happens.

Truly breakthrough innovations are never a single event, nor are they achieved by one person, or even within a single organization. Rather, they happen when ideas combine to solve important problems.

In Amanda Lang’s book, “The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success”, she talks about the importance of curiosity and it’s a connection to intelligence:

Curiosity is, therefore, strongly correlated with intelligence. For instance, one longitudinal study of 1,795 kids measured intelligence and curiosity when they were three years old, and then again eight years later.

Researchers found that kids who had been equally intelligent at age three were, at eleven, no longer equal.

The ones who’d been more curious at three were now also more intelligent, which isn’t terribly surprising when you consider how curiosity drives the acquisition of knowledge.

The more interested and alert and engaged you are, the more you’re likely to learn and retain.

In fact, highly curious kids scored a full twelve points higher on IQ tests than less curious kids did.

How Can People Spot Intelligent Person Characteristics?

New idea creation

As I was reading this book, there were two things that came to my mind:

How often do we ask our staff to brainstorm “questions” as opposed to “answers”? Is this not as valuable a practice?

and then…

Could starting every week off asking “what do you wonder?”, and having them ask questions and provide ideas, make a huge impact on creating new ideas?

New idea creation … activities to generate ideas

So what are some effective ways businesses innovate? Let me ask you a few personal questions to get you thinking about the innovation process a different way.

Do you drive to work the same way every day? Probably! Do you read the same publications—or the same type of publications? Sure! How about TV and the Internet?

Watching the same group of shows or using the same set of websites is also a common habit. When you do this, what do you feel? You probably get a lot of familiar and comfortable feelings, don’t you?.

But true innovation often doesn’t make us comfortable. It makes us uncomfortable. And yet, it is in that discomfort that the new ways, the new ideas, and the new feelings come to light.

When you drive to work via a different route, you see different places and sights. If you go to the newsstand and peruse the magazines that you never otherwise look at, you will see things you simply would never think about otherwise

So do you think businesses experiment and test lots of new ideas?

Check out these new beer cans and bottles and their features …

Cold Activation – special ink on bottles and cans turns special color when sufficiently cold.

Vortex Bottles – Bottles come with a swirling grove in the neck, meant to improve the taste by aerating, and unlocking aromas and taste.

Aluminum Pints/Bottles – resealable screw caps.

Writable Bottles – consumers can write messages using key or coin.

Experiment and test fearlessly

Not all of your ideas will be something you implement, like several of the beer can packaging ideas. But the testing itself will invariably lead you to understand customer needs better, and that will lead you to create even more new ideas.

Remember … whoever tries the most stuff usually wins.

Customer engagement improvements are worth the effort.

What are some of your experiences with utilizing prototype engineering and testing? What about building an innovation culture in your business? Please share an experience with this community.

Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking

Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Does your business conduct prototype engineering and testing of clever idea creation? How about trying new ways for innovation?

Effective prototyping may be the most valuable competence an innovative organization can hope to have.

-Michael Schrage

Before I give you some modern examples of prototype engineering, let me tell you an interesting story about Alexander Fleming. Have you ever heard of Alexander Fleming?

Here is an example of idea creations shown in this video.

With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.

When Alexander Fleming, a brilliant but sometimes haphazard scientist, returned to his lab after vacation holiday in 1928, he found his work ruined. A bacteria culture he had been growing was contaminated by fungus and, as it grew, it killed all the colonies it touched.

Most people would have simply started over, but Fleming was very curious about what had happened. And his curiosity caused him to switch his focus from the bacteria to the fungus itself.

First, identified the mold and the bacteria-killing substance, which he called “penicillin,” then he tested it on other bacteria cultures. Seemingly in a single stroke, Fleming had created the new field of antibiotics.

Is that how you see innovation? That’s how most of us see innovation. A flash of brilliance and Eureka! a new world is born. But not so fast.

The truth is far messier. In fact, it wasn’t until 1943—nearly two decades later—that penicillin came into widespread use and only then because it was accelerated by the effort helping World War II efforts.

But we need far better and faster results, don’t we? To achieve that, we need to discard old myths and deal with a process of change and innovation as it happens.

Truly breakthrough innovations are never a single event, nor are they achieved by one person, or even within a single organization. Rather, they happen when ideas combine to solve important problems.

Related post: Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

In Amanda Lang’s book, “The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success”, she talks about the importance of curiosity and it’s a connection to intelligence:

Curiosity is, therefore, strongly correlated with intelligence. For instance, one longitudinal study of 1,795 kids measured intelligence and curiosity when they were three years old, and then again eight years later.

Researchers found that kids who had been equally intelligent at age three were, at eleven, no longer equal.

The ones who’d been more curious at three were now also more intelligent, which isn’t terribly surprising when you consider how curiosity drives the acquisition of knowledge.

The more interested and alert and engaged you are, the more you’re likely to learn and retain.

In fact, highly curious kids scored a full twelve points higher on IQ tests than less curious kids did.

New idea creation

As I was reading this book, there were two things that came to my mind:

How often do we ask our staff to brainstorm “questions” as opposed to “answers”? Is this not as valuable a practice?

and then…

Could starting every week off asking “what do you wonder?”, and having them ask questions and provide ideas, make a huge impact on creating new ideas?

New idea creation … activities to generate ideas

So what are some effective ways businesses innovate? Let me ask you a few personal questions to get you thinking about the innovation process a different way.

Do you drive to work the same way every day? Probably! Do you read the same publications—or the same type of publications? Sure! How about TV and the Internet?

Watching the same group of shows or using the same set of websites is also a common habit. When you do this, what do you feel? You probably get a lot of familiar and comfortable feelings, don’t you?.

But true innovation often doesn’t make us comfortable. It makes us uncomfortable. And yet, it is in that discomfort that the new ways, the new ideas, and the new feelings come to light.

When you drive to work via a different route, you see different places and sights. If you go to the newsstand and peruse the magazines that you never otherwise look at, you will see things you simply would never think about otherwise

So do you think businesses experiment and test lots of new ideas?

Check out these new beer cans and bottles and their features …

Cold Activation – special ink on bottles and cans turns special color when sufficiently cold.

Vortex Bottles – Bottles come with a swirling grove in the neck, meant to improve the taste by aerating, and unlocking aromas and taste.

Aluminum Pints/Bottles – resealable screw caps.

Writable Bottles – consumers can write messages using key or coin.

Experiment and test fearlessly

Not all of your ideas will be something you implement, like several of the beer can packaging ideas. But the testing itself will invariably lead you to understand customer needs better, and that will lead you to create even more new ideas.

Remember … whoever tries the most stuff usually wins.

What are some of your experiences with utilizing prototype engineering and testing? What about building an innovation culture in your business? Please share an experience with this community.

Need some help in improving the innovation process for you and your staff? Innovative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors? Or maybe ways to innovate new products and services?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options for innovation workshops to get noticeable results.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new innovative ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Do you have a lesson about making your innovation learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

More reading on creativity and innovation from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Learn How to Think What No One Else Thinks

Generating Ideas by Convergent Thinking

Amazon and Managing Innovation … the Jeff Bezos Vision

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.