Using Paired Constraints to Solve The Innovation Problem, 1st ed. 2020

This book defines innovation as both a problem and a problem-solving process. It allows readers to approach innovation as a straight-forward problem solving process, and teaches them the paired constraint process to solve specific innovation problems.
The authors have used their experience working in creative industries, combined with their academic perspective to create a formal, teachable tool for solving innovation problems. This consists of a formal structure (the problem space), a functional strategy(the paired constraints) and process. (solution by substitution).
This book provides a practice section, allowing anyone interested in solving the problem of innovation to learn and develop their skills.

Innovation is a Problem-Solving Process: Structure.- Innovation is a Problem-Solving Process: Strategy.- What’s Your Problem? An Innovation Typology.- Category I: Same Path/Same Goal → New Path/Same Goal.- Category II: New Path/Same Goal.- Category III: Same Path/New Goal à New Path/New Goal.- Category IV: New Path/New Goal.- Evaluating Usefulness: Other Models and Ours.- Putting Paired Constraints into Practice.

Patricia D. Stokes is an adjunct professor of psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University. Her areas of expertise are skill acquisition, breaking problems down into the structure of their solutions and – by extension – creativity/innovation as problem solving processes. She utilises her experience at art school and in advertising to frame her work as an academic. She has written two books on the subject of paired constraints, as well as several journal articles.

Michael Gibbert is a professor of sustainable consumption in the communication science faculty of Svizzera Italiana at Lugano, where he is also the director of the World Challenge Program.  He was previously assistant/associate professor at Bocconi University in Milan, research associate at INSEAD, and post-doc at the Yale School of Management. He has authored or co-authored multiple books and journal articles, and has acted as guest editor for journals such as Long Range Planning, Industrial Marketing Management and the Journal of Product Innovation Management.