Imagination is sparked by unexpected information. If you want to stimulate fresh thinking, seek out surprises. Here’s the inside scoop on the origins of an innovation at Mattel, which highlights the importance of welcoming an unexpected direction.

“Fish don’t know they’re wet.” IDEO founder David Kelly says it’s critical to question the things we take for granted. Entrepreneur Gabriela Gonzalez Bux recounts a remarkable example in today’s guest post.

A good hypothesis is one of the most valuable assets in the scientific world. And they’re getting harder to come by. Luckily, this is where design thinking shines.

To make empathetic engagement with customers as rich as possible, it’s essential to immerse in and observe them in the wild, and to do so regularly. Some tips from an outstanding innovation leader.

If you find a problem that matters, you’re well on your way to a desirable innovation. How do you do that? Practice empathy.

Senior leaders unwittingly jeopardize their organizations by insulating themselves from the pain their users experience. By removing insulation, orgs can feel the pain they should be solving!

You might think the best place to start designing is smack dab in the middle of the bell curve. But it’s not. The history of innovation teaches that the best breakthroughs (even for the middle of the curve) come from the extremes.

Subconscious processing has tremendous potential to deliver breakthrough thinking. But you can only tap into that potential if you actually care about a problem.

How do you know when it’s time to iterate?Founders have to be willing to adapt based on real-time feedback, and iterate accordingly.

We can inadvertently insulate ourselves from the very things that bother our customers. When we immerse ourselves in our own products and processes, we viscerally experience what needs to be reinvented.

Bon Jovi took an unconventional approach to deciding which tracks to include on their third album. We should all be glad they did.

Jon Beekman, Founder and CEO of ManCrates, shares an enlightened tactic for helping innovators find the breakthroughs they aren’t even looking for.

Where does the authority to lead transformation comes from? Innovation leader and Stanford d.school coach Bill Pacheco shares insights from a recent engagement.

To make empathetic engagements with end users as rich as possible, it’s essential to immerse in and observe the world of your user, and to do so regularly. Some tips from an outstanding innovation leader.

Talking to others is the surest way to find a problem that matters. And if you find a a problem that matters, you’re well on your way to a desirable innovation.

NYU Prof Adam Alter asked Malcolm Gladwell, “If you were given a month to come up with an idea for a new story, and you had no constraints, what would you do?” I was blown away by the simple elegance of his answer.

Due to tight delivery schedules, it might seem faster to skip deep customer research and just start building something. This is wrong. Empathy fuels both insights, and the stories that enlist enthusiastic collaboration.

Senior leaders unwittingly eliminate insights and ideas by insulating themselves from the pain their users experience. By removing insulation, orgs can feel the pain they should be solving!

To describe Fenty Beauty as having revolutionized the beauty industry is an understatement: by obliterating the “acceptable spectrum” of color, they literally changed the definition of beauty. Such “experience gaps” are an incredible opportunity for innovation.

Bill Pacheco, gifted design thinking practitioner and instructor, sheds light on a critical element to building empathy: giving others the space to explore feelings they may not have explored before.