This post will show a 4-step system for creating new ideas.
1. Choose an existing product (or service or idea or song or code or a play or a movie)
2. Define the product’s properties in detail
3. Transform 1 of the properties (make it bigger, smaller, wider, taller, append it with another product, put it in a different context, change the material, etc..)
4. Repackage the mutated idea.
Let’s do it together:
1. Choose: Clock
2. Define: A modern clock is an instrument that is hung on the wall and shows the time of the day using needles - for Hours, Minutes and Seconds.
3. Transform: This is the fun part, where you can really go wild. Here are some optional ideas:
hung on the wall -> hung on the wrist / placed in the pocket
shows the time of the day -> shows the time since you woke up
using needles -> using LEDs \ projection \ color code
Hours, Minutes and Seconds -> “pomodoro intervals” (25 minutes work + 5 minutes rest)
4. Repackage: I chose one of the transformations (you can brainstorm endless combinations)
The Pomodoro clock is an instrument that is hung on the wall and shows the time of work using needles - for Pomodoro intervals of 25 minutes of productive work and 5 minutes of playful rest
It’s like scanning the DNA of a product, exposing it to some kind of radiation, and packaging the mutated DNA into a new product.
It's also a fun activity to go through some ideas and trying to see how are they a mutation of another product.