An Ideation Session to Rethink Broken Systems Around Us

On April 8th, we offered a livestream workshop on ideation. Ideation is the creatively-charged brainchild of the words “idea” and “creation.” It’s the art of digging into a problem and brainstorming potential solutions. Participants from around the world tuned in for the crash course.

We kicked off the workshop by showcasing three recent instances of people who’ve demonstrated Steve Jobs’ principle that “everything around you was made up by people no smarter than you are. And you can change it”, Each of these innovators was a regular person (not some mythical Silicon Valley tech genius) using the RebelBase platform to launch a different world.

The examples included:

• A small business that worked with a university librarian and an enterprising government employee to print 7,500 face shields (and counting) for medical professionals battling COVID-19. They’ve since launched http://covidmakerresponse.com/, to expand the scale of the response.
• A social work supervisor at a nonprofit who launched a mental health counseling program for senior citizens. She won a seed grant from her employer and has major partnerships in the works.
• A group of students at the Bard MBA in Sustainability launched Cahoots Co, a sustainable children’s clothing rental service that keeps existing clothing in circulation by artfully repairing garments.

In each case, the people involved didn’t wait for someone to step up. They identified a problem and solved it. What about you? What problem would you like to solve the way entrepreneurs do — by building the solution?

In the webinar, we jumped right into it. We asked our participants to think of something that should just work differently, and then explore their way to a potential solution. Each participant dug into the broken system they wanted to replace and came out the other side having learned these three guiding principles:

1. To Fuel Your Experiments, Get Down Deep Into the Problem

It can be tempting to lay out solutions before you really understand the problem. This is the difference between saying “I need an Advil” and “I have a headache.” The first statement makes a beeline to a solution — Advil — and thus blinds you to other (possibly much more suitable) options. The second statement, “I have a headache,” leaves the solution open ended. The solution’s designer is prompted to ask why the headache exists. Neck tension? Poor eyesight? Low blood-sugar? Stress? Sure, Advil might provide temporary relief, but 30-minutes of stretching, a pair of prescription lenses, or a nap might go a whole lot further.

2. Problems Exist Because of the Systems that Lock Them in Place.

A problem doesn’t exist “just because.” If the population experiencing the problem could easily get around it, then they would. A problem exists because a whole system keeps it in place. Plastic litters the ocean, and that’s because recycling and trash disposal systems are overloaded and broken, and that’s because so much of what consumers buy is covered in plastic, and that’s because suppliers package things in plastic, and that’s because plastic is often the cheapest option, and that’s because we subsidize petroleum and lack cheap alternatives, and that’s because there isn’t enough pressure on companies to switch their packaging habits and we haven’t innovated what they would choose instead (we’re oversimplifying, but you get the point). Figure out who is part of the existing system, and draw lines that show how they interact within it. This will show you where the weak points lie — the places where the current system is failing, and the openings to replace it with something that works much better.

3. An Amazing Solution Doesn’t Matter if it’s for the Wrong Audience.

Great solution, wrong audience. A solution isn’t worth a shiny penny (not to mention a cool hundred mil) if no one wants to use it, no matter how cool it sounds in theory. After getting to know the problem, you need to know the people for whom you’re designing your solution, and understand their pain. To do this, imagine who experiences the problem most deeply. What describes them — their place of residence, work, age, and values. Then, imagine how they walk through the world up until they encounter the problem. How did they get there? What did they find insanely frustrating? How did they handle it? Did they work around the way things work today? Use this to design the questions you’ll ask when you actually reach out to the people who will use your solution, and really understand their experience!

Where Do We Go from Here?

If you were in the webinar, then you’ve probably already signed on to RebelBase to pick up where you left off. But what if you couldn’t attend the session? You can find the steps we took in the webinar at rebelbase.co, with straightforward explanations for how to take them, and lots of examples of those who did. The platform guides you whether you’re starting from zero or reinventing the way things work within an existing organization. This spring and summer, we’ve made RebelBase free for you to use until July 31st. While you’re stuck inside staring at four walls, why not try your hand at replacing those broken systems with ones that work better? Log on and launch your experiment. And if you want to give your community (whether it’s a classroom, a company, or your personal network) a platform for putting ideas into action during this time, feel free to reach out to us at info@rebelbase.co.