Where Do You Look For Your Easter Eggs?

There's a story my mother tells about my sister as a toddler, hunting for Easter eggs. Our older brother knew the game - he would quickly loop around the house looking in all of the prime spots to gather the stashed eggs and assorted goodies. My sister Helen was new to this, so she opted to follow his example. She dutifully followed him to check every spot he was successful finding an egg in. No surprise to us in hindsight, she didn't find any Easter eggs of her own that year.

In order to discover the "next big thing" or understand your user in ways your competition doesn't, you need to look in places less obvious - those not explored time and time again by others who came before you. When they zig, you zag. When they think linearly, you think laterally.

One fun tool for encouraging lateral thinking is the Oblique Strategies card set created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. These cards have been used by many musical artists over the last few decades, ranging from Robert Fripp and David Bowie to REM and Coldplay(!?). Abstract directives and queries on the cards encourage the user to confront the dilemma in front of them in a new manner - hopefully to surprising result.

Or maybe it is simpler than that. Perhaps the question "where would Mom hide an easter egg" simply changes to "where on Mom's precious carpet and furniture would she worry least about a stain from dye"?

P.S.
Don't worry about my sister - she grew up to be talented and smart. The best of us kids, actually...