Motivation
I wanted to explore the technique of problem-solving and innovation that my uncle suggested when I was working on the task for my upcoming interview at Deloitte I also intend to learn how to start from ground zero and appreciate the functionality of technology to see everything that is possible with it and everything that isn’t
Definition
Technology-driven Innovation or Technology-push Innovation is the method of innovation in problem solving that follows a bottom-up approach where you start with the technology and branch out to its potential applications and use cases
The core idea with pursuing Technology-Driven Innovation (TDI) is to exploit and research emergent and disruptive technologies to develop potential use cases and applications
Why is this a good approach?
- Sometimes, a lot of potential possibilities and use cases can show up when I study what something is capable of. When I’m examining a market or customer problem, I am focusing on only one domain. The challenge imposes quite a few constraints that limits my free thinking. In TDI, however, I can think freely and develop a wide variety of use cases and hence, solve multiple problems with one technology rather than solve one problem with multiple technologies
- I find that this method also justifies the importance of the technology that is being researched
- Considering that I am a technical-minded person given my educational background and experience insofar, TDI fits my style of thinking well. TDI emphasizes the importance of the technological mind in solving problems. and more use cases and solutions are easily developed when we understand something from an engineer’s perspective
- One of my core personal strengths is interdisciplinary and Associative Thinking. This is where I connect seemingly unrelated concepts together to forge new insights and knowledge. TDI encourages interdisciplinary thinking by exploring how technology under focus fits in a plethora of various scenarios
Steps for TDI
Identify a technology and list all of its capabilities
Pick a technology. This can be hard because there are so many technologies out there. To navigate through this hurdle, I came up with some criteria to zero in on the right technology to select
- The technology should be highly versatile and adaptable
- The technology should have disruptive and breakthrough potential
- The technology should be future-ready (it may be so that right now, it is a hard sell due to its nascence but if it is poised to be highly valuable in the future, then I will pick it) Once selected, it’s time to develop a mind-map and list out all capabilities of the technology. What can it do? What is it capable of?
Link these capabilities to various problems and challenges
Each capability can make the corresponding technology perfect for a specific real-world problem. Come up with, or attach an existing use case to each capability. Sometimes, there may be use cases that require multiple functions of the technology. Include them too, the graph need not necessarily be linear