Innovation

Friends Working Backwards Workshop

Working Backwards Workshop – Friends Have fun! Ideation tools: use the following tools as sources for ideation inspiration. Technology use cases flip cards AWS PartyRock SCAMPER ideation app, and specifically this snapshot with the Friends How Might We and Closed World mapping Inspirational short videos: Researchers Are Using Machine Learning to Screen for Autism in Children How machine learning is being used to help save the world’s bees Microsoft AI helps Argentine farmers and winemakers to be more efficient and sustainable A Whale Tale – The Big Idea Today Statement: Today EHT members in all types of elementary schools in Sweden. Are overwhelmed by urgent problems/incidents and can’t get to the root causes when they need to decide how to use existing resources to solve problems that come up They need a way to “Lyfta blicken” from the single incidents and drive longer and bigger impact. How Might We: How might we make bullying prevention simpler and clearer for EHT members so that they can take actions that lead a safer learning environment (“tryggare lärande miljö”) in their specific context. They need a way to “Lyfta blicken” from the single incidents and drive longer and bigger impact. Closed World – Internal Components: Knowledge: experience, research Content: type of content/analysis Advertising: public media, social-media, campaigns, newsletters, webpage Brand: recognition, trust, expert UI/UX: design, användarvänlighet/usability, experience on different devices Software: apps, updates, documentation, APIs, integrations, data, storage User access: account owners for Friends administrators and other users Price and payment: cost, billing, plans/subscription Distribution: licensing, contracts Operations: customer service and support, employees Information management: data safety Closed World – External Components: Digital infrastructure: devices and equipment used, student access to devices, internet connectivity, operating systems Physical/location factors: school location, floor plan School population: number of students, grades, language knowledge, reading ability EHT characteristics: members, type of organization Characteristics of users: tech-savviness, attitude to our issue School processes: annual planning, systems in use, organization of safety work Regulatory environment: regulatory authorities, changes in the school act, data regulation Competitors/other services/actors: schools’ home-made solutions, central elevhälsa, mapping and evaluation from the central administration, municipality, or authorizing body, the region, the School Inspectorate, the Swedish National Agency for Education, the Public Health Agency, county administrative boards or research institutions. Competitors/similar solutions: Other anti-bullying programs, KiVa, other school development issues or projects, school wide programs such as PAX or IBIS, including mapping and follow-up, other issues and priorities for the school / EHT Economic factors: cost of data storage, cost of necessary programs, schools’ purchasing power/budgets, cut downs in school budgets. School organization: school leaders, teachers, or key individuals who resign or become burnt out, reorganization of the school. Politics/policy: national and local priorities, requirements etc Technology advancements: other actors/the schools themselves can soon do what we do, generative AI-development Public opinion: prioritized issue, attitude towards issue, other competing issues or problems in children’s (school) life.

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Innovation Inspiration – Technology Cards

Artificial Intelligence Description: Systems that can learn, adapt, and make decisions based on data patterns. How could AI automate repetitive decisions in your process?What patterns in your data could AI help identify?How could AI personalize your service for each user? Use Cases Education: AI-powered tutoring system adapts to each student’s learning pace and style, identifying knowledge gaps and automatically generating personalized practice exercises. The system tracks progress over time and adjusts difficulty levels accordingly. Healthcare: Predictive AI analyzes patient histories, symptoms, wearables data, and test results to assist doctors in early disease detection and treatment planning. The system continuously learns from outcomes to improve accuracy. Retail: Customer service AI predicts inventory needs based on seasonal trends, weather patterns, and local events. It automatically adjusts ordering quantities and suggests optimal pricing strategies. Manufacturing: Quality control AI monitors production lines through sensors and cameras, detecting defects in real-time with higher accuracy than human inspection. The system automatically adjusts machine parameters to prevent future defects and recommends predictive maintenance. Financial Services: Fraud detection AI analyzes transaction patterns in real-time, identifying suspicious activities and potential security breaches before they cause damage. It adapts to new fraud patterns as they emerge. Agriculture: Crop management AI integrates weather data, soil sensors, and satellite imagery to optimize irrigation and fertilization schedules. It predicts pest outbreaks and suggests preventive measures. Transportation: Traffic management AI adjusts signal timing in real-time based on current traffic patterns, reducing congestion and improving flow. It learns from historical data to predict and prevent bottlenecks. Energy: Smart grid AI balances power distribution by predicting demand patterns and integrating renewable energy sources efficiently. It automatically adjusts power routing to prevent outages. Construction: Project planning AI analyzes historical project data to predict potential delays and cost overruns, suggesting optimal resource allocation and scheduling adjustments. It learns from each project to improve future predictions. Public Sector: Social services AI helps case workers prioritize cases by analyzing risk factors and historical data, ensuring urgent needs are addressed first while maintaining equitable service distribution. Natural Language Processing (NLP) Description: Technology that helps computers understand, interpret, and generate human language. How could better language understanding improve your service delivery?What text-heavy processes could be automated?How could you make your services more language-accessible? Use Cases Government Services: Multilingual document processing system automatically translates and categorizes citizen requests across different languages, ensuring equal access to services regardless of language spoken. Legal Services: Contract analysis system reviews legal documents to identify key clauses, risks, and compliance issues, making legal review more efficient and accessible to smaller organizations. Healthcare: Medical documentation assistant transcribes doctor-patient conversations in real-time, automatically generating structured medical notes and highlighting potential concerns. Customer Service: Intelligent email routing system understands customer inquiries and automatically directs them to the appropriate department, including priority flagging for urgent issues. Education: Writing and speech assistance tool helps students improve their writing and speaking by suggesting grammar and vocabulary improvements and providing real-time feedback on clarity and structure. NGOs: Donation processing system analyzes incoming messages to categorize and prioritize donor intentions, automatically generating appropriate thank-you responses. Media: Content moderation system reviews user comments across multiple languages to identify and flag inappropriate content while maintaining meaningful discussion. Research: Literature review assistant analyzes academic papers to extract key findings and identify relevant sources, making research more accessible to smaller institutions. Human Resources: Resume screening system understands job requirements and candidate qualifications across different formats and languages, ensuring fair and efficient initial screening. Social Services: Case note analysis system reviews historical case notes to identify patterns and potential red flags, helping social workers make more informed decisions. Computer Vision Description: Systems that can understand, analyze, and process visual information from the world. What could you achieve if your solution could ‘see’ and understand visual information 24/7?How could visual pattern recognition transform your quality control or safety processes?What invisible patterns might emerge if you could analyze years of visual data? Use Cases Healthcare: Medical imaging analysis system detects potential abnormalities in X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, providing early warning for conditions and assisting radiologists in diagnosis. Manufacturing: Automated quality inspection system examines products on assembly lines for defects, consistency, and proper assembly, working 24/7 with higher accuracy than manual inspection. Agriculture: Crop monitoring drones capture and analyze aerial imagery to detect plant diseases, pest infestations, and growth patterns, enabling targeted intervention before issues spread. Retail: Store analytics system tracks customer flow patterns, shelf inventory levels, and product placement effectiveness without identifying individual shoppers. Security: Facility monitoring system detects unusual patterns or potential safety hazards in public spaces, alerting staff to investigate while maintaining privacy. Construction: Site safety system monitors worker personal protective equipment compliance and identifies potential hazards or unsafe behaviors in real-time, preventing accidents. Transportation: Traffic monitoring system analyzes intersection safety, pedestrian patterns, and vehicle flow, helping cities optimize traffic signal timing and improve road safety. Education: Classroom engagement analysis tool helps teachers understand student attention patterns and participation levels during lessons while maintaining student privacy. Sports & Recreation: Form analysis system helps athletes improve their technique by analyzing movement patterns and providing real-time feedback. Logistics: Package sorting system automatically reads addresses and routing information from packages of various sizes and orientations, speeding up distribution. Internet of Things (IoT) Description: Network of connected devices that collect and share data to enable smart decisions and automation. What could you prevent if you could monitor everything in real-time?How would your service change if every object could share its status and needs?What opportunities emerge when you connect previously isolated systems? Use Cases Smart Cities: Connected waste management system uses fill-level sensors in bins to optimize collection routes and schedules, reducing fuel consumption and overflow incidents. Healthcare: Patient monitoring system connects various medical devices to track vital signs and medication compliance, alerting healthcare providers to concerning changes. Education: Smart classroom environment monitors air quality, temperature, and lighting levels, automatically adjusting for optimal learning conditions while saving energy. Agriculture: Connected irrigation system integrates soil moisture sensors, weather forecasts, and crop data to optimize water

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Services – Innovation

Innovation Services Build your capabilities to Think Big Innovation is not just for new product development. It is critical to all industries and functions in the organization. We believe that there is no one way or a single method that is perfect for all innovation needs. Instead, we listen to you, we share with you the most powerful and useful innovation methodologies and tools, and we help you adapt and adjust them to your culture, ambitions, and processes. We put special emphasis on innovation that leads to impact, and on sustainability-driven innovation. Innovation Mechanisms Build your capability and capacity to drive innovation at scale, both in innovation dedicated teams, and across business functions and the entire organization. Innovation End-to-End Address any aspect of the innovation process that matters to you – from innovation strategy, to ideation, prototyping, and continuous development. Learn from the Best We can share a variety of tried and tested innovation methodologies, including Systematic Inventive Think, Amazon’s Working Backwards, TRIZ Problem Solving, Lateral Thinking and more. Boost with Technology Leverage technology and Generative AI to accelerate, improve, and scale your innovation processes and results. Amir Elion, Innovation Author, Speaker and Facilitator for 25 years How we help with Innovation Innovation Mechanisms Innovation does not happen by chance. Mechanisms help make it repeatable, sustainable, and distributed. Design and implement your own innovation mechanism based on successful best practices, aligned with your culture and maturity level. Talk to us Innovation Projects Apply the innovation methodologies and tools to develop new products, services, processes, or business models. Learn as you create value, and prepare to scale across the product and project teams. Talk to us Inspiration and Capabilities Inspire your organization with the art of the possible. From intimate leadership discussions to engaging sessions for thousands of employees or customers, as well as tailored training programs for innovation champions and product professionals. Talk to us

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Robot on a blue ocean

Sailing Backwards on the High Seas

In the dynamic ocean of technological innovation, a few ventures succeed in charting new territories. OpenAI’s ChatGPT stands out as a beacon, navigating the uncharted waters of AI with a unique blend of Blue Ocean Strategy and Amazon’s Working Backwards methodology. This article observes how ChatGPT, more than a technological marvel, is a masterclass in strategic innovation, intertwining customer-centric design with market-creating strategies.

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Amazon’s Working Backwards vs. Systematic Inventive Thinking – contradictory innovation methodologies or a power couple?

It is almost a consensus today that innovation is critical to success and even survival, and that it is applicable across industries, organization sizes or types, and in every function of the organization. Most leaders also understand that it cannot be a one-time effort, but rather a mechanism or a systematic approach that is effective and repeatable.
Two systematic methodologies to innovation that I have found extremely powerful are Amazon’s Working Backwards innovation mechanism and the Systematic Inventive Thinking methodology. Using either of these, I saw teams and organizations achieve accelerated results and launching multiple new products and services within months.

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