I stumbled upon a lecture by Professor Barry Nalebuff, author of the book “Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small“. All I can say is that I’m very tempted to add this book to my Christmas list 
The lecture itself, conveniently titled “Why Not?”, aims to prove that coming up with creative solutions to problems has more to do with a certain way of thinking than anything else. Just looking around you can lead to fascinating discoveries (as well as great wealth). Professor Nalebuff categorizes his findings under two approaches:
- Problems in search of solutions
- Solutions in search of problems
Problems in search of solutions. This can start with identifying a problem and asking yourself how would that problem be solved by someone with unlimited financial means. The author calls it “what would Trump do?”. Yes, there are lots of people wealthier than Trump, but it’s easy to see how the Trump persona fits better than some other people who are way richer than he is. Once you come up with a solution, then the challenge is to take that solution from being something only a millionaire can do and turn it into a solution that is affordable. The author cites “valet parking at airports” as something he came up with, but I think online discount brokers such as E-Trade fit this description perfectly.
Similarly, you can identify areas where people are literally misbehaving because of poor incentives, and build a solution around how it should be. Notable problems that could be addressed this way are the pricing of car insurance policies and the issue of grade inflation.
Solutions in search of problems. The other approach to coming up with great ideas is to look at existing solutions and finding other problems that they can successfully be applied to. The first technique in this approach is symmetry, which basically boils down to looking at how things are currently done as asking why not do it differently. My favorite example is Priceline building a billion dollar business by flipping the script: instead of the business stating the price to the customers, it’s the customers stating their desired price to businesses competing for their dollars.
Existing products can also open the door to great opportunities. You take an existing product and find other areas where it can be successfully applied. What do the Spin Pop, the Spin Brush, and the Dawn Power Brush have in common? Exact same technology, different application. I also vaguely remember reading somewhere that the inventor of the popular 70′s fad “mood rings” licensed the underlying technology to Duracell for their testers on the sides of their batteries.
I highly recommend watching the lecture. It’s 55 minutes long, but it took me almost 90 minutes to watch it, since I was pausing and jotting down notes as he was talking. I have a couple ideas of my own that will definitely be worth exploring in the near future. And yes, I’m putting that book on my Christmas list! Although I must say, I find it pretty surprising that such a book isn’t available for the Kindle, given its title and its target audience.
Watch the lecture here: http://www.academicearth.org/lectures/why_not
