Innovation Lab: New TRIZ Tools for Fast Idea Triggering

Abstract

During 2017, University of Bergamo and Warrant Innovation Lab have been starting a partnership to diffuse TRIZ in Italian SMEs. They aim to make SMEs perceive TRIZ as a time-saving methodology, the main needing expressed about innovation. The offering is a one-day problem-solving activity that aims at generating conceptual solutions, potentially patentable. First cases highlighted the reformulation was the trickiest phase: the extraction of the high-level technological alternatives cannot be supported by classical TRIZ tools (object-product transformation, ENV model, IFR, resources, evolutive laws, multiscreen, MTS) for both limited time and lacks in TRIZ skills of the customer. The staff overcomes such a double issue pre-processing the initial problem's information to extract insights from knowledge DBs. The results will be shown as visual-psychological triggers to stimulate the creativity of non-TRIZ-skilled users. The paper will disclose how visual triggers can work and how a triz expert facilitator can create them.