Adapt

“What idea from another product of service can we adapt?”

“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”

Pablo Picasso

Folgers Classic Roast Coffee Singles are single-serving coffee packets, adapting the technique of making tea from a teabag.

The same control equations that can be used in a car’s cruise control also keeps a Segway upright and lands a SpaceX rocket on its tail.

Owen Finlay Maclaren (1907 – 1978) designed the collapsible landing gear for the Spitfire fighter plane that defended Britain in the Second World War. He used the same technique to develop a lightweight collapsible baby buggy.

Guiding questions

Can I adapt ideas from any of these sources?

  • businesses models
  • manufacturing techniques
  • product technology
  • manufacturing processes
  • historical precedents
  • method of use
Photo credit: Adrian Pingstone (Arpingstone) – Own work, Public Domain