Innovator's Dictionary

More and more employees have to organize, moderate or accompany innovation processes, creative workshops and design thinking projects and need an overview of the selection of the best instruments. At the same time, the number of available methods has almost exploded. This book presents the most important innovation methods and tools. Each of the 555 methods is explained step by step and expanded with a lot of additional information such as results of the methods, collected experiences, presumed innovation capabilities as well as numerous illustrations. Whether the reader is a beginner or a professional, The Innovator's Dictionary supports in selecting methods quickly and easily. This book will be an invaluable resource for innovation consultants, product and project managers. In addition, this book offers a design-thinking assignment of all methods as well as a supplementary online method search with seven target-oriented search paths. Search paths: In order to make this very large number of different methods navigable for the reader, we have integrated 3 different 'search paths' into the book. These search paths follow our "Work and Learn" approach, because they motivate the reader to dig deeper into the world of different methods and tools. Search Path 1: Alphabetically sorted with assignment of the method to Design Thinking Phases Design Thinking is a very popular innovation approach used by many people. In this search path the methods are listed alphabetically and at the same time you can see in which Design Thinking phase they are used. This helps especially Design Thinking people to extend their method knowledge and variety of tools. Search Path 2: Grouped by obstacle effects There are specific situations in which innovation professionals get stuck and need new methods or ways of working to overcome the respective obstacle. Some examples: the innovation team is inexperienced, the ideas are too generic, there is no trust in the team, etc. Therefore, this search path sorts the methods according to the effect on these obstacle effects. In total, we have listed the 41 most relevant obstacles (from our experience as long term Innovation Professionals) to match them with 555 methods. Search Path 3: Methods for extra benefits Some methods work particularly well in certain situations. Examples: Teams in crisis situations, teams in a conservative, traditional culture, etc. We have listed these 19 advantages here and grouped the methods accordingly. Highlight: We provide a complimentary access to our online database with further search paths Since digital searching is easier in some situations, we have included a code in the book that gives the reader free access to our digital method database. The content there is completely identical to the content of the printed book, but has a total of 8 different search paths (5 more than in the book).