Get set for that eureka moment

Sep 24 2009 by Herb Kim, The Journal

ALTHOUGH the technology world is built upon ideas, actually having that eureka moment in the first place can prove the hardest part.

Thankfully there are ways you can spur your stubborn grey matter into action. A while ago I stumbled upon a photograph of a sketch made in a notebook from 2006 of something called my.stat.us.

Three years later and that little drawing has developed into something used by millions around the globe, which has generated masses of media coverage, and which some experts suggest could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The sketch was by a man named Jack Dorsey, and he turned it into something called Twitter.

If you’re someone to whom coming up with something as simple yet brilliant as Twitter seems a million miles away, you’ll be pleased to know there are techniques you can use to formulate ideas.

Since its publication in 1965, James Webb Young’s A Technique for Producing Ideas has helped advertising professionals unleash their creativity, and it can be as useful to those working outside of ad-land as to those within. In it, Webb Young details a five-step process you can follow to help you make a ‘creative leap’ to truly great ideas.

The first step, he says, is to gather all the raw material your mind will need to solve whatever problem it is you’re dealing with. It sounds obvious, but in practice many people ignore this step. Second, you need to “mentally digest” all this material. As you go through this part of the process tentative ideas will come to you, which it’s important to write down.

Next comes the easy part. Switch off. Make no effort of a direct nature. Instead, put the problem out of your mind as best you can and let your unconscious work on it.

If you follow the first three steps properly, Webb Young says, you’ll likely experience the fourth: out of nowhere the idea will appear. It will come to you when you’re least expecting it – while you’re driving to work or settling down to sleep.

After this comes the final, most difficult step. You’ve had THE idea, but it will need a good deal of effort to make it fit the exact conditions in which it must work.

Jack Dorsey and the guys at Twitter followed these steps, whether they knew it or not, and they put in the sheer graft needed to give their idea its best shot at success. Great ideas aren’t the preserve of the intelligent or the gifted, but they sure favour those who make the effort.

Herb Kim is CEO of Codeworks, the North East’s centre for digital innovation.