Idea mining

The Innovation Office (AFO) of the University of Münster developed ‘idea mining’ in 2003 as an innovative and, above all, unconventional method in creative problem-solving. Since then, over 200 workshops have proven idea mining to be an efficient and solution-oriented instrument. It can help companies and institutions discover paths toward solving problems that might not have been so obvious in the hectic pace of workaday life.

Idea mining involves having an interdisciplinary team sit down for a whole day and devote itself and its combined synaptic energy to tackling a problem from various angles. Professional moderators and specially tailored creative techniques guide them in a process of creative idea mining. It’s thinking ‘outside the box’ that enables participants to develop new approaches to solving problems. For nothing is more harmful to fresh and unfettered ideas than sitting day-in and day-out at one’s desk.