10. 10
Lateral thinking is when you
turn problems around and
approach them from
unconventional angles.
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
11. 11
The easiest way to make
yourself use lateral thinking is
to ask yourself a question that
forces you to change the
angle at which you look at the
problem.
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
12. 12
Here are a few of my
favorites:
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
13. 13
QUESTION 1:
How would a type of
person of a different
background or
expertise look at this
problem?
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
14. 14
FOR EXAMPLE:
When James Patterson wrote his
first book, he had trouble getting
his publisher to promote it…
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
15. 15
So he did what a regular writer
would never do and made his own
TV commercial himself! (It worked.)
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
It was easy for Patterson to come up with this because his actual job was making TV
commercials.
16. 16
QUESTION 2:
How have people in
different industries
than yours already
solved similar
problems in the past?
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
17. 17
FOR EXAMPLE:
When a hospital in London needed
to fix problems with complicated
equipment changes while kids were
on life support…
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
18. 18
They solved the problem by
studying what race car pit crews do
to do the same thing in a very
different place.
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
19. 19
QUESTION 3:
What if you had to use
a different era of
technology, or a tool
from a different job for
this job?
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
20. 20
FOR EXAMPLE:
You know those terrible Blister-Pak
packages that you get electronics
in? (They’re impossible to open!)
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
21. 21
It turns out that a can-opener is the
easiest way to open them!
Repurposing tools from other times or jobs can be an
incredible way to find breakthrough solutions.
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
22. 22
QUESTION 4:
What if you had to do
this 10x better?
(So much better that you can’t just do more
of the same thing.)
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
23. 23
FOR EXAMPLE:
When Google’s R&D laboratory, Google[x],
decided to make a car that was 10x safer
than a typical car…
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
24. 24
Instead of designing better car
parts, stronger frames, or doing
lots of crash testing (like they
might have if the challenge was just
to make a car 2x as safe)…
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
25. 25
…they designed a car that used
computers and sensors to drive
itself and avoid accidents entirely.
(At the time of this writing, Google’s prototype self-driving cars have had significantly fewer accidents than
human drivers—almost all of them were the Google car being rear ended by other drivers, and none of
them severe enough to seriously injure.)
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
26. 26
QUESTION 5:
What if we had to do
this 100 times
cheaper?
(So cheap that you can’t just do the same
thing more efficiently.)
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
27. 27
FOR EXAMPLE:
When Stanford students wanted to make
an infant incubator for poor countries,
instead of trying to make a $20,000
incubator a little cheaper…
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
28. 28
…they were forced to redefine the challenge
of “make a cheaper incubator” to “keep a
baby warm for $200.”
Which helped them make this:
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
29. 29
They had to make it so cheap that the
problem of “make a cheaper incubator”
became “keep a baby warm for $200.”
Which helped them make this:
@ShaneSnow #Smartcuts
90,000 babies
lives saved,
and counting