LEGO engaged in deep analysis of how and why kids play. Turns out their previous assumptions had been wrong and the insight turned the company’s fortunes around.

Contrary to the “eureka” hypothesis, the best ideas take days and years of digging into a subject and pursuing hunches that emerge.

In our experience, as with art and science, creative business thinking flows best when it pivots on a “big idea”—a “structural design,” or a “paradigm.”

The idea that for something to be original it has to be radically new still permeates business conversations about innovation.