This is a summary of "Inside the Box" by Drew Boyd and Jacob Goldenberg.

1. BY DREW BOYD
& JACOB GOLDBERG
Summarized by Dan Pacheco

2. • 17 years at Johnson
& Johnson in
marketing, mergers
and acquisitions.
• Now at University of
Cincinnati teaching a
Master of Science in
Marketing Program.

3. This is the opposite of Christensen’s
Innovator’s Dilemma.
Premise: the most innovative products and
services use a pattern that anyone – or any
company -- can learn to be more innovative.
SIT: Systematic Inventive Thinking.

4. “You have to think outside the box.”
Start from a problem, then find a solution.
Brainstorm ideas that are intentionally out
in left field. “There’s no such thing as a
bad idea.”
Boyd skewers them all.

5. Rather than starting with a problem and
finding a solution, try going the other way.
Start with a conceptual solution, then work
back to find out which problem it solves.
1992: psychologist Ronald Finke
discovered that most people are better at
starting with a solution.

6. Connect all nine dots using just four straight
lines without lifting pencil from page.

7. Solution requires drawing outside the box.

8. In 1970s, this psychologist learned that
only 20 percent of test subjects thought of
this solution.
The rest felt confined to the imaginary
space of the square formed by the dots.
“You have to think outside the box”
became a cultural phrase.

9. Another test revealed the “trick” to test
subjects in advance. They knew they could
draw outside the box.
Only 25 percent were able to solve it – a
mere 5 percent more than in the original
test.
Boyd: it’s a myth that you must think
“outside the box” because most solutions
are staring you right in the face.

10. We tend to be most surprised at ideas that
are “right under our noses.”
The most surprising ideas (“Gee, I never
would have thought of that!”) are right
nearby.
Example: playing video in a Flash player
installed on every computer. This is how
YouTube started. Simple but powerful.

11. This is our tendency to believe that objects
or systems can be made only as they have
traditionally been made.
We perceive them as whole units and
expect them to retain the same familiar
structure.
Rather than seeing benefits of new
configuration, we try to “fix” them to be
how they “ought to be.”

12.  Imagine the head of a
flashlight falls off.
 It looks broken – but
how else could you
use it?
 Maybe the flashlight
head could be stuck
to a wall to work as a
spotlight that’s
remotely controlled.
 Or maybe it could
become a headlamp.

13. 1. Subtraction
2. Task Unification
3. Multiplication
4. Division
5. Attribute Dependency

14. 1) Reporting a breaking news story
2) Promoting a product or service
3) Charging for content

15. Innovative products tend to have
something removed that was previously
thought to be essential.
Often, the teams working on a product
react negatively to the suggestion of
removing something.
For example, removing a screen from a
heart rate monitor.

16. Sony’s Walkman was a “tape recorder”
without a record function. Sony’s CEO
thought it made no sense, but it resulted in
the first breakout portable music player.

17. Innovative products tend to have certain
tasks brought together and unified.
Usually these components were previously
thought to be unrelated.
Example: Crowdsourcing brings people
together to work on a large problem,
sometimes without realizing it.

18. When you fill out these forms, you’re
helping computers digitize books.

19. Innovative products often have one
component copied or changed in some
way that seems unnecessary at first.
Example: a double-flash in cameras
reduces likelihood of red-eye.

20. Double sided tape
multiplies the side.
Seemed
unintuitive at first,
but it has lots of
new uses.
Better than rolling
single-sided tape
back on itself.

21. Innovative products have a compoenent
divided out of the product, then put back in
a different way.
Example: taking a refrigerator drawer out
of the fridge and in a cabinet makes a
cooling drawer.

22.  You used to have
to check in at the
airport and check
bags at the same
time.
 Now, you can
check in from
home and drop
off your bags at a
kiosk, or carry
them on.

23. Innovative products have two attributes
correlated with each other so that as one
changes, the other changes.
Example: sunglasses that get darker as
outside light gets lighter.

24. Attribute dependency is common in nature.
Chameleon’s color is dependent on other
colors around it.
Being mimicked by products, such as
sunglasses that change tint and coffee cup
lids that change color based on
temperature.
Claims this is responsible for 1/3 of all
product innovations.