Presented at the HICSS 44 conference in Hawaii on January 7th, 2011.

1. ImprovingAnalogiesfor Ideation: Whatis a Good Attribute? Stefan Knoll1 & Graham Horton1,2 1 Computer Science Dept., Magdeburg University 2 ZephramGbR

3. Motivation Innovation isnecessarytomaintaincompetitiveness Products and Services Marketing Applications Business Models Innovationsaredevelopedusing an innovationprocess. Thiscontainsseveralcollaborativeactivities, including … Ideageneration Ideaevaluation

4. Background University – Ourresearchinterest: Computer-Aided Innovation (Especiallycomputer-supportedideagenerationandevaluation) Zephram – Howwecreatevalue: Consulting andideationforinnovation Ourgoal: (Collaborative) innovationprocessesthatare … Effective Efficient Reliable

5. Our Position Webelieve in engineeredideationprocesses. Structured scriptsthataretailor-madeforeachideationtask Micro-managementofparticipants' cognitiveactivities Thisistheantithesisofclassicalbrainstorming! G. Kolfschoten, 06.01.11: "Structured cognitiveactivityreducescognitiveloadwhichleadstohigherefficiencyatsolvingcomplextasks."

6. Analogies Analogiesare an importantclassofideationtechniques. Theyhave a numberofsignificantadvantages. Theyarewidelyused. Masteryofanalogiesis essential forideationfacilitation!

7. The AnalogyTechnique Ideas Ideation task Task space Attributes Analogies Solutions Analogyspace

8. The AnalogyTechnique 1. Attribute A supermarkethaslongwalls. 2. Analogy An artgallery also haslongwalls. 3. Solution An artgalleryexhibitspictures. 4. Transfer Oursupermarketcoulddisplaypaintingsbylocalchildren.

9. Whatis a GoodIdea? A "good" ideashouldfulfill (at least!) thetwoconditions: Practicality Effectiveness An ideaispractical, … ifitcanbeimplementedwiththeresourcesavailable. An ideaiseffective, … ifitachievesitsgoalwhenimplemented.

10. RelevanceandTypicalness Wedefinetwoattributesoftaskattributes Relevance Typicalness An attributeof a taskisrelevant, … ifithas a significanteffect on thetask. An attributeof a taskistypical, … ifitischaracteristicofthetasksituation.

11. TwoHypotheses Hypothesis 1: Relevantattributeswill tendtoproducemoreeffectiveideas. Reasoning: Solutions havesuccessfullyovercome a commonproblem. Hypothesis 2: Typicalattributeswill tendtoproducemorepracticableideas. Reasoning: Solutions havebeenimplementedundersimilarcircumstances.

12. Two Attributes of Attributes Receives a large proportionofhouseholdincomes Has a very large selectionofproductsforsale Yes Typical Customers trytoget out asquicklyaspossible No Has a tiledfloor No Yes Relevant

13. Experimental Design Phase 1 2 peoplegenerated 81 attributes. 5 peoplecategorizedtheattributes (relevant/typical). Select 4x5 attributeswiththemostunanimousclassification. Phase 2 22 participantsweregivenrandomsubsetsoftheattributestogenerateapprox. 330 analogiesand 1222 ideas. Phase 3 3 peopleevaluatedthe 1222 ideas(effective/practicable)

14. Results Distribution ofthe 1222 ideasamongthefourcombinations: (N.B. 166/1222 is a 13% success rate!)

15. Results Do relevant attributesleadtomoreeffectiveideas? Yes, but not significantly

16. Results Do typicalattributesleadtomorepracticableideas? Yes, but not significantly

17. Interpretation Wefailedto find evidencetosupportourhypotheses. (Choosingattributesthatare relevant/typicaldoes not leadtoideasthatareeffective/practicable.) Whydidwe not gettheresultwewereexpecting? Attribute categoriesareambiguous. Disagreementon scoringofideas. Large degreeofrandomness (despite large sample size!) Therewereoftenmanypathstothegoodideas.

18. Data Analysis Wehad a completeprotocoloftheentireexperiment. Welookedatourdatatotryandgainsomeunderstanding.

19. One Attribute  ManyAnalogies Observation: Oneattributecanyieldmanyanalogies. AnalogiesfromtheattributePersonnelwears a uniform: Fast food restaurant Hotel Airline Army Police Sports team Monastery Factory Church …

20. Many Attributes  OneAnalogy Observation: Manyattributescanleadtothe same analogy. Attributes thatledtotheanalogyCar Dealership: Eight different ones All combinationsofrelevant/typicalwererepresented. Thisanalogygenerated … thehighest-ratedidea someofthelowest-ratedideas

21. ManyAnalogies OneIdea Observation: Manyanalogiescanleadtothe same idea. Analogiesleadingtothe top ideaProvideSeating: Car dealership Tram Stadium Fast foodrestaurant Bookstore Restaurant University canteen Bakery Medical practice …

22. ProductivenessofAnalogies # ideas per analogyfollows a longtaildistribution. The top 5 analogies are as productive as the bottom 150.

23. Equidistribution Cluster theanalogiesintolowandhighyieldsets. The practicabilityscoresofeachsethave a similardistribution.

24. Equidistribution Cluster the top 6 andbottom 158 analogiesbyyield. The effectivenessscoresofeachsethavesimilardistributions. The top 6 are slightly better.

25. Interpretation Whatdidwediscover? The score distributionsofideasgeneratedfromlow-yieldandhigh-yieldanalogiesaresimilar. Thisresultcontradictsstandardwisdom: "Useasmany different stimuliaspossible!" We do not yethave an explanationforthisphenomenon.

26. Interpretation Considerthecognitiveloadneededtoprocessanalogies Itismuchlowerfor 6 analogiesthanfor 158! Unfortunately, thisisofnopracticaluse. Wehavetogeneratetheideas in order todeterminewhichanalogiesarethemostproductive!

27. Attribute Quality Considerthe top 5% of all ideas. (Add theeffectivenessandpracticalityscores.) Determinefromwhichanalogiestheseideasweregenerated. Count theattributesthatledtoeachoftheseanalogies.

28. Quality ofAnalogies Result: Analogiesthatarereached via moreattributesgeneratemore top ideas.

29. Quality ofAnalogies Scatterplot ofanalogies Analogiesreached via moreattributesshow a smallervariance in ideaquality.

30. Conclusions Threepreliminaryconclusions: Relevant/typicalattributes do not leadtomoreeffective/practicableideas. A fewproductiveanalogiesareasgoodasmanylessproductiveones. Analogieswith lots ofgeneratingattributesarebetterthanthosewithfew.

31. PracticalConsequences Consider a computer-basedcollaborativeenvironment. The selectionoftheanalogiescouldbeautomated. Perhapsanalogiescouldevenbegeneratedautomatically. The Brainwriting versus Brainstorming question Attributes andanalogiesshouldbe in brainstormingmode. Cross cueingisimportant. Ideagenerationshouldbe in brainwritingmode. Avoidanceofcognitiveinterference

32. Evaluation Opennessofideationtask Perhapsit was too open forour original question. TRIZ provesthatattributeselectioncanbethekeytogeneratinggoodideas. A tighterproblemmightshowtheeffectwewerelookingfor. Further Work: Repeat the original experimentwith a tighterideationtask. Test thevalidityofthetwonewhypotheses.