Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

CHAPTER 11Step Five: Forge the Solution

Step 1: What’s Going On?

Step 2: What’s Success?

Step 3: What’s the Question?

Step 4: Generate Answers

Step 5: Forge the Solution

Step 6: Align Resources

Ideas are not solutions;they are the raw material of solutions.

Arthur VanGundy

Step 5: Forge the Solution

Masamune’s Katana

Masamune was a blacksmith. He spent his days pounding and polishing steel, but not the high-quality steel of today. In the early 1300s, the relatively low temperatures achievable in Japanese steelmaking resulted in a product with substantial inconsistencies and impurities. Until he began working it, Masamune could never be sure of ...