Go Forth and Multiply: Unlocking Successful Innovation

Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT) templates are used to guide the innovation process and generate original product ideas hiding in plain sight within an existing product, service, or environment. This case focuses on the multiplication template whereby one unlocks novel ideas by arbitrarily multiplying an essential component of an existing product, changing its attribute(s) in some way, and only then seeing what benefit arises from having the new, changed components. The case includes a discussion of the template's conceptual framework, the steps to follow to apply the template, and provides illustrations where the multiplication template's use led to product innovation and marketing success.