In business and in life, we pursue the good stuff and champion people who are known for their good ideas. But when we place too strong an emphasis on just the good, we may neglect to consider the bad ones. In design and in brainstorming, deliberately seeking out bad ideas is a powerful way to unlock creativity. Generating bad ideas can reveal our assumptions about the difference between bad and good, and often seemingly bad ideas turn out to be good ones. Jotly and Cow Clicker were jokes or parodies—that is, not good ideas—that have been surprisingly successful. Neil Young and Crazy Horse have covered folk songs. An action blockbuster features a US president swinging a silver axe against vampires. In this talk, Steve will explore how opening up the bad idea valve can lead unexpectedly to the kind of success we aim for with our good ideas.
Steve Portigal helps companies to think and act strategically when innovating with user insights. He is principal of Portigal Consulting (portigal.com), author of Interviewing Users: How To Uncover Compelling Insights (rosenfeldmedia.com/books/interviewing-users/) and host of the Dollars to Donuts podcast (itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dollars-to-donuts/id956673263). Steve has interviewed hundreds of people, including families eating breakfast, hotel maintenance staff, probiotic distributors, rock musicians, home-automation enthusiasts, credit-default swap traders, business school professors and radiologists. His clients are leaders in telecommunications, banking, media, energy and e-commerce
