Ideaflow The Only Business Metric That Matters

As an innovation professional, this book has quickly become a go-to resource (I received an advance copy to prepare for an interview with Perry on my podcast A Sherpa’s Guide to Innovation). Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn weave an entertaining and insightful narrative of stories and lessons learned all while teaching nuggets of innovation wisdom. Organizations, teams, and individuals will benefit from the guidance of why and how to maximize ideaflow—making innovation a process and not an event. I also found a lot of value in the later chapters, which features tips and methods for improving personal creativity. These tips have also been helpful as I facilitate workshops. I highly recommend this book! Whether you’re a veteran innovator or just looking for a fresh perspective, you’ll find value in applying the principles espoused in Ideaflow. Read more

Ideaflow is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive guide to developing your unique ability to find, try, and implement new and better break-throughs. While obviously a tremendous resource for entrepreneurs and business leaders, Utley and Klebahn's step-by-step process will expand your thinking and illuminate potential in every aspect of life. They take you from the beginning of idea generation all the way through to what to do when you get stuck. The writing is clear and makes for a fast-paced read filled with real-life examples that will leave you inspired and anxious to put their thoughts into practice in your own work and life. Read more

Is this the book for you? Read this book and get your ideas flowing. Imagine if you were sitting in a room with two of the most insightful design thinkers practicing today. Look in the corner and you'll see two people talking, laughing, telling stories. As you move closer you strain to listen more carefully. You’re listening to the practical insights from two of the world’s leading experts in design thinking--Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn. This is real world stuff. This is high level stuff. And, you’re going to learn a lot about ideas. Where do they come from? And, how can you benefit from the authors’ insights? I like this book because it’s applicable to a wide range of people. CEOs, creatives, innovators, non-innovators, governments, non-profits, students, small business owners—you get the idea. Improve your daily idea flow from a small leaking garden hose to the crashing thunder of a fire hose. Ask yourself, what’s the velocity of my idea flow today and how can I improve? Ideaflow can help. Utley and Klebahm artfully blend their experiences at Stanford (the d.school) with the daily practice of Ideaflow. I like how the authors focus on one specific design thinking element—idea generation. So as you might suspect, I liked this book for many reasons and recommend it. Recommend. 9/10. My grandfather once told me that “nothing in this world is perfect,” but the authors came pretty darn close. Read more

I've read close to a dozen research-backed books on creativity and creative problem-solving. This one was unique in that the authors have some great experience (one is a former C-Level exec and both are professors at Stanford - a hotbed of innovative business start-ups). It made me think there is a better path to creative problem-solving (CPS) than having a team block off a day or two to practice CPS. This book makes the case that this can be done in smaller, separate blocks of time. It's more about building a culture of idea generation and creating the discipline to continually test and revise approaches as inexpensively and quickly as possible. Read more

One of my favorite lines from the entire book says it all: "You don't innovate in the pickle business by eating cucumbers all day. The more distant the origins of your inputs, the more valuable and interesting the resulting combinations will be." This book teaches you HOW to get more idea inputs (beyond the usual suspects, like using your own product), and how to combine the resulting ideas so that you can implement them easily at scale. If innovation = creativity + implementation, then this book teaches you how to generate more ideas in less time (even if you don't feel "creative") and how to transform those ideas into the things that will take your business, product, or service to the next level. This is one of the most unexpected and original business books I have read. Most business books talk about execution and strategy and operation, but all of those activities are ultimately fueled by ideas. When you generate more ideas and get more mileage out of them, what your ideas become is better as a result. Highly, highly recommend this book. Not only is it useful and unexpected, but it's also fun and a joy to read. Don't miss it! Read more

ideas/time = ideaflow is brilliant It speaks to the need for the volume of ideas being more important than quality of the idea at the start. If that seems different than what you have learned in the past, buy this book. If you totally get the ideaflow as a key business metric, buy this book. You will feel validated. Jeremy and Perry have written a book that changes how we think about strategic planning, design thinking, prototyping and brainstorming. It is at once revolutionary and practical. In my many years of working in strategy, there is always a pressure to start solutioning. In the past, we may not have been open to the universe of ideas and the wide diversity of ideas and then we jump ahead of ourselves. WIth Ideaflow, the importance of leaders understanding creativity, extreme creativity, thinking outside/around the box and the sheer volume of ideas are clearly explained and modeled. Creativity is not incremental. To be disruptive, you need Ideaflow. Read more