Innovation Tools

Our team has found information on three different innovation tools that we can use during this course in innovation sessions. Behind the links you will find some more information on them.

• Osborne checklist or SCAMMPERR 
• Round Robin 
• Reverse Brainstorming 

Video by Anna and Kirsi. Edited by Anna.


Service design tools: 

Our brain storming

Duration: 4 hours. 

Materials:post-its.

Basic rules: lots of energy, never use other ideas. Give crazy ideas. Be like a child. No matter of the result. Be open in time. 

Exercise to do:

1st hour: Divide the group in small teams.

Its group has a paper and rights their ideas.

Every ten minutes the paper has to be passed.

2nd hour: Put your post-its in common and classify the post-its.

3rd hour: Give extra value to the ideas, even developing and customising them.

4. hour: diverge the ideas. Amplify the vision of the idea. 

Results off our brain storming: More that 250 crazy ideas, and more than 10 projects.

By Mikel and Beñat

Personas 

Time: 2-4 hours per broad category for personas (ex. undergraduates, graduate students, faculty)

What you need: whiteboards or flipcharts, sticky notes (possibly different colors), pens, notepads, camera to document work during and at the conclusion of the workshop, snacks

Introduction

Facilitator explains the goals of the session and outlines the process

Step One: Identifying assumptions about users

The facilitator asks the team members to identify ways the spaces’ users are typically categorized. Document the categories on a whiteboard or flipchart. For example, faculty might be categorized as follows: primarily research, primarily teaching, half research/half teaching, adjunct, emeritus, technology adopters, technology luddites, administrative, etc. Brainstorming these categories reveals the team members’ assumptions about users and gives a starting place for deconstructing stereotypes.

Step Two: Moving from assumptions of user categories to user goals

Ask the team members to brainstorm user goals and list them individually on sticky notes. User goals are descriptions of what he or she wants or needs to do. It can be useful to begin each user goal statement with either “I want” or “I need.” Encourage participants to use these two phrases as needed, but not to focus on if there are distinctions between “needs” and “wants.” For this step the team members should focus on what they learned from the user research as well as their own experiences working with users. Example user goals:

“I want to find a quiet place to work away from my roommates”

“I need to book a room to study with my project team.”

After brainstorming, team members place their sticky notes under the relevant headings of the stereotypical user categories outlined in Step One.

If an “I want” or “I need” statement can be filed under more than one user category, duplicate the statement so it is represented under all relevant groups.

There will likely be patterns in the sticky notes. As a group, look through the sticky notes and cluster them as appropriate to expose themes. See the Learning Space Toolkit’s Persona Development Workshop PowerPoint for an illustration of this process.

Step Three: Forming skeletons

As a team discuss the major themes of “needs” and “wants” that surfaced through the sticky note exercise.

Compile a list of major themes that surfaced around user needs and wants. You might even give these thematic groups nicknames at this point (ex. “Quiet studiers,” “Social learners,” etc.).

Discuss each group and take notes on their most important needs, goals, and preferences. It may be possible to combine groups. The groups should transcend the typical descriptions that are used to different user populations.

Outline a skeleton for the group. A skeleton is very brief and can be made up of a bulleted list.

Example skeleton: Undergrad who uses the library to get away from dorm to study in quiet spaces, needs to “camp out,” needs to spread stuff out and stay for awhile, brings own laptop to study, seeks out food and drink to take to his/her study spot.

Aim for three to five skeletons, each representing important clusters of needs, goals, and preferences. If you have many skeletons, determine which are primary and secondary as users of your spaces and services.