Simply Brilliant: Powerful Techniques to Unlock Your Creativity and Spark New Ideas - Paperback

by Bernhard Schroeder (Author)

Discover the powerful techniques that unlocks your creativity and spark new ideas, which will ultimately lead you to continuous business success.

Do you label yourself as "just a numbers person"? Do you pigeonhole your capabilities to merely that of an analyst or other "non-artist"? Stop feeding yourself these lies and learn how even you can tap into the creative genius driving Silicon Valley's success stories and begin brainstorming innovation solutions to your company's challenges.

Using his CreativityWorks framework, creativity and innovation expert Bernhard Schroeder explains how to break out of your self-imposed mental box, reignite natural curiosity, and move step by step through a set of exercises that help individuals and teams.

In Simply Brilliant, you will learn how to:

• Fuel creativity through tight deadlines;
• Create more ideas in brainstorming sessions;
• Radically improve products;
• Find inspired solutions using tools such as IdeaGen, SCAMPER, Tempero, and the Phoenix List;
• Let go of the "I'm not creative" mindset;
• And open the door to imagination and limitless opportunity!

Even a "numbers person" like you can capture markets with your company's next innovative idea.

Front Jacket

Some people feel they are not creative, but in fact everyone is. You just need the knowledge, the mindset and the information to unlock your potential. Why? Because your future success depends on your ability to be creative and solve problems.

Simply Brilliant strips away the mystery of the creative process and offers you tools to solve problems in new ways. Filled with stories from some of the world's most innovative companies and entrepreneurs, as well as highlights from the latest creativity research, the book helps you: - Stop wondering if you're creative or not--you are! - Adopt a growth mindset that pushes past mental blocks - Create a stimulating workplace culture and environment - Instill a sense of mission into teams - Correctly identify your customers' pain points - Analyze and define actual problems - Run brief, focused brainstorming sessions - Generate ideas with proven tools like SCAMPER, IdeaGen, the Phoenix List, Blue Ocean Strategy, Tempero, and Observation Lab - Use iteration to improve on existing products or services - Gather information by paying attention to your surroundings - Focus your efforts on the largest target segments - Gain confidence in your ability to innovate Whether you're leading a company, a team, or kicking around ideas for a startup, everyone has the creative capacity to discover unmet customer needs, combine existing products in unexpected ways, and bring new products to market that are useful, desirable, and simply brilliant. Bernhard Schroeder is a director at the prestigious Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University, where he also teaches entrepreneurship and creativity courses. Previously a senior partner at the global CKS Partners, he delivered marketing and brand expertise for Amazon, Yahoo, Apple, Nike, and other major companies and startups. The author of Fail Fast or Win Big, he mentors more than 20 startup founders in Austin, Texas, San Francisco, and San Diego.

Back Jacket

Fire Your Creativity and Fuel Your Career!

What if you could brainstorm innovative solutions to your company's challenges? What if you could dream up new businesses that capture emerging markets? What if you could tap your own creativity and ignite your career? The truth is, you can! Analytical thinkers, numbers people, non-artists--everyone can generate imaginative ideas. All it takes is letting go of the "I'm-not-creative" mindset and putting a proven process to work for you. Using his CreativityWorks framework, creativity and innovation expert Bernhard Schroeder explains how to break out of your mental box, adopt a growth mindset, reignite natural curiosity, and move step by step through a set of exercises that help individuals and teams: - Fuel creativity through a proven framework - Create more relevant ideas in brainstorming sessions - Radically improve existing products or services - Find inspired solutions using IdeaGen, SCAMPER, Observation Lab, Tempero, the Phoenix List, and other tools From changing the physical workplace to spur interaction . . . to nurturing a culture that promotes creativity . . . to applying tools that generate more and better ideas, Simply Brilliant opens the door to spark your imagination and ignite your creativity.

Author Biography

BERNHARD SCHROEDER is a director at the prestigious Lavin Entrepreneurship Center at San Diego State University. Previously a senior partner at CKS Partners, he has served as a marketing and brand expert for Amazon, Yahoo, Apple, Nike, and more. He is the author of Fail Fast or Win Big.