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another tool developed by the founder of Toyota to help Old school, new school
get to the root cause of problems – as a strategy to dig deep
and get clear on articulating and understanding your I recently came across a brochure from 1999 that touted
purpose," he said. Hypercom's Interactive Consumer Environment.
Hypercom founder and Chief Executive Officer George
Next, the quality of your innovations is only as good as Wallner called the device an Internet appliance. The POS
the questions you ask, Cincotta noted. "Create a challenge platform supported email, in-bound ordering, and a range
statement by getting concrete on the result without of functionality that has taken nearly 20 years to gain
prescribing how," he said. "For example, 'I want us to get widespread adoption.
so efficient that we are able to bring on three new accounts
faster than we have ever done it before, and not need For decades, payments industry leaders have been
anyone to work extra hours.' We've defined the challenge, challenging the status quo, introducing products and
we don't know exactly how we'll get there, but we know services that cynics occasionally criticize as solutions in
how to measure the result." search of problems. In most cases, these solutions brilliantly
solved emerging issues that had barely registered on most
Cincotta also recommended setting up idea sessions people's radar.
where you use divergent/convergent thinking. Go for
lots of ideas, record them all and watch for "big thinking" As history has shown, there was nothing magical about
ideas, he suggested. "Multiple people can review ideas and these techniques or predictions. Innovative thinking is
select the 'good' and the 'big,'" he said. soundly rooted in a cultivated, logical framework that's
solid enough to support risk and flexible enough to adapt
Empathy is a core principle of Design Thinking, Cincotta to ever-changing market conditions.
added. Ideo, a design company, implemented this
approach by spending time with customers and watching Dale S. Laszig, Staff Writer at The Green Sheet and Managing Director
them closely. "I don't mean a sales visit; I mean ask to work at DSL Direct LLC, is a payments industry journalist and content pro-
behind the counter," he said. "It's amazing how the power vider. She can be reached at dale@dsldirectllc.com and on Twitter at @
of empathy can drive innovation." DSLdirect.
