‘Tools’ and their use
For business or creativity, how to use them and how to learn from them.
Two different ways to learn about tools.
There are two different ‘schools on thought’ on which is the best way to learn about using tools:
Method One is perhaps a more traditional teaching approach of being shown each tool. Learning about where they came from, how to use them, how to apply them, what they are good for and what they shouldn’t. This may be done with a series of case studies and exercises.
Method Two is less interested in the tool, but more interested in the outcomes they generate… So choose an end goal and then get advice on which tool might be most appropriate to get you to that goal. The student learns to use different tools together to form a conclusion.
Let’s use a carpentry analogy to explain the differences…
With method one, a student might learn all about chisels, their weight and feel, how they remove wood a small slice at a time. Once mastery of the chisel has been obtained, the student moves on to the hammer, and so on.
The challenge with this approach is it can lack context and application. Unless every tool is taught it can be tempting to think, for a student not paying full attention, that the tools learn are the only tools available. A student with only knowledge of a hammer and chisel may struggle to complete a job that requires a saw or a file. There is a lack of emphasis on continual learning after the course has finished.
Method two is much less structured and far more variable, students will learn about different tools depending on the goal they have chosen. A student wanting to make a chest of draws would learn to use different tools to a student wanting to make an arm chair. But whatever the goal, the student learns that the tools they have used are wholly dependant on the goal they wish to achieve and are in no doubt that other tools exist.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.
Abraham Maslow’s Law of the Instrument
Creativity Tools
People all over the world are trying to be more creative, creative on demand, to understand customers at a deeper level and to find more or new inspiration. In some respects this is all to overcome a creative “writer’s block” of what to do next.
Brainstorming, morphological design, TRIZ, etc… are all such tools. Their goal is to stimulate your creative thinking. They do not produce the answer, but simply help you think about a problem or solution in a different way. A way that hopefully is new and insightful so that you may come up with new ideas as a result.
But every tool won’t be helpful in every situation. Some are typically more helpful in some situations than others but sometimes they will give you nothing.
Experienced creative practitioners will often appear not to be using any such ‘tools’ and may have internalised any that they do use in the quest for speed and efficiency. Like all experts they make it look easy.
How to use:
Have a goal in mind… to design a new X, then use a range of tools to analysis the need, the customer and the problem. Then with your conscious and unconscious mind, try to solve the problem, seeking quantity of ideas over quality. If you find it hard, seek some advice and try a new tool for inspiration.
For more advice on generating ideas have a look here.
Business Tools
Like creativity, in business there are hundreds of management and decision making tools, often created by famous consulting firms and bearing their names:
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix
VRIO
Blue Ocean Strategy
Etc…
They all offer slightly ‘lenses’ through which data may be investigated and hopefully transformed into useful insights that may help guide your decision.
How to use:
Have a goal in mind. Analyse the data available with a number of different tools and see which possible outcomes might lead you to that goal. A more rigorous outcome would be triangulated and confirmed through your investigation with a number of different tools.
Business Model Canvas Example:
The business model canvas is often used as a way of addressing the HOW question when explaining a companies business model. The problem with it is it’s a tool like any other. Just showing me you used a tool doesn’t impress. What I want to see are your conclusions and implications that came out of using this tool.
So don’t just present data in isolation. Give it context, give it a comparison.
Below are two business model canvases, one a ‘complete’ version of Tesla, trying to tick every box and say as much as possible. The other a comparison of key differentiators between Tesla and a leading competitor VW. The comparison one is so much richer and more valuable to the reader whereas the first is vague and non-specific.
Some interesting facts and figures here, but the good stuff is lost within all the noise of the trivial stuff.
Tesla red vs VW blue, (some) key differentiators and differences between the two companies.
Presenting your work
How to use tools for university assignments and reports.
It is very common for classes to teach you how to use certain tools and then set you an assignment where using that tool is heavily suggested… In this circumstance the prudent student would make it obvious they have understood the lesson and the objective of the task.
For assignments that are more open ended… “Analyse the strategy of a business of your choice” for example, where no specific tools have been implied, the goal is not a report on how you used a specific tool (Porter’s Forces for example) but a report on your conclusions (the business strategy), however it is that you came to them.
So whilst tools all have important functions and may be useful in reviewing data to help you make a decision, the tool is of limited value in itself.
The thing of value is the conclusion you come to, not the tool.
Materials, Tools & Furniture
Let’s return to our carpentry analogy… If a customer asked you for a beautiful piece of furniture they wouldn’t care which tools you used to make it. Only that it did what they wanted, was made well and was made of the best quality materials.
Likewise, if I as your teacher ask you for your thinking and conclusions on a particular subject (the furniture), I value the materials you’ve used (your data and sources) and the quality of the end result (did you use multiple high quality sources to come to a conclusion or just jump of the first bit of vaguely related data you found?). I have little interest in the fact you came to that conclusion with a SWOT analysis or a morphological design chart. What matters is that the data you’ve used is appropriate, the result is rigorous (robust and defendable), articulated clearly and that it is appropriate for the task.
So please don’t waste space in your assignments filling page after page with details on the tools used.
It would be like going to collect a lovely piece of furniture and rather than the craftsperson showing you what they’ve made for you, they instead spend the whole time telling you about their lovely collection of Japanese pull saws… as nice as they are, they aren’t what I asked for.