What are O'Connor's Seven Essential Innovation Questions?

Welcome to Mind Tools' video learning series.

How do you deal with the challenge of getting creative? After all, you can't just switch creativity on like a light.

One way to get the creative juices flowing is to use O'Connor's Seven Essential Innovation Questions – a structured brainstorming tool that helps you examine ideas and concepts in new ways.

The seven questions are derived from the following terms: look, use, move, interconnect, alter, make, and imagine. Let's take a closer look at each.

First: what could you look at in a new way, or from a new perspective?

This is the most important question, because looking at situations with fresh eyes is the foundation of innovation. For example, you could look at customer feedback as an aid to product development, rather than being defensive about criticism.

Second: what could you use in a new way, or for the first time?

Identify existing resources and think of ways you could use them differently. For example, could you repurpose staff suggestion boxes to gather ideas for developing new web content?

Next: what could you move?

Could you alter the position, speed or frequency of an operation? For instance, could you move your manufacturing facilities to a cheaper provider?

The fourth question to consider is: what could you interconnect in a different way, or for the first time?

This involves interconnecting existing ideas to create something new. Think, for example, about the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or the ham and pineapple pizza!

Moving on: what could you alter, in terms of design and performance?

In other words, how can you change an existing idea to produce a new one? Smartphones are a great example of this. Manufacturers bring out new versions every year with small, but innovative, alterations.

Next: what could you make that is truly new?

Sometimes the most innovative ideas come from thinking “outside the box.” These ideas tend to be historical game-changers, like social media, for example, or tablet computers.

Finally: what could you imagine that would create a great experience?

This question invites you to explore a post-innovation state that's vastly different from what went before. Think about life before and after the internet, for example!

If you want to learn more about O'Connor's Seven Essential Innovation Questions, read the article that accompanies this video.