Data – A Boon or Bane for Creativity and Innovation?

“ Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. “  - Edward de Bono

As rightly said by Bono it’s about breaking out of established patterns, although what Bono is referring here is the established norms, rules, beliefs which we are very reluctant to give up but if we look at it closely from a data point of view it’s a catch 22 situation. Today most of the businesses rely on the power of data to take effective strategic decisions and act accordingly.  So we need to know the patterns in first place to break out of it or use these patterns to create something new but then patterns will usually lead to a convergent approach to innovation and creativity. So is data killing creativity and Innovation?

Well so the main question here is Weather Data is actually hindering the process of innovation and creativity by limiting our thought process and constraining us to go only in a certain direction on basis of previous findings through it. I think data is definitely an enabler in taking effective decisions, and its utility in innovation and creativity is based on its order into the scheme of things. So we cannot do away with data it is indeed a very important aspect but rather than it driving innovation it should act as a verifier of our decisions.

The inherent problem with using data to guide innovation and creativity is that the user doesn’t know what he wants and relies on the numbers to tell him what he wants. The basic idea of innovation and creativity is to think differently and come up with something new and present it to user before they realize what they want.

Let us try and understand this with simple figures below :

Figure 1 : Data before Ideation 

As we see in figure 1 when data comes in the beginning we restrict our ideas because we constrain our thought process on basis of the parameters that already exist. This is a good approach if we are just content with solving problems on a reactive basis and fixing them as and when needed , not a good strategy from a long term perspective.

Figure 2 : Data after Ideation

Now consider figure 2 here we know the problem and we don’t constrain ourselves with any predefined parameters. Most of the times this constrains we define ourselves keeps us away from a better solution. Once we remove constraints our thinking becomes divergent and we come up with ideas that does not bound us to current situations, it focusses on problems and sometimes the problem is the current environment itself. Now here the data becomes enabler and verifier to the thoughts to be put in action. Now is the time we bring in the data aspect to channelize the innovation in right direction by giving it the right context. This is a proactive approach to solutioning. We come up with something before the end user realizes its need for him. One example of this methodology is Steve Jobs, if you look at Apple, Steve never restricted himself to current setups and constraints he challenged the existing norms if needed and came up with a solution to the problem,  many a times it disrupted the current way we look at the product or service altogether. 

I would like to leave you with this thought and famous lines from Robert Frost’s poem: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference “ 

Disclaimer: This article was accomplished by author (Aniket Samant) in his personal capacity. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not reflect the view of any organization or body he is/was associated with.