00:04Stanford University hello and welcome
00:10back to a 1:45 technology
00:13entrepreneurship in today's video we're
00:15going to be talking about creativity and
00:18innovation so today's agenda we're going
00:23to first talk a bit about how to hack
00:25brainstorming and become more creative
00:27and then we're going to give you a
00:30chance to do a bit of brainstorming so
00:36how should we hack brainstorming what
00:38would we do if we wanted to try and
00:40increase the effectiveness of our
00:41brainstorming sessions and get a greater
00:44number of new creative ideas out for
00:46adventures what do you think are some
00:52good characteristics of brainstorming
00:54sessions how would you design a
00:56brainstorming session if you were trying
00:58to make it more effective how would you
01:01lead it what would you do so it turns
01:06out there's been some research that's
01:08been done on brainstorming and so here
01:11we see a table from one of those results
01:14and here the brainstorming task was in a
01:17setting with a German population and so
01:20the task was to come up with new ways to
01:23improve the relationship between the
01:25German population and a set of foreign
01:28guest workers and so the people were
01:31divided up into either a real group or a
01:35nominal group a real group means that
01:38the individuals were actually sitting
01:41around the same table
01:42they had a microphone to record the
01:45ideas that they came up with during the
01:47brainstorming session and a nominal
01:50group on the other hand is a group where
01:54the individuals were placed in separate
01:56rooms also given a microphone to record
01:59the brainstorming session but they
02:01essentially brainstormed on their own
02:03and then the study also varied the
02:06assessment instructions under the
02:09personal assessment instructions they
02:12number and quality of ideas that they
02:14came up with individually was going to
02:17be compared with other individuals under
02:19the collective assessment condition they
02:22were told that the group would be
02:25compared with other brainstorming groups
02:27in terms of the number and quality of
02:29ideas and so you might expect that if
02:32it's the group being evaluated the
02:34collective condition that there might be
02:36some free-riding where people feel less
02:38responsible for generating ideas because
02:41it's not their own individual
02:42performance that's being judged as the
02:44group's so what did what do we see the
02:47the investigators later evaluated the
02:52number and quality of ideas they had two
02:54different external assistance right now
02:58I'm judged the number of ideas and also
03:00judge their quality and originality and
03:02so we see that first of all just
03:05comparing the real group to the nominal
03:10group we see that the nominal groups
03:12produced a lot more ideas total and they
03:16also produced a higher number of new
03:20good ideas the originality was rated
03:24similar across and the average
03:26feasibility was a bit higher for the
03:29real group and so why is this we tend to
03:32think that group brainstorming is a good
03:34idea that by getting together people can
03:37piggyback on one another's ideas and
03:40come up with more ideas but the evidence
03:42seems to point to this idea that the
03:44nominal group that the actual four
03:48brainstorming separately come up with
03:51more ideas and more good ideas than for
03:54people brainstorming together in a real
03:56group so why could this be there are two
04:00potential reasons one potential reason
04:02is because of production blocking that
04:05as one person is talking it's then
04:08difficult for the other people to
04:09simultaneously talk and so time is lost
04:12because your production of good ideas is
04:15blocked by the other people talking the
04:17second possible reason is evaluation
04:20apprehension that people are withholding
04:23ideas and not saying potentially new
04:26because they're worried that they're
04:28going to be judged as too crazy or that
04:30these ideas are going to be judged as
04:32bad ideas the next table tables that I'm
04:35going to show will start to look at
04:37whether these can be the reasons why but
04:39before I move on from this slide let me
04:42just point out that there are also
04:45differences across the personal and
04:48collective evaluation so it is true that
04:53telling people that they'll they will be
04:55evaluated individually results in a
04:59higher number of ideas and a higher
05:01number of good ideas relative to people
05:05who are told that the group will be
05:06evaluated collectively and so it turns
05:09out to be a good idea to give people
05:10individual incentives that the number of
05:14ideas they produce individually is going
05:17to matter rather than just the group so
05:19let's look at another table in this
05:21table we have the same real group versus
05:24nominal group split and we again
05:27observed that the nominal group were
05:29it's for individuals and separate rooms
05:31brainstorming separately and then
05:33combining their ideas produces a greater
05:36number of ideas than the real group and
05:39we also again see that the personal
05:43assessment outperforms the collective
05:45assessment in terms of ideas produced in
05:48this case subjects were also asked
05:51whether they felt a lot of apprehension
05:53about being judged and so in the real
05:57group you see that there's not much
05:58difference between the low and high
06:00evaluation apprehension the number of
06:03ideas is similar but for the nominal
06:07group once you take out that influence
06:09of peers being located in the same room
06:12or potentially judging you those who had
06:15lower evaluation apprehension actually
06:18generated more ideas and so this
06:21provides some evidence that it is the
06:23fear of being judged that's keeping
06:26people from producing more ideas in a
06:28group setting as opposed to when they
06:30produce ideas individually so one
06:32possible way to get around this is to
06:34have your group brainstorming sessions
06:39if you're brainstorming over say email
06:41or instant messenger then this gets
06:44around both the problems of production
06:46blocking everyone can write at the same
06:48time and it gets around slightly the
06:51problem of evaluation apprehension and
06:54that you don't have people directly in
06:55front of you who could be judging your
06:57ideas and so this study looks at this
06:59potential solution it compares
07:02electronic brainstorming with non
07:04electronic brainstorming and it also
07:06varies the group size so here we have
07:08groups of two groups of four or groups
07:11of six and so what do we see we first
07:14look at the pure number of non-redundant
07:17ideas and you see that in the smallest
07:20group groups of to the electronic
07:24brainstorming performs similarly to non
07:26electronic brainstorming but once we get
07:30into the larger groups you start to see
07:32that electronic brainstorming
07:34outperforms non electronic brainstorming
07:36and this is most pronounced in this
07:38condition of six people so as you get
07:41larger groups of people brainstorming it
07:43becomes even better to do it
07:45electronically rather than in person
07:47together as a group but what about the
07:51quality of the ideas so next we have the
07:54external readings of the quality of
07:55ideas and again you see similar results
07:59in the smallest group but it's once you
08:02get to the larger group sizes that the
08:05electronic brainstorming really starts
08:07to outperform in-person brainstorming
08:10and so then these two final questions
08:13ask people specifically about whether
08:16they felt that their production of new
08:18ideas was being blocked by other people
08:20and whether they felt apprehension about
08:23being evaluated and you again see that
08:27these are a lot higher in as you would
08:30expect in the in-person groups as
08:33compared to the electronic groups again
08:35not as much difference in the smaller
08:37groups but as you get to the largest
08:39groups you see that the people who
08:43brainstormed in person felt much more
08:46that their ideas were being blocked by
08:48others and that they felt apprehend
08:51about being evaluated and in terms of
08:54the overall satisfaction with the
08:56brainstorming experience we see similar
08:58patterns not much difference in the
09:00smallest groups but once we get to the
09:03largest group size those who were
09:06brainstorming electronically were also
09:08more satisfied with the brainstorming
09:09experience than those who did it in an
09:11actual in-person group and so this just
09:14continues to show the similar results
09:17but now we move up to group sizes of six
09:19and twelve and we continue to see that
09:22we get the largest number of new
09:26non-redundant ideas in the electronic
09:29brainstorming and also that the overall
09:32quality of those ideas is significantly
09:34higher and so if you're interested in
09:36this and want to read more and these are
09:38the citations for the brainstorming
09:40studies that I mentioned and in the
09:43previous video I mentioned a study about
09:45using lead users to generate new ideas
09:48for products and that paper is here so
09:51if we take a step back and ask what
09:54characteristics how should a
09:55brainstorming session be run we can take
09:59a few takeaways out of these results one
10:02is that you want to be careful how you
10:04capture ideas so you want to avoid the
10:07tyranny of the pen when one person is up
10:11at the board and is the one who has
10:12power to write down ideas this can
10:15result in a lot of production blocking
10:17it keeps people from simultaneously
10:19writing down ideas and this then is
10:22going to generate fewer ideas total so
10:26you want everyone to be writing ideally
10:28you want to record audio or record video
10:31and in this way the actual recording of
10:34ideas is as little of a barrier as
10:36possible ideally you actually want your
10:39brainstorming to run individually
10:41instead of bringing four people together
10:43in the same room to brainstorm have them
10:45brainstorm on their own separately
10:47beforehand and use the group to evaluate
10:50ideas a second issue that you want to
10:55think about is how you frame the problem
10:56if you give people a very narrow
10:58question to brainstorm around you're
11:01going to get a much more narrow set of
11:04the other hand if you make the problem
11:07too big how do we improve the world then
11:10it's difficult for people to come up
11:11with concrete ideas and so you want to
11:14frame the problem in such a way that's
11:16at a more middle ground but it's broad
11:19enough for people to come up with
11:21creative out-of-the-box ideas but not so
11:24broad that it becomes intractable and
11:26narrow enough that people can get
11:28specific and it's applicable but not so
11:30narrow that it restricts the possible
11:32ideas and then finally I think the most
11:34important thing is due to the impact of
11:37evaluation apprehension due to the fear
11:40of being judged you want to separate as
11:43much as possible the idea generation
11:45phase from the idea evaluation phase so
11:49you need to separate these either in
11:51time or in different meetings and have
11:54one phase be solely dedicated to
11:56generating as many new ideas as possible
11:58no matter how crazy they are and then
12:00groups it turns out are much better at
12:03evaluating ideas and so the second stage
12:06can be taking this list of ideas you've
12:08generated and deciding which ideas are
12:11really the best ones when you're going
12:13to use brainstorming in entrepreneurship
12:15is it going to be just at the phase
12:18where you're coming up with the new
12:20technology or is it going to be at other
12:23brainstorming creativity is going to be
12:25important throughout all stages of
12:27entrepreneurship certainly important in
12:29coming up with the technical solutions
12:31but there are a number of business
12:33challenges including the sales process
12:35marketing distribution funding that are
12:40also going to require creative solutions
12:42new unexpected things are going to come
12:44up along the way and these are going to
12:46require creative solutions so you're
12:48gonna use brainstorming at all times
12:50however it's important to think about in
12:53which area of the startup do we want to
12:56be most novel if every single piece of
12:59your startup is new this also carries a
13:01higher risk so you want to as much as
13:04possible think through for our
13:07competitive advantage where do we have
13:09to be new and in what other areas can we
13:11just use existing well-known solutions
13:14so now it's your turn your turn to
13:17form groups of four you can either be
13:20together as a real group or you can
13:22separate your group before as a nominal
13:24group and in the next pause the video
13:27and give yourself the next five to ten
13:29minutes to come up with your 15 best
13:33so go ahead pause the video and give it
13:41you've now got your 15 best startup
13:43ideas I want you in the same groups to
13:47come up with your 15 were startup ideas
13:51feel free to be as outlandish as
13:53possible take these 15 we're startup
13:57ideas and we're gonna do something in
14:00class regarding them and so for the
14:06Stanford students I encourage you to
14:08skip over the next part of the video and
14:11you'll see in class what we'll be doing
14:13for the online students go ahead and
14:15watch the next part of the video so what
14:21I want you to do with these 15 worst
14:22startup ideas is if you can exchange
14:25them with another group or at least
14:27exchange your 15 worst ideas within the
14:30group so that rather than having one of
14:32your worst ideas you have someone else's
14:35list of really bad ideas really bad
14:37startup ideas and so what you're going
14:40to do is now that you've got someone
14:43else's where startup idea you're going
14:46to think of how to create a five-minute
14:48ad advertising this worst startup idea
14:52and so it's your job to take this really
14:54bad idea and turn it into something
14:56wonderful so go ahead pause the video
14:59and spend a few minutes coming up with
15:02your pitch to the other people in your
15:04group about why there were startup idea
15:06is actually a really good one okay so
15:10now we're back so if you can upload
15:14upload videos of your pitch for the
15:16worst startup idea somewhere on the web
15:18and use the forum to share these videos
15:21with the other people taking a class
15:24it'll be terrific to see what you came
15:26up with okay so now I wanted to give a
15:30about the OAP project so this is the
15:34opportunity assessment project this is
15:37your presentation midway through the
15:40quarter this is going to be January 31st
15:43and February 2nd where your group is
15:47going to present to the rest of the
15:49class along with a panel of venture
15:51capitalists and angel investors about
15:54what startup idea you've chosen what's
15:57the great opportunity that you're going
15:59to pursue and so I want you to talk to
16:01as many customers as you can if you can
16:04we want both surveys showing what
16:08proportion of people that you surveyed
16:10said that they would actually want to
16:11use your product or service and also
16:14evidence that you've actually spoken to
16:16some of these potential customers so we
16:18want you to get out of the building and
16:19really test whether you can find
16:22customers who will actually buy this new
16:24product or service that you've dreamed
16:25up so we want to see some analysis of
16:28these results is there a certain target
16:30market is there a certain demographic or
16:33type of consumer who seems to
16:35particularly appeal to the product or
16:40service you've created and so you'll be
16:42presenting these in class and so I just
16:44want to give you a reminder that this is
16:46coming up and you need to start working
16:49on this so what did we learn today we
16:53learned that entrepreneurship is about
16:55seeing problems seeing customer needs as
17:00the bigger the problem the bigger the
17:02opportunity we also learned how to
17:05optimize or hack the brainstorming
17:06process to become more creative and then
17:09often customers or lead users or a
17:12fertile source of new ideas so get out
17:14there and talk to potential customers
17:15and see what it is they need finally I'd
17:20like to point out that startups need a
17:23combination of a creative visionary and
17:25someone who can really lead the
17:27execution and operation side of the
17:30business and so if you can it's best to
17:32form a team that has both of these
17:34aspects someone who's the creative
17:36visionary and someone who can really
17:38break it down into a step by step series
17:42I hope in the course of doing the worst
17:45startup idea process you've seen that
17:47there really are no bad ideas and that
17:50this will encourage you to be more
17:51creative in your venture ideas so again
17:54our takeaways just to reinforce create
17:57an importance of creative visionaries
17:58lead users talking to potential
18:01customers and getting new startup ideas
18:03from your potential customers rather
18:05than telling them what they should want
18:07there are certain ways of organizing and
18:10of running brainstorming sessions that
18:12can lead to improved creativity and
18:14we've also thought a little bit about
18:16what the purpose of creativity within a
18:18startup is so that's it for today thank
18:22you very much and I'll see you in the
18:24next video for more please visit us at
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