Idea Matrix and Creativity Operators

Abstract

Creativity begins with ideas. Scholars have addressed the conditions, factors, and processes to generate creative ideas. However, a formal technical framework to systematically manipulate ideas for exploration, evaluation and ranking against competing creative ideas remains a challenge. The present paper addresses this gap. We ground our work on scholars’ definition of creativity. Next we formalize the notion of an idea as a construct of attributes and features using our matrix representation. We then propose a set of idea operators, which use matrix-expressed ideas as operands, to generate new ideas. We follow with structured matrix-algebraic methods used to assess, rank and measurably improve the new ideas in terms of creativity. To illustrate the application and utility of our methods, we assess, compare and improve two real-world competing product ideas. This approach, of using idea matrices and creativity operators to systematically generate and evaluate new ideas, presents a repeatable method to operationalize creativity.

Keywords: Creativity, innovation, early design phases, ideation, idea generation, idea evaluation