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"Innovation is all about people" started Dr. Frederik Pferdt in his workshop Google Innovation Jam in Espoo, Finland on Wednesday, May 21st. He continued by asking the participants to have a specific mindset – one of a child.  Why? A child is proud of what he or she has done. We should be equally proud of our ideas. "So we can dream the impossible", Pferdt concluded. 

The Head of Creativity & Innovation Programs at Google, Dr. Pferdt was running the second Google Innovation Jam held at EIT ICT Labs. The event gathered people from EIT, Aalto University as well as other students and start ups in a workshop on the Google way of innovation through prototyping.  

This method includes having the mindset of a child, which besides pride means the ability to start doing instead of long planning. 

In this highly interactive workshop the participants learned ways to successfully innovate with speed through methods of experimentation. They built free-standing structures with spagetti, tape, rope and a marshmallow.  The participants discovered through hands-on experiences and examples how to unlock creativity, explore new business & technology ideas and concepts, and manage innovation within their team or organization. 

The basic idea was that from generating insights, over developing ground breaking products, processes and services to building a thriving innovation culture, participants came away with a wealth of practical approaches they could apply immediately. 

When teaching prototyping techniques, Dr. Pferdt gave three keywords: sketching, building and video. First sketch quickly the idea, then build a physical prototype and finally make a video of what your idea would look like in real life. Fast way to see what works and what doesn’t.

"If you have an idea ask your team to spend 20 minutes with you sketching, making a physical object and a video", encouraged Pferdt at the end.

The event was opened by EIT ICT Labs Helsinki node director Marko Turpeinen and Alfonso Gutierrez from Otaniemi.fi followed by the guest speaker of the event, Dr. Alon Peled from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

Photos from the event

Article by Marja Heinonen