Predictive Innovation: Core Skills — Acknowledgments

Predictive Innovation: Core Skills -- Acknowledgments

My unending gratitude goes to Len Kaplan for wisdom, hard work, and dedication in developing Predictive Innovation. It is the result of his life-long work, which he has not received the credit nor reward he greatly deserves.

Thanks to my Grandmother Martha who, when I was 5 and begged to learn how to read, taught me the system of sounding out the letters. That insight started me on seeking the system behind everything.

Also gratitude to my parents for allowing me the freedom to pursue a real education without school. Without that freedom I would never have gained the knowledge or retained the sanity needed to produce anything of value.

Predictive Innovation incorporates discoveries from very many people who refused to conform and looked for the elegant system responsible for the amazing complexity of the universe. I encourage you to explore their works to help you expand your abilities with Predictive Innovation.

W. Edwards Deming, Statistical Process Control; Genrich Altshuller, TRIZ; Fritz Zwicky, Morphological Analysis; Claude Shannon, Information Theory; Alan Turing, Computational Completeness; Benoit Mandelbrot, Fractals; John Nash, Game Theory; Richard Bandler, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP); all my associates at Apple and everyone else who contributed to Agile; and the entire Open Source Community.

Table of Contents Chapter 2

Predictive Innovation: Core Skills

Predictive Innovation: Core Skills

Predictive Innovation: Core Skill Front CoverTable of Contents


Suggestion: Read Problem Solving first, then continue from the beginning of the book.


  1. Acknowledgments
  2. Why you need Predictive Innovation®
    • Old Way
    • New Approach: Predictive Innovation®
    • Benefits
    • Ways to use Predictive Innovation
    • Core Skills
    • What
    • How
    • When
    • Where
    • Who
    • Why
    • Get Started
  3. Overview
    • What, How, and Doing it
  4. What is Innovation
    • Ideal Product
  5. Prerequisites
    • Functional Distinctions
    • Multidimensional Thinking
    • Complexity and Fractals
    • Time
    • Logic
    • Standard Units of Measure
    • Exercise
  6. Dimensions of Predictive Innovation
    • Actors
    • Desires
    • Scenarios
    • Outcomes
    • Elements
    • Alternatives
    • Innovation Process
    • Exercise
  7. Basics of Predictive Innovation
    • Outcomes
    • 7-Elements
    • 15-Alternatives
  8. Alternatives
    • Ways to Use the Alternatives Grid
    • Scales
    • Directions
    • Direct
    • Indirect
    • Stable
    • Make Stable
    • Return to Stable
    • Time and Alternatives
    • Combining Scales and Directions
    • Example: Paint Sticks to Surface
  9. Outcomes
    • Categories of States
    • Outcome Diagram
    • Exercise
  10. Converting Desires into Outcomes
    • Emerging Expectations
    • More on Outcomes
  11. Components, Functions, and Outcomes
    • Product and Process Improvement
    • Complimentary Products
    • Exercise
  12. Primary Elements
    • Bicycle Examples
    • Chunking
  13. Elements
    • Object
    • Begin State
    • End State
    • Action
    • Tools
    • Conditions
    • Resources
    • Element Expansion
    • Summary of Element Expansion
    • Element Example: Cookies
    • Choose Object
    • Define Desired End States
    • Next Step
    • Exercise
  14. Multiplying Alternatives
    • Exercise
  15. Universal User Process
    • Decide to Begin
    • Gather Materials
    • Prepare Materials
    • Confirm It's Ready
    • Do It
    • Monitor Progress
    • Make Adjustments
    • Conclude
  16. Problem Solving
    • Solving the Unsolvable
    • Dilemma
    • Assumptions
    • Generalizations
    • Inversion
    • Exercise
  17. Example: Learning a Skill
    • Elements
    • Alternatives
  18. Example: Bicycle
    • Functions
    • Elements
    • Components
  19. Combinations
  20. Innovation Quotient
  21. Predicting
    • Predicting Process
    • 1. Diagram Outcomes
    • 2. Ideal States
    • 3. Functionally Distinct Steps
    • 4. Map Steps Covering the Idea Space
    • Under-served Outcomes
    • Breakthrough vs. Incremental Innovation
  22. Summary
    • Next Step
  23. Glossary