Companies constantly present technological developments-new materials, new mechanisms, and new ways to enhance existing products and services. Yet these seldom lead to truly new ideas. Why? Humans are all born with creative instincts, but in the interest of efficient and predictable productivity, institutions such as schools and businesses routinely hinder those impulses. The most innovative products and services, author Alexander Manu argues, arise out of the behaviors of play--the ability to imagine, without limits, the question "What if…?"

Manu's engaging and inspiring book offers companies a wealth of practical advice and tactics to unleash their full creative potential and break ahead of the crowd. Manu's provocative, insightful applied methodologies for creating new business opportunities and transformative innovations gain resonance from real-world scenarios and conversations with leading innovators such as MIT's Mitchel Resnick. Readers will learn strategies to:

•   Open their companies' eyes to unseen opportunities

•   Spark the imagination and trigger the potential of product innovation teams

•   Turn inspired ideas into successful products and services.

Imagination Challenge is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 3 Ratings

It's not just about imagination & play; it's about insight restructuring & opportunity finding! Definitely worth pursuing! - 2008-09-10
Reviewer Rating:
I am always fascinated by the power of imagination.

With imagination, my mind becomes my playground. Coupling with fantasy, it becomes my amusement park.

Naturally, I love to read books about enhancing imagination. Several old classic books come quickly to mind:

- 'Applied Imagination', by Alex Osborn, the advertising guy who coined "brainstorming";

- 'Imagineering: How to Profit from Your Creative Powers', by Michael Lebouef - I love his premise: "You let your imagination to soar & then you engineer it down to earth.");

During my corporate days, I had even read 'Corporate Imagination Plus' by James Bandrowski, who asserted the importance of imagination in strategic planning.

A few months ago, I have read 'Turn Your Imagination into Money', which is actually a reprint of an old classic.

I reckon the most memorable personal experience in appreciating the power of imagination is my first visit to the Disneyland World Resort in Anaheim, California, during the eighties, to experience the imagineering masterpieces of the legendary Walt Disney.

The joyful encounter was followed by further visits to The Tokyo Disneyland in Japan & the Walt Disney World Resort (+ the EPCOT Centre) in Orlando, Florida. In fact, I had revisited the latter after a gap of ten years in 2000.

Following a stumble-upon on the net, I am now reading:

'The Imagination Challenge: Strategic Foresight & Innovation in the Global Economy',

by Alexander Manu, a strategic innovation practitioner.

After perusing only the first few chapters, & particularly Chapter 11, plus some casual browsing of the rest of the book, I must say this book definitely ranks in a totally different league, when compared to all the stuff I have already read earlier.

It's almost a scholarly exposition, although I detect that there is a very playful streak in the writing, which is clear & succinct.

The first thing I got out of the book is the lucid distinction between 'imagination' & 'creativity' since most of us, including myself, tend to lump them together.

Also, I get a better understanding of the apparently subtle difference between 'strategic innovation' & 'tactical innovation'.

From the way I read it, the book is specifically written from a human user-centred design perspective. This has to do with the author's original design background.

Also, much of the material in the book is drawn from the author's professional experiences, while serving as Research Director in the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity. [Currently, I understand he is the Chief Imaginator with InnoSpa Consulting of Finland.]

I certainly appreciate the author's many key premises at the onset of the book's beginning chapters:

- creative & innovative thinking creates (or recreates) value in a product or service, but it is the power of our imagination that provides the quantum leap in our thinking as well as experimentation to help build & enhance the ultimate user experiences with our products & services;

- it's the ability to imagine without limits, & asking 'what if...?' questions incessantly that will allow us to create innovative products & services;

- to trigger imagination, we need to become real kids again, as serious play (to kids, play is never a task, in fact to them, play = work) is a powerful means to unlocking our creative & innovative potential;

- it's our imagination that give life & meaning to technology;

- the best approach to designing wonderful customer experiences is through the eyes of a kid, be curious about the world, about everything, experiment, reason everything before drawing up conclusions, don't jump on forms but rather define what the forms must do & how they interact with users before deciding how they look;

- in the words of the authors, strategic innovation requires an understanding of the underlying behaviours, desires & motivations of the ultimate design solution;

- interestingly, more questions will come from the play instinct, as play is exploring, searching, seeing things in a new light, communicating, interacting, & more importantly, be-ing what we are from day one - born with creative impulses;

- as organisations, we need to create an ecology of possibility or play space, so to speak, to allow our people to explore the possible & to come up with breakthrough solutions, & more importantly, to be play-wise & play-ready;

- hands do not initiate play; the mind must do it first, so I reckon what keeps our mind agile is how we use & stimulate it;


The book is packed with inspiring stories & illustrative anecdotes.

What I like most is the author's complete set of 8 flexible steps that can serve as a framework for investigating viable opportunities, culminating into what the author has designated as 'The Strategic Imagination Circle':

1) signal discovery;

2) emerging signals mapping;

3) imaginative questions;

4) points of departure;

5) future scenarios;

6) experience opportunity definition;

7) economic opportunity modeling;

8) post-signal learning;

At first glance, it seems complicated. It has taken me quite a while to understand & digest how it works.

I can sense, to some extent, some of the stuff here, at least:

- in terms of "just playing around leads to great discoveries", correlates to Michael Schrage's 'Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate', although the latter has a primary focus on prototyping;

- in terms of "reading signals", correlates to the work of George Day & Paul Schoemaker, who wrote 'Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals that Would Make or Break Your Company', with the principal premise: how good are you in sensing, interpreting & acting on the signals? [Please read my review on Amazon.]

The only adverse comment I am going to make here is that the suggested tools to be used at each stage of the 'Strategic Imagination Circle' seemingly lack sufficient elaboration or amplification on the part of the author.

Although I am still reading the book, I dare to say that it is definitely worthwhile to pursue. It's not just about the power of imagination & the wonder of play.

It's about insight restructuring & opportunity finding.

Use Your Imagination - 2007-11-05
Reviewer Rating:
I have just read a review of this book stating that the reader was disappointed not to find a guide on how to develop new products. My view of this book differs in that I believe the book is quite successful in challenging people to use their imaginations and provides insightful examples of what doing so can achieve. If you are looking for a 'design by numbers' book this isn't it. The Imagination Challenge explores how we interpret situations, emerging signals, latent needs, behavior, play and opportunities and use are minds to create meaningful experiences and gain foresight in the transforming world of design. It challenges the role and responsibilities of designers and organizations today while outlining the importance of creating value.

I highly recommend this book.

A lot of platitudes & some interesting things - 2007-07-01
Reviewer Rating:
I expected to find tools and techniques to come up with novel ideas. Tools to get people say what they need and then come up with new solutions.

This book does not offer this kind of information. Instead it tells you at length about past innovations and gives you no clue as to how people came up with them. Apart maybe that you should ask your self nonsense questions and see if you can come up with an answer that makes sense: what if tooth brushes could see? or what if Barbie dolls had a wireless access point installed? I do not believe in nonsense.

If you don't know already that in order to come up with new ideas you have to let go of what you know and ask yourself new questions and that you have to recognize the problem before finding a solution, than this book is for you.

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