When seeking to generate ideas, the implicit desire to settle upon the right answer, or the best answer, as quickly as possible is incredibly powerful. In design, we often encourage folks to deliberately separate the task of idea generation from the process of idea evaluation, to protect themselves from critical thinking or from presumptuously settling on a sub-optimal idea too quickly…

When I was in business school, my wife studied fashion design at FIDM in San Francisco. While I was working spreadsheets and powerpoint, she was making patterns and building "inspo boards." I had no idea what they were for…

Someone tipped me off to David Lynch's "Catching the Big Fish," which deconstructs his creative process in a series of somewhat-chronologically-ordered vignettes and reflections. I'm glad they did - if …”

Someone tipped me off to David Lynch's "Catching the Big Fish," which deconstructs his creative process in a series of somewhat-chronologically-ordered vignettes and reflections. I'm glad they did - if only because it's an easy book to "get under your belt," so to speak. Lots of interesting tidbits for fans of his films, too, I'm sure (admission: I've never seen one)…

I have noticed that when the design-driven approach to innovation that we espouse at Stanford fails to unleash a flood of new ideas and fresh energy, the culprit is often a failure to stimulate curiosity on the part of those doing the work…