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brainstorming
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generation of ideas in an environment free of judgment or dissension with the goal of creating solutions
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creativity
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development of original ideas
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design thinking
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method to focus the design and development decisions of a product on the needs of the customer, typically involving an empathy-driven process to define complex problems and create solutions that address those problems
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diffusion chasm
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most critical point of adoption, which often occurs at the end of the early adoption phase, before the early majority steps in and truly confirms (or not) the diffusion of an invention
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disruptive innovation
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process that significantly impacts the market by making a product or service more affordable and/or accessible often by smaller companies in an industry
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empathy
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human ability to feel what other humans are feeling, which in the context of creativity, innovation, and invention is essential to beginning a process of human-centric design
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ideation
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purposeful process of opening up one’s mind to new trains of thought that branch out in many directions from a stated purpose or problem
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incremental innovation
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innovation that modifies an existing product or service
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innovation
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new idea, process, or product, or a change to an existing product or process
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invention
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truly novel product, service, or process that, though based on ideas and products that have come before, represents a leap, a creation truly novel and different
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iterative development
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process in which inventors and innovators continuously engage with potential customers in order to develop their products and their consumer bases at the same time
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lateral thinking
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free and open thinking in which established patterns of logical thought are purposefully ignored or even challenged
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linear thinking
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logical, step-by-step process
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minimum viable product (MVP)
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early version or prototype of a product that may not be polished or complete but that functions well enough that you can begin to market it or test it with potential users
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open innovation
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searching for and finding solutions outside of the organizational structure
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pain point
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problem that people have with a product or service that might be addressed by creating a modified version that solves the problem
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pioneering innovation
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one based on a new technology, a new advancement in the field, and/or an advancement in a related field that leads to the development of a new product
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scientific method
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most often associated with the natural sciences, outlines the process to discover an answer to a question or a problem
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user interface
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what the user sees and interacts with