Two Different Approaches To Opportunity Discovery

We can take two different approaches to the discovery of new market opportunities: market research and possibility thinking. In market research we listen to existing, emerging and potential markets with interviews, observations, neuroscience and prototypes. In possibility thinking, we go out as far into the future we can and imagine the "impossible" we would love to see possible, the new and the wow.

Each approach has validity. When it comes to improvement contrasted to innovation, market research is often the better approach to improvements and possibility thinking is the better approach to innovation. Ultimately, the synergy of the two provides a powerful way on either path.