Use “Virtual Tour” to find new ideas

This creativity tool is inspired by the virtual tour offered on house/apartment hunting websites – 360 degree photographs of a space that invite you to imagine what it might feel like to live in the space.

Virtual Tour works in a similar way: you start by imagining the experience most integral to your challenge as something much better than it actually is. The story you create becomes a series of triggers for new ideas. Virtual Tour invites you to let go of the bonds of “what is” and drift into a state of “what could be”.

Example

I’ll share the example I used to illustrate Virtual Tour in the “Driving Innovation” module I created for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts leadership program. The Challenge Statement was: Find ways to attract more of the hotel’s business guests to the hotel’s main restaurant.

Virtual Tour asks you to create a story and images rich in sensory details. In the Fairmont example, the story starts like this… “The hotel guest, Sara, returns to the hotel after an all-day meeting. She notices the lobby is charged with energy. She thinks about getting a drink but decides to unwind in her room; she’s tired and it seems easier. She takes the elevator up: she notices it smells like perfume – she likes it; wonders what brand it is. She enters her room and sits at the desk to check her messages. She realizes she’s very hungry and she doesn’t feel like eating alone in the room…” (and the story proceeds).

Finally, Virtual Tour will ask you to use the various aspects of your story and images to trigger ideas for your challenge. In this example, some ideas immediately “pop” from the story.

• Lobby energy: Can we provide guests with a corner of the lobby to sit for a few moments and nibble on food samples from the restaurant?
• Elevator ride: Can we put an enticing food smell in there? If not a smell, how about a picture of the restaurant’s signature dish?
• Desk in the room: Can we print today’s specials on a card and leave it on a tray on the desk with a small appetizer that promotes the restaurant’s specialty?
• Eating Alone: Can we set up a few communal dining tables so business guests eating alone have the option for conversation?

This technique is effective because the story very quickly creates a long list of unique triggers for ideas that your brain might have missed otherwise!

Get it now

To download the pdf, click here: Virtual Tour Exercise.pdf

Warning: You can use Virtual Tour casually but if you want ” breakthrough ideas,” you need to “define your challenge” FIRST or risk wandering off topic and wasting time. It’s the first step of B.I.5, Breakthrough Ideas in 5 Steps (download the B.I.5 Cheatsheet).

This is a preview of the pdf:
Please respect copyright: all material belongs to Creative Expeditions Inc. Feel free to use the exercise within your team but please secure the permission of Inge Christensen before replicating material obtained from this website for any reason!