TRIZ vs. Predictive Innovation

TRIZ is a great thinking system for very specific types of “how to” problems. The name TRIZ is a Russian acronym meaning Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. TRIZ is great for its intended purpose but it's too focused on problem solving and physical systems to be broadly useful for innovation.

Since “how to” must come after knowing “what to make” TRIZ doesn’t help with the most critical part of innovation. Furthermore, TRIZ is based on patterns found in patents; so, it heavily focuses on physical inventions. Since TRIZ doesn’t focus on the non-patentable innovations it can miss as much as 75% of possible innovations. That means TRIZ will tend to miss the highly profitable service and business model innovations.

Predictive Innovation shows you all the types of innovation. Seeing all the types of innovation gives you better choices plus creates synergies multiplying value.

If you already know TRIZ you can easily integrate Predictive Innovation into your work. Many of the concepts are the same because TRIZ is a sub-set of the complete system covered by Predictive Innovation. Using Predictive Innovation will give you an even better advantage.

If TRIZ seemed too confusing to learn, you'll enjoy that Predictive Innovation is a much easier way to learn the same concepts. Since Predictive Innovation starts from fundamental concepts it applies to everything. That makes it easier to relate to familiar things in your life.