Think Roof Shot, Not Moonshot, When You’re Trying to Be Innovative-ish

As Tessa Forshaw, Ph.D.’25, points out, not every innovation needs to be groundbreaking. Sometimes they can just be — as the title of her new book highlights — innovation-ish. 

What she means is that as you try to approach a challenge or problem, you don’t need to enroll in a certain class or work at a fancy innovation hub to come up with a solution. Instead, says Forshaw, a cognitive scientist who studies learning transfer and is co-founder of the Next Level Lab, an initiative at HGSE’s Project Zero, you just need to be a bit more creative and novel in how you approach those challenges and problems. 

“Not every innovation needs to be going to Mars or inventing the iPhone,” she says. “Think roof shot versus moonshot.” One example she uses in the book, Innovation-ish, which she co-wrote with Rich Braden, a design educator, illustrates this concept. A teacher in a workshop she ran for early childhood educators was frustrated by a 2-year-old in her class who was obsessed with screaming, which disrupted the other students. The teacher tried a screaming corner, but that was still disruptive, so she asked other teachers to help her brainstorm new solutions.

“One idea that came up was what they called ‘scream o’clock’ — a 10-minute period where the whole school would get together and just scream and scream,” Forshaw says. “The kids thought it was amazing, and they started to understand that when it’s not scream o’clock, we can’t scream. We have to wait. And so, the screaming stopped. That, to me, is a really great example of being innovation-ish. We’re not talking about inventing a rocket to go to Mars. What we’re talking about is improving the conditions and the experience of our workplace and having a bunch of 2-year-olds scream for 10 minutes a day instead of eight hours.” 

Forshaw says one critical way to become innovation-ish is to consider six mindsets when approaching challenges. These mindsets, which she and Braden share in the book, include:

1. Interactions: How can you learn from other people?

   Just as the name implies, interactions are about engaging with other people in the world to discover real human needs. This mindset is holding the perspective that only with the people involved can you truly understand the nature of the challenge before you. You can learn from people who have lived experiences and feel the effects of the challenge.
    

2. Insights: What is the main question you want to answer?

   Insights are the perspective of curiosity and discovery. Insights offer an approach of observing, listening, evaluating, reframing, and questioning. This kind of exploration creates the opportunity to discover the surprises, tensions, contradictions, challenges, and pain points that exist for people in the real world. You have to nail this insight to create something truly innovative, and once you do, everything else falls in line. 
    

3. Ideas: What actions can you take today to solve your problem?

   Ideas are the perspective of seeing beyond what the world is and what it could be. It’s finding the creative inspiration to generate hundreds of wild ideas, sift through them, connect them, combine them, and share them with others with complete humility. Ideas are the beginning, not the end. If you generate enough of them, you start to discover a few that are new. Then, with time and effort, those ideas can grow into an innovation that creates the impact you need. 
    

4. Iterations: How can you experiment with your ideas to try them out?

   Iterations are the process of letting go of your ideas and offering them to the world to shape — or shred. You need to hold them loosely and let go of them quickly — ideas are ephemeral. Iteration is about learning, editing, adding, subtracting, killing, and evolving your ideas. Letting others see your unfinished work and raw thoughts gives you the critical feedback to know when you have something worth pursuing, and when to let something go. It’s not easy, and it’s more work, but you can consistently save yourself from investing in bad ideas, eliminate sunken costs and wasted efforts, and quickly find the best ideas that will succeed. 
    

5. Inspirations: How can you get help from other people who are involved?

   Inspirations are the perspective of enrolling others in your idea, cause, or movement. A true innovation is at the intersection of a wide range of stakeholders. Inspirations tell the story of your idea to others to gain support, buy-in, collaboration, investment, and partnership. They test the viability of an idea with people — whether they are investors, customers, clients, employees, team members, or boards. 
    

6. Implications: If you could eliminate your problem today, who would notice and what would they notice?

   Implications are the perspective that ideas are never enough. Once you have the right idea, you must take responsibility for it. First, get past can we do it, then, you ask yourself should we do it, followed by, who will be impacted in a positive or negative way if we do it? And then, what are the implications that cascade from the core idea? Second, show that the idea has merit and sustainable value. What is the intended impact on stakeholders? Third, create the path to build and scale the idea into full implementation. To fully realize your idea in the world, it often takes more effort than discovering and validating it.