MOE - Creative Idea and Innovation

Summary

This script explores the intersection of creativity, innovation, and business, emphasizing the importance of solving customer needs through creative solutions. It introduces entrepreneurship as the bridge between identifying opportunities and creating value. The concept of innovation is demystified, focusing on problem-solving rather than just technological advancement. Design thinking is presented as a tool to understand and address customer pain points through a five-step process: defining the target customer, empathizing with their needs, ideating solutions, prototyping, and testing. The script concludes by discussing the multifaceted nature of value in products and services, from functional benefits to social impact, urging businesses to align their offerings with customer expectations.

Takeaways

• 😀 Creativity and innovation are foundational for business, combining to create new solutions that meet customer needs.
• 🔍 The essence of creativity in business is to create value for customers, which they are willing to accept and engage with.
• 🚀 Entrepreneurship is about identifying opportunities to create value and acting on them to capitalize on those opportunities.
• 🤔 Innovation in business doesn't always mean high-tech solutions; it's about creating new ways to solve everyday problems.
• 🧐 Understanding customer problems is crucial for innovation; it starts with identifying who your customers are and what their specific needs are.
• 📊 Design thinking is a valuable tool for problem-solving in business, consisting of five main steps: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
• 🎯 The first step in design thinking is to define the target customer and create a persona to represent their pain points.
• 🤝 Empathy is key in design thinking; it involves understanding customers through interviews, observations, surveys, and research.
• 💡 Ideation is the process of brainstorming potential solutions to customer problems, considering various factors like resources and feasibility.
• 🛠 Prototyping allows for the development of a mock-up of the idea to test its effectiveness with customers and gather feedback.
• 🍣 The example of the sushi conveyor belt illustrates how innovation can address specific problems, such as reducing the need for waitstaff and improving efficiency.
• 🏆 Value in products and services can be multi-layered, ranging from functional benefits to emotional, life-changing, and social impact.
• 📈 Understanding the types of value customers seek is essential for creating products and services that meet their expectations and needs.

Q & A

What is the definition of 'create' according to Merriam-Webster dictionary?

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, 'create' means to make or bring into existence something new.

How does creativity relate to solving customers' needs in a business context?

In a business context, creativity is used to devise solutions that address customers' needs, offering them value and meeting their requirements.

What is the role of entrepreneurship in the context of creativity and innovation?

Entrepreneurship involves identifying opportunities to create value and acting on them. It is crucial for combining creativity with business to offer customers innovative solutions.

What is the difference between creativity and innovation in the business context discussed in the script?

Creativity in business involves creating solutions for customers' needs, while innovation is about finding new ways to solve everyday problems, not necessarily involving high-tech solutions.

How can understanding the customer's pain points help in business innovation?

Understanding the customer's pain points allows businesses to innovate by focusing on creating solutions that directly address these issues, enhancing customer satisfaction and value.

What is the purpose of the design thinking chart mentioned in the script?

The design thinking chart is a tool used to identify and solve customer problems by guiding entrepreneurs through a structured process of ideation and prototyping.

What are the five main steps of the design thinking process as outlined by the Stanford design school?

The five main steps of the design thinking process are: 1) defining the target customer, 2) empathizing with the customer to find pain points, 3) ideating potential solutions, 4) prototyping the best ideas, and 5) testing the prototypes with customers.

Why is it important for a business to understand the specific problems of a targeted customer group?

Understanding specific customer problems allows businesses to create targeted and effective solutions, which can lead to better customer satisfaction and business success.

How does the concept of 'pain point' relate to customer needs in the context of the script?

A 'pain point' refers to the most significant problems or issues faced by customers. Identifying these pain points is crucial for businesses to create solutions that meet customer needs and provide value.

What is the significance of prototyping in the design thinking process?

Prototyping is significant as it allows businesses to test their ideas in a tangible form, gather feedback, and make necessary adjustments before finalizing the product or service.

How does the script illustrate the concept of value in products and services?

The script illustrates the concept of value by explaining how products and services can offer functional benefits, emotional satisfaction, life-changing impacts, and social benefits, which are all types of value that customers seek.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Creativity and Innovation in Business

The paragraph introduces the topic of creativity and innovation in the context of business. It explains that creativity involves making something new, while innovation is about solving customers' problems with new approaches. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs and using design thinking to develop solutions. The design thinking process is outlined, starting with defining the target customer, empathizing with their pain points, ideating solutions, and then prototyping and testing these solutions. The goal is to create value for customers by addressing their needs.

05:02

🛠️ Design Thinking and Value Creation

This paragraph delves deeper into the design thinking process, focusing on ideation and prototyping. It discusses the importance of considering various factors like resources, partnerships, and knowledge when brainstorming solutions. The speaker stresses the need to stay focused on solving the customer's pain point. The example of the sushi conveyor belt is used to illustrate how innovation can address specific problems in a practical way. The paragraph also introduces the concept of value in products and services, explaining that value is the benefit customers receive from using them. It outlines the different types of value, from functional benefits to social impact.

10:05

💡 Understanding Customer Value and Needs

The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding the value that customers seek from products and services. It uses examples like mobile banking and health massages to illustrate how different types of value can be offered. The speaker advises investing time in learning about customer pain points to create businesses that directly address their needs. The paragraph concludes by summarizing the key points of the unit on creativity, innovation, and design thinking, and encourages the audience to apply these concepts in their own endeavors.

Keywords

💡Creativity

Creativity refers to the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; it is the process of making or bringing into existence something new. In the context of the video, creativity is essential for business as it involves generating new ideas to solve customer needs. The video emphasizes that creativity in business is not just about making something new but ensuring it offers value to the customers, as illustrated by the example of creating a painting versus creating a solution for business needs.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of translating an existing idea or method into a new product, service, or process, or coming up with a new business model for delivering value to customers. The video clarifies that innovation in a business context doesn't always mean creating a high-tech product but rather finding new ways to solve everyday problems for customers. It's about creating value and enhancing customer experience, as exemplified by the concept of a food conveyor belt in a restaurant.

💡Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the act of creating a new business or venture, taking on financial, psychological, and social risks, and aiming for profit. The video describes entrepreneurship as the act of recognizing an opportunity to create value and then capitalizing on that opportunity. It's about creating something of value for customers and having them recognize and accept that value, which is a key part of the innovation process discussed.

💡Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a problem-solving approach used by designers for many years to solve specific problems for specific groups of people. The video introduces a design thinking chart from Stanford's design school, which outlines five main steps for creating products or services. This method is used to creatively solve customer problems, as demonstrated by the process of defining the target customer, empathizing with their pain points, and brainstorming solutions.

💡Persona

A persona is a fictional character created to represent a user or customer based on research and insights. In the video, creating a persona is mentioned as a method to define the target customer more precisely. It helps in understanding the customer's needs and pain points, which is crucial for developing products or services that cater to those specific needs.

💡Pain Point

A pain point refers to a problem or difficulty that a customer experiences, which a product or service aims to solve. The video emphasizes finding the pain point as a critical step in the design thinking process. It's the core issue that the customer faces, and addressing it effectively can lead to a successful product or service, such as understanding the problems faced by MFU students living on campus.

💡Prototype

A prototype is an early sample or model of a product or service that serves as a basis for further development. In the video, the process of developing a prototype is discussed as a way to test and refine ideas before full-scale production. It's a practical representation of the concept that allows for customer feedback and iterative improvements, as shown by the development of the food conveyor belt.

💡Value

Value, in the context of the video, refers to the benefits or positive attributes that customers receive from using a product or service. It's what makes a product or service desirable and useful to the customer. The video explains that value can be functional, emotional, life-changing, or have a social impact, and it's essential for businesses to understand and deliver the value that customers are seeking.

💡Functional Benefit

Functional benefit refers to the practical advantages or features of a product or service that fulfill a specific need or desire. The video uses the example of a washing machine to illustrate how it offers functional benefits by saving time and reducing water usage compared to hand washing, directly addressing the customer's need for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

💡Emotional Benefit

Emotional benefit is the positive emotional response or feeling that a customer experiences from using a product or service. In the video, the example of a health massage is used to explain how it can provide emotional benefits such as stress reduction and relaxation, which are not tangible but are highly valued by customers seeking wellness and relief.

💡Social Impact

Social impact refers to the effect that a product or service has on society, often in terms of addressing social issues or contributing to societal well-being. The video mentions social impact as the highest level of value in the value pyramid, implying that products or services that can make a positive difference in society are highly valued and can create a strong connection with customers.

Highlights

Creativity and innovation are crucial for business, combining to solve customer needs with new solutions.

The definition of 'create' is to make or bring something new into existence.

Creativity in business is about creating value for customers, which they are willing to accept.

Entrepreneurship involves seizing opportunities to create value, which is key in business.

Innovation is about creating new ways to solve everyday problems, not necessarily involving high technology.

Identifying the target customer and their pain points is essential for innovation.

Design thinking is a tool to help understand and solve customer problems through a structured process.

The five main steps of design thinking include defining the target customer, empathizing, ideating, prototyping, and testing.

Understanding customer pain points is vital for creating successful products or services.

Ideation involves brainstorming solutions to customer problems, considering various factors like resources and partnerships.

Prototyping is about creating a mock-up of the idea to test its feasibility with customers.

The value of a product or service is the benefit it provides to the user, such as security and convenience.

Value can be categorized into functional, emotional, life-changing, and social impact.

A product or service can offer multiple types of value, addressing different customer needs.

The example of a sushi conveyor belt illustrates how innovation can solve problems like high employee costs and space constraints.

Innovation should start with a clear question and maintain focus on solving the identified problem.

Investing time to understand customer needs is crucial for creating businesses that directly address those needs.

Transcripts

Today's topic is about the creativity and  innovation for business. You may wonder how these all things get together?  

Let's find the answer! I'd like to start with the common foundation of creativity and innovation. 

We might be familiar with the word "create" which, by the  

definition of merriam-webster dictionary, means to make or bring into existence something new.  

To make it easier, what doesn't exist before, exists now with the sense of newness.

So you may create a new way to find a solution for needs, or even the word "create" can be used with the artistry  

purpose, for examples, create a painting. However, to create alone doesn't match with today's business.  

We're learning to create something to offer  to your clients, so how these two things get together?  

Here's the meeting point! Creativity  with a solution to solve your customers' needs  

is the answer. We're here today to  learn the entrepreneurship skill.  

And entrepreneurship is what happens when an  individual sees an opportunity to create value  

and acts to capitalize on what that opportunity. You need to create some value to your customer,  

and when your customer sees the value, they're  willing to accept your creativity.

Now we've talked about creativity and business already, but yet to talk about innovation. So what's it about? 

Innovation, here in this context, I don't expect  you to create a scientific or out-of-the-space  

product, but to create a way to solve your  customers' problems in daily life. 

Remember! Innovation is not always about technology, but it's something new and solves the problem.  

Now you may think, what's the problem?  What a vague question. Let's get started! 

From the question whose problem is this? Or to start with your customer, who is your customer? 

You may name a group of persons, for example, MFU students. What's the problem of MFU students?

Well, still too large to scope right? So let's be more precise, MFU students on the campus.  

What are their problems living on the campus? Now it seems way easier.

You may think of Gem car service, a giant lizard that we call Tukkae in the dormitories, no cafeteria at night,

no car service to the outside of the campus, and so on. Now you can see the problem little by little right?  

It'll be even clearer if you also live on the  campus because you're the one who lives with the  

problems, but what will it be if you're not the one  who lives here? how you will know all these things?  

Don't worry! there's a simple but effective tool  called design thinking chart to help you find it out.

Let's take a quick look. Here's the deciding  process from Stanford design school.  

Basically, there're 5 main steps to design one product or service. It's not like design for art where you can  

be as fully creative as your imagination can take you. But here in this context, you'll be creative based  

on the customer's problem. Just like we talked  earlier about mfu students living on campus.  

Now you start with defining who is your target  customer? You may create a persona, meaning that you  

create or use one character, who represents a person in real situation. For what? You need to find

the pain point of your persona. Pain point is  the most important thing that you need to find.  

The clearer, the better but how could we find the pinpoint? Next step is to emphasize with your customer.  

This is the way to find your customer's pain point. How? There're many ways, but, at the end of the day,  

you need to understand your customer. You may do the in-person interview, shadowing,   

survey or questionnaire or even secretary research. What is secretary research?  

it's the research that you don't get the right  

answer from the interviewee but by reading  some books or reports, for example.

Next, when you know and understand the pain point of your customer very well, you must ideate  

or brainstorm with your colleague, what could be the possibility to solve your customer's problem?  

Some solution may sound fascinated but not  worth trying, while some may take a huge number of investments.

Now you need to think of many factors  involved, the resource you have, the partner you get,  

the knowledge you own, etc. However, no matter you come up with, don't forget to come back to solve  

your customer's pain point. If you cannot solve it, it won't be successful story. Alright?

Next, when you and your colleague have finalized the ideas already. You take the best one to develop it into  

prototype. It's the process you try to implement your idea and make it as a mock-up.  

So, you'll need to use this prototype or mock-up to test your customers in order to find out whether  

works with your customer or not. You need to change some detail of your product or you change  

the whole thing? You can find it out in this step.  And in this process, you'll get more insight  

and you'll know what direction you better  go. Here in this part, I'm going to talk about  

the value that you can offer to your customers,  but first let's get started with this picture.  

Do you still remember the design thinking tool that consists of 5 steps of creating products and services?

Now before we get too hungry with this mouth-watering picture of sushi, I'm going  

to decode the 5 steps of designing elements  before this food conveyor belt was introduced  

to this world. Can you imagine the day human purely serves dishes in a restaurant? OK, we 

got a Japanese restaurant as our customer now. What is the obstacle of Japanese restaurant in the past?  

Cost of employee, hygiene, time management, and most importantly if you have ever been to Japan,   

you will see there are many tiny restaurants in business district because the rent is high,

so it’s not that convenient to have employees walking around, right? So, these are the problems

occurred and the innovator came up with the idea for food to serve itself. 

Well… there are many ways, first to use robot, second to let customer to get their dish, but it seems to

be hectic for sure if customer pick the wrong one. How about the belt that bring food to tables?

Seems perfectly right. Later, innovator try to draft the prototype. What could make the belt moves?

How should the belt move around the corner? So, time by time, the belt was developed to be the belt we normally

have in a Japanese restaurant. You see? And please don’t forget that we started from the question. 

how to use less human serving food, the innovator comes with the belt. Don’t lose your focus.

Now, I would like to talk about the value of products and services. We will get started with the question,  

What is the value? Value is the benefit you can get when you use or consume some products and services.  

For example, when you use Mobile Banking to transfer your thousands of baht to pay your bills,

you will automatically get a receipt of transfer and this receipt can be a proof or evidence   

if some things go wrong. So, using Mobile Banking can offer you benefit of security and convenience.

You don’t need to carry thousands of bank notes along the way with you all the time, and you get  

evidence of transaction; everything is recorded. Right? So, this is one of value, but how many types of value are there?

of value are there? Here is, students, please take a close look to this pyramid. As you can see here,

there are 4 steps of the value in the pyramid.  The base starts from the functional benefit,  

followed by emotional, life changing, and the top one is social impact. And one product or service

can have more than one value! For example, can you imagine the value of using a washing machine?   

It can save time you spend on hand washing,  and it can reduce the cost of water as

it uses less water compared to hand washing if you wash your clothes in large amount in one time,  

right? One more example; this time for a service. Who likes health massaging? How many times in a month do

you go to a massage parlor? What is the value of massaging? When you massage, you can reduce

stress and anxiety somehow? iIt can be a value in terms of rewarding as well as massaging is not

that cheap. So, after you've completed a big task of a month, maybe you reward yourself with 2-hour

Thai massage. Interesting? And massage can give you benefits of wellness too. When the blood circulation

of your body works better, you'll feel fresh and pain relieved, right? By the way,  

you can have value of your product and service as much as you can create, but please remember the  

value you are about to offer to your customers must be the value your customer is looking for as well.   

So, invest your time to learn about your customer, what’s their pain point, so that you can create  

a business to address your customer’s needs directly. Thank you so much for your attention.

This is the end of the unit Creativity, Innovation, and Design Thinking. See you next time.