The 46 Rules of Genius

by Marty Neumeier

   Or you may find that the frame was drawn the right size, but around the wrong challenge. The first question in creating something new is not how to, but what to.

  Rule 6

  FRAME PROBLEMS TIGHTLY

  There’s a widespread myth that genius needs a large canvas. Yet every creative person knows this to be untrue. Too much freedom can lead to mediocrity. Why? Because without boundaries there’s no incentive to break through them. A real genius has no difficulty redefining a brief or defying convention. It’s second nature. But give a creative person too much freedom, and you’ll get a final product that’s over-designed, over-worked, over-budget, and under-focused. The greatest gift you can give a genius is limitation, not license.

   The basic principle is this: A tightly structured brief will generate energy; a wide-open one will drain it. When creative people get into trouble, it’s not because they can’t see the solution—it’s because they can’t see the problem.

   Here’s a formula for framing a challenge in a way that lets you clearly see it:

  1. Write a problem statement. Summarize the challenge in a brief paragraph, then describe the most likely outcome if it’s not addressed.

  2. List the constraints. Constraints are creative limitations imposed by the problem. Is there a funding limit? A time limit? A technological barrier? A political barrier? A business constraint? A brand constraint? A knowledge gap? Competitive hurdles? Limitations are important because they tighten the frame and point to solutions.

  3. List the affordances. Affordances are creative possibilities that exist within the problem. While constraints close the door, affordances open a window. Constraints and affordances shape the space where new ideas can dance. What’s missing from the market? What are the capabilities I can call on? Who do I have on my team? How can the technology be advanced? What does the problem tell me? Inside every problem is a hidden solution.

  4. Describe success. Your problem statement suggests the most likely outcome of doing nothing. Now describe the most likely outcome if your solution succeeds.

  Learn what geniuses have discovered throughout the centuries: A problem well-framed is a problem half-solved.

  Rule 7

  THINK WHOLE THOUGHTS

  The human mind loves either/or choices. We prefer a choice of A or B. Yes or no. Chicken or beef. Simple choices give us a feeling of control, while open-ended choices give us a feeling of unease. Therefore we’d rather choose between than among.

   By the same token, we prefer to break complex problems into separate parts. It’s easier to focus on a single part than to hold a complex problem in our brain. Yet without a good view of the whole problem, it’s hard to see how the parts fit together.

   To complicate matters further, we’re easily fooled by our emotions and intuition—the very instruments we rely on to guide us through the thickets of problem solving.

   The fact is, the human mind is a mass of biases. Beginners are fooled by what they believe; experts are fooled by what they know. And the biggest bias of all is believing you’re not biased.

   The counterweight to bias is thinking in whole thoughts instead of fragments. Squint your mind to blur the details. Look for how the parts of the problem fit together. View a complex situation from a variety of angles so you can see the hidden connections and surprising possibilities.

  Start by examining it from three basic positions:

   First position, or the view from your own vantage point. Easy, but not always trustworthy.

   Second position, or views from the vantage points of other relevant players. More difficult, requiring empathy and observation.

   Metaposition, or the view from outside the system. The most difficult of all, requiring objectivity and critical thinking, which don’t come naturally to most of us.

   The term for this “unnatural” style of thinking is systems thinking. It’s a method of understanding complex problems by studying the relationships of the parts to the whole. It’s a way to see the big picture and how it changes over time, more like watching a movie than viewing a snapshot.

   Systems thinking lets you solve problems by respecting their context. For example, when designing a chair, consider the room it will be in. When planning a room, think about the house it’s part of. When conceiving a house, respect the community it belongs to. When managing a community, consider the environment it’s supported by.

   When you think in whole thoughts instead of fragments, you create solutions, products, or experiences that resonate with the larger world, and thereby create broad, sustained value.

  Rule 8

  STAY IN THE DRAGON PIT

  The “dragon pit” is the gap between what is and what could be. It’s a space filled with discomfort, darkness, and doubt. Most people would rather grab the first rope thrown to them—what is—rather than stay and fight the dragons guarding what could be. But what could be is where the ideas are. A genius is someone who can tolerate the discomfort of uncertainty while generating as many ideas as possible.

   The unresolved conflict we find in the dragon pit is actually a prime source of creative energy. The gap between vision and reality produces creative tension, which can only be released by a new idea. Without creative tension, there’s no need to push forward to an alternate reality. Inevitably, the result of tension-free thinking is business as usual.

   The secret of creativity is to keep your ideas in a “liquid state.” Let them mutate, morph, and recombine as they bump into one another. Avoid the tyranny of no and the naïvete of yes, all the while holding onto the hopefulness of maybe. Often this requires courage, especially when the stakes are high. The cave you fear to enter, goes the ancient proverb, holds the treasure you seek.

   Creative thinking requires that you leave the known and venture into the unknown. This can be difficult if you’re deeply knowledgeable about your challenge, your discipline, or your industry. The known is an attractor state, a default position that pulls your mind like a magnet.

   When you find yourself stuck in your own knowledge, get unstuck quickly. Ask yourself why you’re stuck. Is it a lack of information? If so, get it. A lack of skills? Go develop them. Is it that the solution doesn’t exist? Move on to the next dragon.

  Rule 9

  APPROACH ANSWERS OBLIQUELY

  The hallmark of innovation is surprise. No surprise, nothing new. Nothing new, no interest. No interest, no value. Therefore, creating surprise is a crucial step in creating value through innovation.

   The first step in surprising others is to surprise yourself. This can be maddingly difficult, since you already know most of what you’re likely to think of. You may need to trick your mind into new modes of thought by using one or more of the following techniques. Nine approaches can help you make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas:

   Think in metaphors. A metaphor is a relationship between two dissimilar things: “The world is a stage.” By comparing the world to a stage, you can more easily imagine that we’re all actors playing a part—an insight you might not have had without the metaphor.

   Think in pictures. Visual thinking can strip a problem down to its essence, leading to profoundly simple connections that language by itself can’t make. The ability to draw stick figures, arrows, and talk balloons is all you need to think visually.

   Start from a different place. When you grab for the “correct” solution, brilliant solutions will elude you. You’ll get stuck in the tar pits of knowledge, unable to free your mind of what you already know. The easiest way to escape this trap is by rejecting the correct solution—at least temporarily—in favor of the “wrong” solution. While the worst idea can never be the best idea, it will take your imagination to a different starting place.

   Steal from other domains. If you steal an idea cleverly enough, the theft will go unnoticed. While stealing is not as hard as exercising pure imagination, it still takes a mental leap to see how an idea from one ind
ustry or discipline could be adapted to another.

   Arrange blind dates. Great ideas are often two ideas that haven’t previously been introduced. Using a technique called “combinatory play,” you can throw unrelated ideas together to see if they create a new idea. Look for combinations that have a natural fit.

   Reverse the polarity. Write down as many assumptions about the problem as you can think of. Reverse them. Think about what it would take to make the reversed assumption true. Some of these may lead to new ideas.

   Ask simple questions. What else is this like? Who else believes this? What if I changed it slightly? What can I eliminate? What can I substitute? Is this the cause or the effect? What if I changed the timing? What if I made it bigger? What would happen if I did nothing?

   Watch for accidents. You can sometimes make the best discoveries when you’re searching for something else. Pay attention to anomalies, surprises, or feedback that confounds your expectations. These can open up exciting new areas of inquiry.

   Write things down. Not all your ideas will be worthwhile, but they may trigger new ideas. Make a list of your thoughts as you work through any problem. Keep a notebook, a sketchbook, a scrapbook, or an idea file. A pencil can be a crowbar for lifting ideas from your subconscious.

  Rule 10

  WAIT FOR THE JOLT

  When the right idea comes along, your emotional brain sends a signal to the rest of your body. It’s a tingle, a flash, or a jolt that tells you something remarkable has happened. Suddenly the world reels, a thousand gears snap into place, and the long-hidden answer appears, shimmering, before your disbelieving eyes. Developing a sensitivity to these signals is an integral part of being creative.

   But what if your idea is only new to you, and not to the rest of the world?

   And how do you know if it’s any good in the first place? Here’s where it helps to apply the six tests of originality:

  1. Is it disorienting? A great idea should be unsettling—not just to you, but to others in your group. Some people may reject it on the spot. This may be a good sign, since the potential of a new idea is often inversely proportional to its comfort factor.

  2. Does it kill ten birds? A good idea kills two birds with one stone. A great idea kills ten or twenty.

  3. Does it need to be proved? If an idea doesn’t need to be tested, it’s probably because it’s not very original or not very bold. The skepticism that calls for a proof of concept is one of the signals of originality.

  4. Is it likely to force change? Great ideas are not polite. They never say they’re sorry. They don’t try to fit in. On the contrary, they force the rest of the world to change in self-defense.

  5. Does it create affordances? The measure of a great idea is the quantity and quality of affordances it throws off. Affordances are the opportunities inherent in an idea. The more affordances—for customers, a company, an industry, or society at large—the better the idea.

  6. Can it be summarized? A great idea can usually be described in a sentence. It has a strong internal order, one that answers to a clear and compelling purpose. If you find it hard to describe your idea, stop working on your description. Fix your idea.

  Rule 11

  USE BEAUTY AS A YARDSTICK

  The world’s greatest scientists, philosophers, and artists agree: If an idea isn’t beautiful, it probably isn’t innovative. They’re putting a special spin on the concept of beauty by defining it as a quality of wholeness, or harmony, that generates pleasure, meaning, and satisfaction. A beautiful idea is often a great idea.

   While beauty can’t be reduced to a pat formula, it can be understood by seeing it as a system containing three interactive elements: surprise, rightness, and elegance.

   In everything we experience as beautiful, there’s a moment of surprise when we first encounter it. Surprise is the jarring pop of disrupted expectations—the “jolt” of rule #10. The pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction that follows this jolt can be experienced as a warm glow, a slowly spreading smile, or the hair standing up on your arms. Physiologically, it’s a blast of serotonin to your central nervous system.

   Rightness, the second element of beauty, is a kind of fitness for duty, a specific structure that lets the thing we’re encountering align with its purpose.

   Elegance, the third element, is a rejection of superfluous elements in favor of simplicity and efficiency. An elegant idea is one that has the fewest number of elements that allow the whole to achieve its purpose. The best ideas seem so perfect that they leave no room in the imagination for anything better.

   When all three of these elements are working well together, an idea has enormous potential to improve the context in which it exists.

   How can you bring beauty into your work? By sha-ping it according to the principles of design. Anyone can be a designer. All you need is the will—and the skill—to change an existing situation into a better one. The next section of the book lays out the rules.

  Part 2

  HOW SHOULD I WORK?

  You boil it in sawdust:

  You salt it in glue:

  You condense it with locusts and tape:

  Still keeping one principal object in view—

  To preserve its symmetrical shape.

  —Lewis Carroll

  Rule 12

  DESIGN QUICKLY, DECIDE SLOWLY

  The first 11 rules were concerned with getting the right idea. The next 14 are concerned with getting the idea right. This is the work of bending, shaping, and polishing your idea so it aligns with its purpose. This is the point at which you go from thinker to maker.

   The default setting for traditional thinkers is to reach a decision as quickly as possible. In business, for example, managers tend to rely on a two-step process: know and do. They know something—from a case study, a book, an article, a best practice, a previous experience—and move straight to doing something. The flaw in this process is that it cuts out the possibility of new ideas. The know-do process is incapable of finding new approaches or mitigating risk, so it plays safe. It says: Just do what worked in the past, and nothing more.

   A better way to reach a decision is to make one. When you insert making between knowing and doing, you put new ideas on the table. You invent models, prototypes, or mockups that can be tested before they’re selected. Making lets you design the way forward, instead of merely deciding the way forward. Deciding is much easier with a range of tested possibilities to choose from.

   The know-make-do process is at the heart of design thinking, the discipline at the core of innovation. It’s the process of changing an existing situation to a new and better one. Design can be applied to an organization, a product, a building, or a policy. It can improve a career, a habit, a skill, or a relationship. Anything that can be changed can be designed.

   Yet new ideas are fragile. They can’t stand up to withering criticism or the careless opinions of so-called devil’s advocates. Rejecting a new idea because it’s not immediately successful is like giving up a baby because it can’t hold a job. New ideas need to be protected and nurtured. They need time to be shaped, tested, corrected, and polished.

   Does this mean that the know-make-do process will slow down decision making? Maybe yes, maybe no. But it beats the know-do process, which is guaranteed to produce suboptimal results. When you’re trying to innovate, it’s best to design quickly and decide slowly. Hold your fire until you see a worthy target.

  Rule 13

  USE A LINEAR PROCESS FOR STATIC ELEMENTS

  The starting point for choosing a process is understanding what kind of situation you’re dealing with. Is it simple or complex? Are the elements static and unchanging, or dynamic and unpredictable?

   Many projects have fairly static elements. Even a project as complex as making a movie can be approached as a collection of simple parts. You can break the movie down into scenes, then break the scenes into shots and camera moves. Once you have a script in hand, it’s eas
y to see how the scenes will fit together, at which point you can shoot them in whatever sequence you like. You can feel confident that the scenes will make sense when they’re assembled into a finished product.

   Another example is the manufacturing process. Manufacturing gets its efficiencies from predictable steps. Some steps can be completed simultaneously, whereas others must be completed sequentially. But all the steps involve static parts that can be assembled at the end. You can then repeat the process endlessly, make small improvements over time, and scale it up when you’re ready.

   These are examples of a linear process. There are many situations in which it works perfectly, such as producing an instruction manual, mounting a legal defense, or planning a wedding. In each of these cases, you might expect surprises and setbacks, but only a few that would require rethinking the entire project.

   On the other hand, you can’t approach a musical composition in the same linear way. Any sequence of notes you add will change the character of the whole composition. Every new element suggests changes to the other elements, keeping the whole piece in constant motion. When you try to pin it down, it fights back. It’s alive and dynamic.

   The same can be said of building a business, managing a brand, or designing an app. These are complex activities. They require a dynamic process.

  Rule 14

  USE A DYNAMIC PROCESS FOR REACTIVE ELEMENTS

  Complex problems are reactive. They don’t hold still while you work on them. The conventional approach is to address a complex problem as if it’s a simple problem, breaking it into discrete steps that can be executed one at a time. Too often the result is 1) a solution that doesn’t address the real problem, 2) a solution that causes new problems, or 3) a solution that’s largely ineffective. Just because you’ve ticked the boxes doesn’t mean you’ve solved the problem.