The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

Say goodbye

to the bag

What about James Dyson’s invention of the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner back in the late 1970s and early 1980s? If we break down the process by which he developed this idea into its individual stages, it would look something like this:

Frame a specific challenge and focus on solving it

While renovating a country house, Dyson became frustrated with his Hoover vacuum cleaner because it kept losing suction as the bag filled up with dust. He reasoned that there must be a way to build a better vacuum cleaner. So he decided to figure out how.

Come to an illuminating insight that fundamentally shifts your perspective

Shortly afterward, Dyson was visiting a local sawmill when he noticed large centripetal separators (or industrial cyclones) removing sawdust from the air, and realized that this was a much more efficient way to collect dirt and dust.¹⁹

Build the insight (or insights) into a big idea—a new combination of thoughts

Dyson’s big idea was to try to scale down an industrial cyclone and install it on a domestic vacuum cleaner to replace the conventional dust bag and improve suction power.

Test and validate the new idea—try to make it work

After working on his idea for five years, and putting it through a stunning 5,127 prototypes,²⁰ Dyson was finally ready ...