This blog is translated from German with DeepL.
Out of the Box
The “out of the box” thought means thinking outside of the thought blocks created by everyday life. Looking at a challenge from a distance or from a different perspective. Sounds simple, but is often difficult in practice. A good approach is usually to bring in third parties who have had nothing to do with the subject or are even completely unfamiliar with the subject.
Out of the box is becoming an increasingly important topic for us, both for internal work and for customer orders.
Reverse Exeleering
We would like to inspire you to do something different. You will see that a new approach often brings unexpected insights.
However, it is often not that easy to approach something “differently”.
How do you break away from the first idea when it comes to solution concepts, for example? We all know this: when we are convinced of something and think that this is simply the only solution, it is sometimes difficult to come up with other ideas.
One possible method is to ask yourself “how do I have to do it so that the solution is guaranteed not to work”. This can lead one to a new solution in a roundabout way.
Another way is to reverse the system.
A simple example to explain:
A plastic lid is snapped onto a container. The snapper on the lid is difficult to manufacture.
The designer has already thought of various ways to produce this catch. In his ingenious considerations, however, he always starts from the existing snap system, because he is “too deep” in the design.
Turning around can mean in this case: can the catch snap outward (2.) instead of inward (1.)? Or can the catch be on the container instead of on the lid (3. and 4.)?
These questions from a project manager or a colleague can give the designer a new idea.
Now the experiment:
When you invent something new, you create a name for it.
Freely following the motto: “why not the other way around?” we have now created a term that does not yet exist without pretending what we mean by it: “Reverse Exeleering”.
We now ask you, dear reader, to give this term a meaning.
What might one day be written in the Duden or on Wikipedia/Wiktionary under “Reverse Exeleering”?
We are looking forward to your ideas. Write to Tobias Theuer or Christian Graf
