Clear the stage for future designers

Clear the stage for future designers

What the automotive industry needs most now are innovative ideas and clever initiatives in order to continue to be attractive to customers. However, innovations can only arise where there is the right breeding ground:

• die Erlaubnis zum Widerspruch,
• eine ergebnisoffene Lernkultur und
• Freiraum zum Experimentieren.

The most important skill a provider needs is the constant willingness to rethink and do things differently. Because what is established and common in the market creates isomorphism: everything becomes more and more similar. And that destroys the prices. Only the special, fascinating and remarkable have a brilliant future. You can't do that with regular operations, but only with breaking the rules.

It is important to develop many good new ideas together with creative like-minded people and to implement the most suitable ones quickly and agilely. This requires “out-of-the-box dancers”, “outside-the-box thinkers” and “outside-the-box thinkers”. Such people are called lateral and forward thinkers or sometimes organizational rebels. They are questioners, makers of difference, movers and shakers of the future.

They are brimming with ideas about how things that are getting old could, should and should be improved. They speak plainly when they have discovered procedures that are out of date. They point at everything that is unreasonable for colleagues and customers. They are open to progress and drive change with a breath of fresh air. And they do all of this because they truly care about their company.

Working together is the best way to develop ideas that no one has had before and that you wouldn't have thought of alone. Anyone who uses the advances of their internal free spirits imaginatively makes themselves exciting - and therefore desirable. You can't have enough crazy ideas to captivate your customers again and again - and create experiences that can be shared. You also need a lot of ideas like this. Because only those who roll a lot of dice end up rolling sixes.

From the development of new ideas to feasibility

In order for really big ideas to emerge in the end, you need a pinch of crazy at the beginning, i.e. exaggerated, daring, strange, quirky, spectacular, bizarre initial ideas. They should inspire our thinking. Crazy ideas are often the basis for exceptionally good ideas. In addition, you learn not only from good ideas, but also from bad ones. In this respect, larger idea projects have two separate phases: the phase of idea generation and the phase of transferring them into reality. The composition of the group can vary:

• Die Kreativgruppe besteht aus Menschen, die eine besondere Eignung für Neuanfänge, Übergänge und Vorreitertum haben: Visionäre, Pioniere und Regelbrecher. Sie geben den kreativen Input und entwickeln Vorwärtsdrang. Sie stellen die abwegigsten Fragen, sie denken das Undenkbare und träumen sich in die schönsten Luftschlösser rein. Sie sehen in allem Neuen ein Eldorado von Chancen und nicht gleich Gefahr. Für Routinevorgänge und Kleinteiligkeit fehlt diesem Typ Mensch das Talent. Superkreative ziehen oft derart viel „Kick“ aus dem reinen Erfindungsprozess, dass sie die Lust verlieren, sobald es an die Umsetzung geht.

• Die Umsetzungsgruppe besteht aus Menschen, die pragmatisch, strukturiert und umsetzungstalentiert sind. Denn in Phase zwei kehrt man auf den Boden der Tatsachen zurück. Man filtert, priorisiert und konzentriert sich auf die wirklich brauchbaren Ideen. Hierbei geht es um Machbarkeit auf hohem Niveau, und das erfordert einen anderen Menschentyp: Routiniers, Macher, konstruktive Skeptiker, Detailverliebte. Werden diese jedoch zu früh in ein Projekt einbezogen, ersticken sie jede verrückte Idee schon im Keim. Sie stellen hingegen sicher, dass wirklich an alles gedacht wird, und dass das Ganze am Ende auch funktioniert.

Before the idea generation actually begins, the causal problem must be understood and penetrated. So you first do some preliminary research. Then you formulate a concrete question: “How can we…?” Only then does the search for ideas begin. In this phase, the participants throw their ideas around the room like colorful balls without evaluating them. They sharpen their ideas through exchange and cultivate the art of thinking together, whereby flashes of inspiration are linked together in an exciting way.

This makes it possible to prioritize the most promising ideas

Brainstorming is followed by prioritization. You can use the “6 R” as a guide:

•   Is the idearelevantfor the internal/external customer? Does it bring any benefit?

•   Is the idearevolutionaryin the sense of different and surprisingly new?

•   Is the ideaquicklyCan it be implemented, at least in an initial trial version?

•   Is the idearobust, that is, does it stand up to practical use?

•   Is the ideareproducible, can it be developed further or scaled?

•   Is the ideaprofitable, so can you make money (quickly) with it?

This can be represented in the form of a decision matrix. As the figure shows, the axes are utility/potential demand and feasibility/economic viability. Whatever is relevant from the customer's perspective takes priority. Only then is it a question of whether and how you are able to implement it.

So bring in potential customers as early as possible so that they can act as feedback providers. Often solutions arise for a problem that isn't a problem at all. For example, you make “another app” because you can do apps – and not because the market needs them. Whatnotserving customers is pure waste.

About the author

Anne M. Schüller is a management thinker, keynote speaker, multi-award-winning best-selling author and business coach. The graduate in business administration is considered a leading expert in touchpoint management and customer-centered corporate management. She gives keynote speeches on these topics at conferences, specialist congresses and online events. Her book "Desperately looking for lateral thinkers. Why the future of companies lies in the hands of unconventional idea providers" was published by Gabal Verlag in 2020 and costs 29.90 euros (ISBN: 978-3-86936-998-3).