Innovation and creativity are all about finding solutions to problems. Today’s problems, often revolving around the hubbub and noise of the Internet, demand a new kind of problem-solving. Luckily, the millennial generation is already well-equipped to address a new era of innovation and idea generation.
Sangeet Paul Choudary of Wired’s “Innovation Insights” blog described the ways people solve problems in these three ways: the stuff approach, the optimization approach and the platform approach.
The stuff approach emphasizes making something new to fit a need in the market. The optimization approach involves using algorithms to more effectively match a need with a pre-existing product.
The platform approach takes both previous methods one step further and reimagines and redefines “stuff” in order to find new ways of solving the problem. A lot of the discussion about innovation revolves around a problem-solving approach that is platform-based.
The platform-based approach is fairly new on the scene but makes a lot of sense, considering the resources we currently have. It focuses more on creating an environment to host meaningful dialogue and the potential for growth (instead of focusing on creating entirely new, isolated ideas).
Choudary provides Twitter as an example. Twitter changed the way people access and read news. However, it didn’t add any more information to the conversation; it simply reimagined what news and journalism meant and provided a way of “creating more inventory without creating more stuff.”
So where do we come in?
We are the ones expected to be solving the next generation of problems, and I think the platform-based approach to problem-solving is the one we most need to study.
A platform-based approach allows for collaboration and a place to gather information and expand thinking, which furthers creative thought and progress. With examples such as Twitter and Wikipedia so salient in our minds as examples of innovation, we should strive to think and create in the same way.
Thankfully, the ability to approach problems with a platform-based mindset is one of the chief strengths of our generation. We grew up with the Internet, an advantage no other generation has had thus far. We grew up with quick, easy access to seas of information. We know how to make sense of the noise. We know how to reorganize and reinvent and reimagine the possibilities. It may take some practice, but the ability to use platform-based problem-solving will come much more naturally to us than it will to our parent’s generation.
Additionally, one of our biggest strengths is our comfort with collaboration. Look at Wikipedia. The site’s founders reimagined the way an encyclopedia could be built and created a platform that allowed for collaboration and crowdsourcing. That idea of working together to make something bigger than any individual comes naturally to millennials.
So start adding to the conversation. If the conversation doesn’t have a place to happen, it may be in need of a platform, and you just may be the person to help provide one.
