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Discovery Skill #5

Experimenting

“I haven’t failed . . . I’ve just found 10,000 ways that do not work.”

—Thomas Edison

WHEN MOST PEOPLE hear the word experiment, they think of scientists in white coats running experiments in a lab, or of great inventors like Thomas Edison. Like Edison, business innovators actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilot tests. But unlike scientists, they don’t work in laboratories; the world is their laboratory. And beyond just creating prototypes, they try out new experiences and take apart products and processes in search of new data that may spark an innovative new idea. Good experimenters understand that although questioning, observing, and networking provide data about the past (what ...

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