| DESCRIPTION |
Needs Evocation Lists are “exploration”
methods, id.methods that help you to solve problems that concern the
use of the means at my disposal to satisfy other needs than those usually
satisfied by these means.
Therefore these methods help to answer to the following questions: which
product? What kind of solutions? Who can master and use these particular
means? In more general terms, they help you to answer to the following
question: what else can be done through the available means?
“…Since the products which I am
looking for use the means at my disposal, I need to get these means
and apply them to specific needs. And as I am looking for ideas...I
will juxtapose my problem and the need images with their lists.
Virtually, need images in the proper sense of the word are hard to be
found and therefore “needs evocation” lists are very often
used. What kind of lists are they?
Here you find some examples:
Example 1: Job lists
Jobs evocate needs: words like “farmer”
or “dentist” soon evocate the needs involved by such professions,
which vary from job to job. There are general job lists, such as the
yellow pages…
Example 2: Catalogues
Catalogues – with or without pictures
– evocate needs. It is necessary to opt for complete catalogues.
Avoid too specialized catalogues...This makes me think of the rifle
and teflon example.
Examle 3: The rifle and teflon tale story
Everyone knows teflon. However, who can tell
about its origins? Its discovery is related to its low friction and
rubbing coefficient, which makes teflon perfect for car bearings. The
Onera researchers were worried: the aircraft wings slipstream resistence
(id.the air friction against the aircraft wings, which provokes a slowdown)
was to be reduced.
The researchers decided to cover the aircraft winds with teflon. Their
plan was quite hard indeed, as its properties prevent this material
from sticking to the plain wing surface. After thinkng about it for
a while, they agreed on a mechanical grip and prepared a chemical substance
that consumed the aluminium wings, thus digging little furrows.
Then they moved on to the following step: they put the teflon sheets
into the aircraft wings, which would finally buckle, fit the holes and
hold the grip. It was the patent for teflon coated metals which by the
way was never applied...
So this company tried to put this patent to another use, id. to coat
pan bottoms with teflon, to prevent food from sticking.
It is an exploration problem, such as “what else to do?”
Let’s make this problem clash with some needs evocation images.
But where to find out images? Mail-order sale catalogues full of pictures
are an inspiring source...
If we asked to the participants of a creativity session: “What
can you see in this catalogue?”, they would answer like this:
weapons, rifles (in particular hunting rifles), bicycles, sewing machines,
etc. The teflon group mentioned the same sort of things.
Viewing again the images one by one, the group asked the following question:
“How can we apply metal teflon coating - which reduces friction
- to a hunting rifle?”
They suddenly thought to coat the rifle barrel with teflon. According
to the Osborn’s principles, they could not be censored and nobody
argued that teflon melts at a quite low temperature and that therefore
it was nonsensical to use teflon to coat a hot material because it would
soon melt it. So they generated their idea.
However, to dispel all doubts, they were to make sure that teflon would
stick to the rifle barrel when shooting. The teflon coated rifle was
“confronted” with a common one on the firing ground.
After shooting, teflon was totally undamaged. However, this was only
their first impression. Afterwards, they examined the target reached
by the teflon coated rifle but they could only find a few shots (and
no hint of the other shots); on the contrary, the target hit by the
common rifle still had all shots on. What did happen?
After a short while, the group concluded that the heat generating friction
was not strong enough to melt teflon. Since energy was not absorbed
by high temperature any longer, it was entirely channeled outwards with
shots. How fast was the energy push? The average speed for a common
rifle is 300 m/s. What about a teflon coated rifle? It was estimated
that speed was so supersonic (380-460 m/s) that shots departed from
their target. However, this hypothesis had to be tested...but how? The
group had to make an estimate of how much gun powder was required to
push out the shots at 300 m/s, with no heat degradation. During a second
test conducted on the firing ground, all shots hit the centre of the
target.
The group participants wondered how the teflon coated rifle could turn
out to be handy, as it was more expensive apart from its cartridge,
which was less filled and therefore cheaper. However, another company
produced this cartridge, so they did not have any advantages. Yet, the
teflon coated rifle needed a cartridge with less gun powder charge.
As a result, there was less energy waste and possibly a softer recoil.
The weapon bearing capacity was lower and there was no need to make
it so resistant.
Therefore teflon coated rifles would be lighter and less materials would
be needed to make it. This was a great advantage to hunters who had
to carry their rifle all day long and would be therefore ready to pay
for a lighter and more comfortable model.
Now, all readers will certainly think that the teflon barrel rifle was
a brilliant invention. Why then was it unsuccessful? The production
company made a mistake in its marketing strategy and defined it a “woman
rifle” because of its lightness.
More precisely, they made three mistakes: first of all, they did not
consider that hunting women are not part of such a big market; secondly,
they usually show off their strentgh and aim to carry a man rifle. Finally,
they overlooked that no man would ever purchase a woman rifle and this
was a very gross mistake. So, the company put down a brilliant product.
When this unfavourable moment was finally left behind, teflon coated
rifles became successful, thanks to a famous brand. Nowadays, it is
well known and in Japan it is produced by Miroku.
Business relationships
Chambers of Commerce and business observers can provide an overview
of the existing or upcoming needs. Trade Unions reports and market inquiries
are also interesting, even if they usually aim to less far-reaching
objectives, which is not however something negative.
Upcoming activities
Needless to say that the most interesting needs are going to increase
in the next years. Here you can find a very interesting list of those
needs:
Upcoming or developing activities
- Robotics
- Subcontracts
- Space
- Welding and sticking techniques
- Aeronautics
- Agribusiness
- Seabed
- Biochemistry
- Underwater connections
- Bioindustry
- Automatisms
- Nuclear
- Computer software
- Plastic materials
- Miniaturization
- Rubber industry...” (Joly, 1993)
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