What to expect with these tips and techniques

Whenever I give a talk about creative thinking I usually get the following questions:

What gives you the right to teach these techniques?
Have you gotten rich from any of your ideas?
Will I get an idea on how to be richer than Bill Gates?
Will these techniques work every time?
...

Let's clear it up.  These are tips and techniques I've learned through the years primarily because when I was Head of Research and Development, I've had to try to find ways of answering the question "So what new ideas do you guys have now?" consistently.  These are techniques I've used myself and these are techniques I've taught to others as well.  These are the ones I've found to help software developers answer questions like the above more easily.

It doesn't guarantee that you will be richer than Bill Gates, or that it will help you find the next great idea that will shake the world.  Everyone has different creative abilities, so the results will vary.  What I can say for sure is that because of the way software developers train and work, these abilities are not being tapped.  And these techniques are the ones that actually help software developers use more of their creative abilities.

Through the years what I can say is that these techniques have helped a number of people solve problems, come up with ideas and create new products.  Some of these products have been successful while others have not.


Getting rich from an idea?  I can't guarantee that part.  It's still a long process and we're not going to tackle that   But before the process can start you have to find and believe in an idea, and that's what these techniques are about.