Controlling the Chaos
Design thinking and the chaos of creativity
Before starting this course, I had always understood innovation and creativity as a dichotomy of entrepreneurship that represented two very different processes. In my mind, innovation was a set of organized, orderly, and purposeful actions that produced new ideas and ways of doing things. On the other hand, the process of being creative was messy, unpredictable, and only mastered by a gifted few. As it turns out, many agree with this sentiment. For example, the article There’s a Critical Difference Between Creativity and Innovation explains that the main difference between creativity and innovation is that
“creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to conceive of new ideas, whereas innovation is about introducing change into relatively stable systems and the work required to make an idea viable.” (Business Insider, 2013).
However, after reading the course materials I am delighted to say that these concepts are not so easily summarized. In the second week, we learned about structuring the creative process and charting innovation. More specifically, we read about how to activate a creative mindset. This involved intentionally moving between abstract and concrete thinking styles through a process called detail stepping (Koutstaal, 2016). When I realized that the creative process could be an intentional and systematic process, I felt wildly inspired. I reasoned that I could be more in control of my entrepreneurial future if I could use this process to conjure up creative inspiration on demand. This would be the difficult part of my journey, I thought, and the innovative process would be easier to plan and execute.
Once again, what I learned next in this course surprised me. The innovative process is usually concerned with producing concrete and measurable results. However, our course materials taught us that the thinking processes behind innovative output can be disorganized, unpredictable, and well, messy. For example, in the article Inside Creativity, the author describes the differences in thinking patterns of student groups working together to finish a project (Koutstaal, 2015). It turns out that the groups with the best projects had unsystematically looped between the larger goal and more detailed steps for implementation. On the flip side, the less successful groups had displayed thought processes following more logical and sequential steps typically associated with innovation.
Oddly enough, my initial impressions about these two processes had been completely switched around. It turns out that the sometimes chaotic creative process can be controlled, and scattered, messy thinking can also produce concrete innovative results. I think this was the point in ENTI 674 L01 that I was the most engaged, and I will remember this discovery most prominently when I look back on this course in five years.
Creativity and prototyping
After learning all about the creative and innovative processes, I felt primed to exercise my own inventive muscles. Therefore, I think the activity I most enjoyed doing in ENTI 674 L01: Technologies of Innovation was creating a paper prototype of my group’s final project. We were assigned to help prevent the current brain drain in Calgary and part of our solution involved designing a mobile application. Initially, the idea of trying to produce a working app was very daunting to me as a Bachelor of Arts graduate with no previous experience. Honestly, I felt a bit frantic about it. However, the idea of using paper as a way of implementing the rapid prototyping process in our project helped quell my fears and encouraged me to start.
The best part about the process was that I could easily visualize the user experience and make changes to my existing prototype. That said, I found it challenging not to get discouraged by how many false starts I experienced and the number of crumpled-up pieces of paper piling up around me. I’m pleased to say that the frustration was worth it, as this practice turned out to be quite helpful later in the process of creating our app. To explain, the next step in the process would be to create a mobile application wireframe and virtual prototype using free online software. To do this effectively, my group members and I needed to be familiar with our user story; the natural flow that users would experience when attempting to navigate through the application. We would have wasted a lot of time and effort figuring this out using Adobe XD and could not have collaborated as a team nearly as effectively or organically.
It was the most rewarding feeling when we finally finished with our mobile application. I felt proud of myself and my team for learning to work with completely new websites, software, and processes. I also felt more capable to find, properly vet, and figure out new platforms that automate or simplify previously complex endeavors like coding. As Kris says,
“Work smart, not hard. You don’t have to know how to code, let the technology do it for you.” — Kris Hans
I think that’s the final big takeaway from this class. There is always a way for entrepreneurs to leverage new technologies to bring their big ideas to life. I hope to use these concepts going forward in my life in general, my career, and to never allow myself to stagnate. Keeping up with current technology will save me time, effort, and hopefully, give me an edge over other competitors that can’t (or won’t) stay well-informed about innovative technologies.
References
Koutstaal, W. (2015, December 2). Inside creativity. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/our-innovating-minds/201512/inside-creativity
Koutstaal, W. (2016, April 2). Unveiling an underappreciated key to creativity. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/fhkspyr9
N.A. (2013, April 10). There is a critical difference between creativity and innovation. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://tinyurl.com/b7esscth
