preview of the book.

1. Berengueres & Friends
TheArt of
Creativity(30 Brain Hacks)

2. The Art of Creativity
(30 Brain Hacks)
ISBN-13: 978-1511535311
ISBN-10: 1511535318
Version ‘TEDxDubai 3.3’ MMXV May 5
Text Copyright © Jose Berengueres
(30 Brain Hacks)

3. Every pair of pages describes one brain hack. (A brain hack is a mind trick). Odd
pages show a graphic description, even pages (like this one) contain a deeper
explanation.
IdeaExplanation
How this book is structured
1

4. VISUAL
BOOKS
DESIGN THINKING
BOOKS
Why this book? 5

5. 3
M O D E L
2
V I S U A L I S E
1
T E A M W O R K
How to be more creative? 7

6. 2
CREATIVITY WITHOUT DATA IS LIKE
POWER WITHOUT CONTROL. FROM
JAPAN WE WILL LEARN HACKS FOR
GETTING AND VISUALISING DATA.
(THE SECRET SAUCE BEHIND
TOYOTA’S SUCCESS)
1
PRODUCT DESIGN DEPENDS ON
TEAMWORK. HOWEVER, YOU CAN
HAVE A TEAM OF INDIVIDUALLY FINE
PEOPLE WHO AS A GROUP
ACHIEVE A POOR IQ. CHAPTER
1 LISTS HACKS FOR BETTER
TEAMWORK
Three steps towards effective creativity
3
YOU CAN HAVE
THE MOST CREATIVE IDEA EVER, BUT IF
YOU CANNOT SELL IT, IT WILL BE
USELESS AND DIE. CHAPTER 3
EXPLAINS HACKS TO
INNOVATE THE BUSINESS
MODEL

7. Chapter 1: Brain Hacks for
Better Teamwork

8. Design Thinking is a way to work in group propagated by the product design firm
IDEO in 2004. The purpose of Design Thinking is to solve ‘design’ problems faster
by means of efficient teamwork. It is mainly about how to make a team work well in
group. Compared to other ‘creative’ methods such as The Seven Thinking Hats,
using Design Thinking is more process oriented and usually results in higher
group IQ. As a design method it has influenced many other design
methodologies such as Agile UX, Lean UX and Google Design. These methods
share also many commonalities with Toyota’s Lean methods particularly regarding
iterative prototyping.
The photo shows a group of students at Dartmouth just after a brainstorming step
as a part of Design Thinking workshop. The students are now using the whiteboard
to share (as fast as possible) ideas and data. The whiteboard functions as a shared
memory space. It helps them to ‘connect the dots’ looking forward. Photo by
Karen Endicott/Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth.
C H A P T E R 1 : T E A M W O R K
C H A P T E R 2 : V I S U A L I S E
C H A P T E R 3 : M O D E L

9. What is Design Thinking? 1 1

10. What are the best Design Thinking workshops?
Tom Wujec
MarshmallowChallenge
(2009)
Peter Skillman
Shopping Cart Workshop
(1999)
George Kembel
“empathy” Gift Workshop
(2012)
1 3

11. Teaching Design Thinking
Because Design Thinking is not about design. It is
about designing how to think better.
HOW CAN YOU BE TEACHING
DESIGN THINKING
IF YOU ARE NOT
A DESIGNER!?
1 5

12. How can I master Design Thinking?
S T O P T H I N K I N G
S TA RT D O I N G !
…
1 7

13. What is the ‘workshop’ method?
``
2. Assemble experts
as diverse as possible
3. Brief them
4. Send them for
field work
(two weeks)
5. Experts come
back, debrief and
Brainstorm
6. Build on each
others ideas
(combine)
iterate
1. Define the
problem
?
1 9

14. What are the ‘roles’ in a workshop?
Facilitator
Back-up
man
Experts
2 1

15. Why use “artificial” deadlines?
use in case of procrastination
2 3

16. What happens if I don’t use Design Thinking?
GROUP
2 5

17. What is Design Deficit Disorder?
This
“It costs the same to make an ugly car than a good
looking one” - Elon Musk, Tesla Motors.
2 7

18. What is hard about Design?
Product
“One of the most difficult things to learn is to focus on
the process, not the product”
2 9

19. Where do workshops (usually) fail?
Workshop Outcome
2
Weeks spent gathering data
1 3
90% of
workshops
fail here
set a
deadline
here
3 1

20. What conduces to a successful workshop?
expert
visualisation tools
prototyping
materials
ENFP
3 3

21. What are the logistics of effective brain storming?
subject-matter
expert
Adequate
visualisation tools
Prototyping
materials
adequate
Layout
20 minutes
time limit
movable
board
notes
sketching
skills
3 5

22. Chapter 2: Brain Hacks to
visualize facts & data

23. You will seldom find a Toyota Manager inside his office. He is most probably on
the factory floor (close to the action). In manufacturing, you cannot truly be Genchi
Gembutsu by hiding in an office or by being far removed from the assembly line.
The best managers in the world clean factory floors, eat in the same canteen as the
rest of the employees and use the same parking spots.
“Visualising a problem is
50% of the solution”
C H A P T E R 1 : T E A M W O R K
C H A P T E R 2 : V I S U A L I Z E
C H A P T E R 3 : M O D E L

24. What is Genchi Gembutsu?
Genchi Gembutsu means to get info first hand and by oneself.
[n. real place real things]
3 9

25. What brain hacks are used by Toyota?
Data visualisation is at the core of
the “Toyota Production System”
Waste Identification
5S
The 5 Whys
A3/PDCA
Genchi Gembutsu
4 1

26. How to visualise Waste of movement?
Two factories, same job.
Where would you rather work?
B
A
4 3

27. What is A3/PDCA reporting?
Brain hack: What happens when you demand all
reports fit in a single A3 page ?
4 5

28. The 80/20 rule for Non-Value Added activities
←Before
←After
TYPICAL 80/20 BREAKDOWN OF A TASK
50%
50%
NON VALUE ADDED ACTIVITIES ADDED VALUE
50% savings > 50% savings
4 7

29. When Carlos Ghosn arrived at Nissan, Nissan was on its knees*. It was a
dysfunctional organisation. Carlos had to act fast to turn around. He did two
things: First, he changed the communication language from Japanese to English.
This forced the famously polite Japanese manager to become more forthcoming in
ugly negotiations. Next he forced people from different departments to work
together in so called cross-functional teams. (A cross functional team is the
equivalent of having experts representing different points of view in a Design
Thinking workshop). *The Revenge of the Electric Car, 2011.
dysfunctional
organisation
functional
organisation
profitsprofits

30. How to turn around a dysfunctional organisation?
DYSFUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION?
CALL 800-GHOSN
EXPERTS IN CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
4 9

31. root cause
analysis of a
headache
What is ‘The Five Whys’ Root cause analysis?
(A) At a ‘normal’ company…
Why does it ache? Because I have a cold
Solution: Take an Aspirin
(B) Meanwhile at Toyota…
1. Why does it ache? Because I have a cold
2. Why did you catch a cold? I spent time in the cold
3. Why? Because I didn’t take my coat
4. Why? I didn’t expect to be so cold outside
5. Why? I don’t check temperature before going out.
Solution: install thermo + the discipline
to check it every time
5 1

32. What is the step-back?
Step back— A pause in your
usual role to gain perspective
5 3

33. Chapter 3: Brain Hacks to
Innovate the Business Model

34. Why should one learn about business models? One of the biggest mistakes young
entrepreneurs commit is that of not paying attention to the business aspect of their
idea. You can force them to do that by requiring them to write a business plan. But
that is wordy, not very visual and very 1980’s. A more useful tool than the business
plan document is the business model and expressing your start-up as a business
model not only can help you convince “visual” investors, (such as Richard
Branson), it can give you that one insight that saved the day because, (as we saw in
the previous chapter), visualising the problem is 50% of the solution and models
are great for visualising.
C H A P T E R 1 : T E A M W O R K
C H A P T E R 2 : V I S U A L I S E
C H A P T E R 3 : M O D E L

35. How to Innovate the Business Model?
“The noble art of making money”
5 7

36. How to step out of the Comfort zone?
Failures/year
comfort zone
years old10
fearless youth
Age
5 9

37. What is the Product Innovation Matrix?
FastHeating
AlertDefrostMelting
Need hot-milk ready for breakfast
Magnetron
Need to bake a birthday cake
Appliances that make you feel better
Human need for
feedback
IC /
Timer
Antenna
Radio Frequency basic tech
Timer
Need to save time
Metal
Bell
IC Sound
Engineering
LCD
need for mobility
Market
Needs
Wants
- - -
Product
function
- - -
Technology
- - -
Field
?
Healthy diet
6 1

38. What is Functional thinking?
Outdated GUI
Heating box Externalized GUIheating box externalised GUI
outdated GUI
6 3

39. What is ‘Incremental’ thinking?
This
Brought to you by the company that ‘forgot’ to
invent the iPod
6 5

40. Incremental thinking. In 1979 Sony launched the first Walkman. Thirteen years
later, in 1992, Sony launched the MiniDisc Walkman MZ-1, an opto-magnetic disc
player. Photos are at scale 1:4. Japan post-war manufacturing miracle was built on
such thinking, building ever cheaper, faster and smaller things that were better
than the previous generation. In this case, however, the unwillingness to
cannibalise profits from the music division prevented Sony of thinking big about
digital music distribution and despite the the fact that the MiniDisc sound was
superior to the cassette players it replaced, it did not fundamentally improve the
user experience of finding, buying, playing, sharing… music. See also hack #18, p.
45.
“People do not buy iPods because the love iPods, they buy iPods to access
music.” — Arne von Oosterom. #servicedesign
“The genius idea was not the iPod, it was iTunes.” — Guy Kawasaki*
True innovation

41. Why learn to sketch a business model on a napkin?
Because business happens where it happens
(and it is not ‘cool’ to pull up the biz plan
in a restaurant)
6 7

42. with
this
How to cut the ‘blah-blah’ at the board room meeting?
- G A R M E N T R A N G E
A D A P T E D T O T H E
S T O R E L O C A T I O N
A N D L O C A L
C U S T O M E R S
- N O
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
B U D G E T
- T H E S H O P W I N D O W
I S T H E A D
- A LWA Y S
S O M E T H I N G N E W
I N T H E S H O P
- M O R E F R E Q . V I S I T S
T H A N H & M
- T O Y O TA S T Y L E
S U P P L I E R
N E T W O R K
( A R T E I X O )
- FA S T FA S H I O N
P R O D U C E D I N
S PA I N ( 5 0 % )
- L O C A L PA R T N E R S
I N C L O S E D
M A R K E T S ( J A PA N )
The Inditex Canvas (AFTER)
R E TA I L … O N L I N E
- O P E R A T I O N A L E X C E L L E N C E
- Z A R A O W N S I T S S H O P S
- 5 0 / 5 0 P R D U C T I O N M O D E L
- R E D U C E S H O P WA R E H O U S E A R E A B Y S H I P P I N G
O F T E N
- E M P L O Y E E S S C O U T
N E W T R E N D S 2 4 / 7
- E M P O W E R M E N T
- C R O S S
F U N C T I O N A L
- “ FA S T
FA S H I O N ”
- T W I C E A W E E K
D E L I V E RY ( J I T )
- 5 0 % P R O D U C T I O N
I S I N H O U S E
FA C T O R I E S
- “ A R M A N I
A T L O W
P R I C E S ”
6 9

43. What is the Adoption Curve?
“If your product is not viral,
your customer acquisition costs will cripple you ”
— R. Hoffman
Innovators
Early
adopters
Laggards
Main
stream
$
Reticence to adopt a given product
‘Larry
David’
Number of
people in
each segment
10%
7 1

44. Some customers will only buy your product after they see N other people using it.
If you group the customers in ‘bins’ according to their ‘reticence level’ and then
you draw a line connecting the top of the bins… you get the adoption curve. On
the left side we have the early adopters: customers who like to try new things even
if no one else uses them yet. On the other extreme customers like Larry David: no
matter how many people are using an iPhone, they will stick to their old Nokia.
Typically, if the sum of people that currently use your product is less than the
reticence level of the next ‘bin’, your sales will not grow organically. The point in
the horizontal axis where this happens is called the ‘chasm’, (not shown). A way to
cross the ‘chasm’ is by targeting susceptible ‘slices’ of users in other ‘bins’.
reticence level (N) 0 1 2
How to build your
own adoption curve
‘one’ early
adopter
···

45. What is the ‘Smile’ curve?
Number of days a user has been using
the ‘Evernote’ App
%
ofusers
30 60
0.5%
that
to
version
onthisday
paid
switch
the
Conversion rate
Days
7 3

46. What is the Freemium model?
1978 2015
7 5

47. What is ‘commando’ mode?
You have been hiking with your ten people
strong team for five hours. You are arriving back to
the car park. You are all thirsty after a great hike but
when you arrive to the car you realise your are locked
out. The sandwiches and drinks are inside. What do you
do?
Costofreplacingbroken
window:$200
7 7

48. Should I tell you about my big idea?
NO! Companies are built
on “secrets”. Therefore,
you should tell about your
idea to as few people as
possible and then work in
stealth mode - Peter Thiel
YES! ideas are free. What
matters is the execution.
Invest in the team not the
idea*. Therefore, seek as
much feedback as possible
- Jeff Hawkins
VS.
7 9

49. - What is your creative process?
- We don’t have any*
*undisclosed source at a Fortune 500 company.
Another: Taichii Ohno, the godfather of the Toyota Production System, opposed
for many years to write a handbook on TPS. He said: If we put TPS in words it will
become stifle and die. I want it to be as flexible as young bamboo.

50. What are the Laws of Creativity?
(This page intentionally left blank)
8 1

51. What is Pink Lies?
LIESLIES
PINKPINK
8 3

52. How to conjugate ideas?
My big idea is awesome.
Our big idea is awesome.
Your idea is sh*t!
Our idea is sh*t!
8 5

53. What is the MVP? 8 7
Minimum Viable Product
Purpose: To get quick & dirty feed-back

54. 8 9

55. About the author
Jose Berengueres received a Masters in Electrical Engineering in Barcelona and
a PhD in bio-inspired robots from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has taught
Design Thinking and Business Models Innovation in California, Germany,
Mexico. He also consults on bio-inspired manufacturing for a Fortune 500
company. In 2014 he was mentor at StartupWeekend Dubai. He currently is
assistant professor at UAE University where he heads the robotics lab.

56. Paperback —> http://amzn.to/1ce6Nk5
FREE PDF —> josetokyo@gmail.com
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