INNOBLOG

Its always good to look for analogies when brainstorming. For example, if you are brainstorming a better cartridge solution for a printer youd think about things that perform similar functions or have similar characteristics, like fuel in a car, batteries in a toy or any other consumable that fuels a larger entity. Doing so can jumpstart creativity, highlight elements of the analogous situation that can be ported over to the product at hand, and help everyone see things in a new light. But what about actually inviting people from these analogous markets to the brainstorming session? Is this a good idea? Theres an argument to be made both ways.

One reason not to invite participants with analogous experiences is that they will likely be less familiar with the particular focus problem than the assembled group, and might therefore simply be off base, causing more confusion than good. Given their outsider status, they also might be especially inclined to reinvent the wheeland in the process come up with ideas that make no sense.

On the other hand, analogous outsiders will suffer less from what the authors of the book Made to Stick call "the curse of knowledge; they are less likely to be blocked or biased by existing solutions. This enables them to bring new solutions to the table that could be applicable to the target problem.

New research being conducted at the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Vienna suggests that, if the circumstances are right, inviting users from analogous markets is the right thing to do. Researchers conducted a pilot with three groups of users who faced a common challenge improving protective equipment. They brought together carpenters looking for ideas for respirator masks, roofers looking for ideas for safety belts, and skaters looking for ideas for knee pads. Their findings showed that users from analogous markets in general had better ideas than target market users alone.

The key learning here is that there was a high-level problem or job ("protect my body while I undertake an activity) common across the user groups. In these situations it makes sense to cast a wide net, to bring together a broad user set who face similar problems in order to surface the most innovative ideas. So long as the analogy holds true at the level of the job in question (i.e, the analogous users have the same ultimate job to do), bringing them into a brainstorming session makes sense.

Do you have other examples of analogy-based brainstorming?