Finding Hidden Ideas By Using Five Hats

Phil McKinney

29 Jul 2007 — 1 min read

Segment 1: Five Hats Method To Finding Hidden Ideas

Get out of the rut of how you look/evaluate/organize your ideas
Use the “Five Hats” approach
- Alphabetical
- Time
- Location
- Continuum
- Category
Look for …
- Non-obvious patterns
- Strange combinations of ideas appearing next to each other

Segment 2: Killer Question Of The Week

“What are the assumptions under which my industry operates?”

Define the assumptions
Apply the Five Hats
Come up with 5 new ideas for each of the Five Hats

Segment 3: Closing Thought

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything” George Lois

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Phil McKinney is an innovator, podcaster, author, and speaker. He is the retired CTO of HP. Phil's book, Beyond The Obvious, shares his expertise and lessons learned on innovation and creativity.