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12.1.3. TAO Spiral: Digging

How To Invent (Almost) Anything > 12. The TAO Design Process > 12.1. The Big Picture > 12.1.3. TAO Spiral: Digging

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Fig. 12.1 Spiralling TAO process

Having found the need or goal to which a solution would be valued (and hence paid for!), the next stage is to find the specific problem or situation that, if changed, would result in the need or goal being met.

This may need a fair amount of analysis and/or creative thought, and you may also want to go out and do some more exploration around this more constrained area.

Defining the problem can be a critical task, as this will frame the creative question and hence greatly affect what you might invent. In improving the telephone, there is a great deal of different between a problem of ‘inaccurate reproduction’ and ‘caller is unable to understand’: the former might lead you to replace the speaker or improve the transmission technology, whilst the inability to understand may simply require greater amplification and a volume control.
 

The stages of the TAO Process are:

• 12.1.1. TAO Spiral: Exploring
• 12.1.2. TAO Spiral: Prospecting
• 12.1.3. TAO Spiral: Digging
• 12.1.4. TAO Spiral: Extracting
• 12.1.5. TAO Spiral: Refining

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