To create something new, there are basically three processes.

You have a product that can be transformed in an iterative process. It’s the process used with cars, for example. It was an evolution where the first cars were manufactured, then Henry Ford thought about moving into the mass market, General motors continued the process by creating cars for different desires. Since then, this process continued to be refined. With Tesla leading the last major shift by bringing electric cars to the market and all the others following.

You notice a problem and search for ways to solve it. A lot of products designed to automate processes are based on the idea that automation is a problem that can be solved for every existing process. Problems occur in the field of known science and technologies. It means that there enough knowledge exists to be able to define a problem. Once the problem is described it becomes possible to work on its solution.

You start with curiosity and ask “what if …?”. Children will often ask such questions as they simply don’t know enough to let their imagination be constrained by whatever they know. For them, everything is an exploration and a way to learn what they don’t know. They reach out to everyone around them to gather knowledge and experiment with whatever they have. In essence, it’s how breakthrough innovations like RNA vaccines came to existence. It’s the same perseverance children have. Only the process is more rigorous and disciplined than the one most children use.

All three processes lead to innovations. Interestingly all three approaches can be based on a rigorous and disciplined process. However, the strategies they’ll follow and the culture in which they’ll happen will be dramatically different.