During the creative process opportunities have to be ranked and evaluated so that decisions can be made about where to expend resources. The danger here is in creating a ranking system so simplistic that critical small ideas never receive focus. Determining market size and sales opportunity is a natural part of this process. Developing filters [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Extinguisher’
Creative Fire Extinguisher #8 – Everybody Knows
There is no greater enemy to uncommon opportunity than common knowledge. Years ago as head Easter Bunny for spring specialty products at Hallmark I was asked to redefine the business in a way that would start it growing again. As I put together what we knew about consumer behavior at Easter I came across an interesting tidbit that had been [...]
Creative Fire Extinguisher #7 – Wasting Time
Every improvement in productivity seems to carry with it the risk of waisted time. In today’s world, interruptions have become enemy number one to effectively letting your creative juices flow. Our desk used to have two primary sources of interruption. The visit and the phone. And really only one source of outside distraction, the magazine. [...]
Creative Fire Extinguisher #6 – Efficient Use Of Time
In the name of efficiency we are slowly driving fuzzy time out of our day. Fuzzy time is difficult to value because it is hard to attach creative end-product to such ‘unproductive’ time. As corporate managers have become better at measuring the time it takes to do a job, the more fuzzy time gets diverted [...]
Creative Fire Extinguisher #5 – The Universal Buy In
Similar to CFE #4 in that it pushes decision making responsibility away from an individual and towards a group is the wonderfully inclusionairy Universal Buy-In. And your manager says, “Go Ye Into The Corporation And Implementeth Thy Idea With The Voluntary Help From All Such Departments That Are Touchethed By Thy Idea Or Hear Of Your Idea [...]
