The 7 essential innovation questions

The 7 essential innovation questions

The path to innovation usually starts with a question. That’s what Autodesk’s Innovation Genome Project developed after it tried to quantify what worked about the 1,000 greatest innovations of all time. With that data in hand, they quickly identified seven questions that famous innovators have consistently asked and answered to generate ideas that can lead to new innovations.

Here are the 7 questions Innovation Genome Project came up with:

  • What could we look at in a new way, or from a new perspective?
  • What could we use in a new way, or for the first time?
  • What could we move, changing its position in time or space?
  • What could we interconnect in a different way, or for the first time?
  • What could we alter or change, in terms of design and performance?
  • What could we make, creating something that is truly new?
  • What could we imagine to create a great experience for something?

In the video below, Innovation Genome Project leader and Autodesk Corporate Strategist Bill O’Connor explains the full process:

P.S. These questions are very similar to those used with SCAMPER to generate ideas in a brainstorm.