Day 26 — Creativity series 2/7: “Good Guys, Bad Guys"
When it comes to coming up with new ideas, one technique that’s commonly used is called “diverge and converge”, which means we come up with as many ideas as we can, the we vote for the desirable ones and dive deeper into the details of it. What are some good ways to create the most diverging concepts? I’d like to introduce a framework I created: “Good Guys, Bad Guys”, a systematic way to consider extreme yet relevant ideas.
Empathy + Storytelling
Inspired by the book “Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small” by by Ian Ayres & Barry Nalebuff, I combined the empathy techniques from the book with a role-playing concept in modern story telling (e.g. Disney, Star Wars), and created the Empathy Exercise technique. Simply imagine yourself role-playing a specific movie character, and picturing how s/he would use the product, or how s/he would like the service do be designed. This simple exercise bring us different perspectives of how the product can be designed with the following 4 characters:
- The villain
- The powerless
- The hero
- The clown
And here’s how these characters can help you brainstorm different ideas:
The villain
Think about Darth Vader, or The Evil Queen (Snow White’s stepmother). Not only they have the force or magical power, but also strong army or henchmen on their side. With so much power, they probably have different ways to do things when it comes to solving problem or using everyday things. For example, they will probably ask their servant to perform minor tasks for them instead of doing everything themselves. Therefore, some product/service ideas for the villain could be:
- AI or agentive tech (e.g. Siri, Alexa)
- Automation
- API
- Outsourcing services
The powerless
Think about princess Leia or Snow White. They are being suppressed by the villain, and are in need of help (from the hero). The important things for them is to have ways to reach to the hero, and the provided services need to be simple and accessible, given their limited capacity or capability. Therefore, some product/ service idea directions could be:
- Limited capability: Simplified workflow/functionalities
- Ask for help: Product/customer Support
- Ask for help: Messaging or other communication channel
- Signal danger: notification, badge, error messages, dashboard
The hero
If we continue the line of Star Wars and Snow White, then the heroes must/could be Luke Skywalker and prince Ferdinand. Once they realize their purposes, they take on the journey of fighting the villain. Although the courageous hero is smart and handsome, but that’s not enough to fight the evil villain. He needs weapons, he needs allies, and he needs to know the weakness of the villain. Therefore, when we put ourselves into Hero’s shoes, the product/ services ideas could be:
- Journey: Progress display, wizard
- Finding ally: Crowdsourcing platform
- Finding weapon: Search & Filter
- Get insights (of the villain): analytics/ dashboard
The clown
Follow the same story lines of Star Wars and Disney Snow White, the clown-ish characters could be R2D2 or the seven dwarfs. These characters are funny because they make silly mistakes and react in funny ways, based on their characteristics. Also, they can be very helpful/ supportive when the time arrives. Thinking of these types of qualities, the inspired product/ service ideas could be:
- Mistake: Error handling (prevention, notification, and remediation)
- Humor: Tone of the copy writing, status display
- Support: coach mark, onboarding experience, system preference/setting
More roles & characters mean more ideas
Other typical roles could also help with the brainstorming process. For example, the rebel/ cowboy character (e.g. Han Solo) who thinks outside the box, helps us challenge the existing process and think of alternative way. Also the spiritual leader (e.g. Yoda) inspire us to think of the grand vision or the purpose of the product. Who’s your favorite movie character? Can you think of what kind of product s/he need?
ABC. Always be clappin’.
