Innovation is a pathway to growth, either it is for your business, work, or personal life. Although there is no single way, we have many methods that can help us innovate. This article talks about three of the most efficient ways to innovate.

Try out new experiences 

Every innovation is an outcome of a certain thought process. In general, our thoughts come from our past and what we see in front of us. We can say that there is a warehouse of information in our brains. When we link a specific piece of information with another, innovation is possible. 

The more information we collect and save, the more chances we can make an innovative connection and create something new. Although reading is a good way to collect data, it is not very efficient in saving that data in our brains. Thankfully, we all learn better from experiences. 

That is why trying out new things can help you be innovative. For example, you can live in a different country, work in another industry, develop a new skill, or simply travel. The more conflicting and diverse information you have in your possession, the easier you will make seemingly unrelated connections that will lead you to innovations. 

Take apart products, processes, & ideas 

In a way, innovation consists of seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one has thought. To do so, you can start looking for things that seem to be missing. In other words, it works as if you trick yourself into seeing the ideas around you.

Trying to be innovative will not work. For example, the way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. You would then create answers to problems no one has. Instead, you can look for problems. Preferably problems that everyone has. In other words, coming up with startup ideas is a question of seeing the obvious.

To make matters easier, you can start to take apart products and processes that you see all around. For example, you can disassemble a product and see all its pieces. Or you map out a process and see which area has room for improvement. Or even deconstruct an idea to distinguish and focus on the innovative part.

Test ideas through pilots & prototypes

No matter how many ideas you have, you can never know if an idea works unless you bring it to life. Most of the time, it will be too expensive or difficult to do so. Thankfully, we have pilots and prototypes to help us reach safe conclusions.

Most importantly, by testing your ideas, you also allow yourself enough time and space to correct any mistakes and be even more innovative. Experiments are key to innovation mostly because we can learn so much from them. Especially if the experiments fail.

For example, to test your idea, you can build a prototype and have a few people try or use it to receive feedback. Alternatively, you can launch a new venture on the market or pilot a new process. What matters is that you interact with others and see if your idea works.

Takeaway:

• The more information we collect and save, the more chances we can make an innovative connection and create something new
• Innovation consists of seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one has thought. To do so, you can start looking for things that seem to be missing.
• By testing your ideas, you also allow yourself enough time and space to correct any mistakes and be even more innovative.