18. DIFFERENT LIGHT
* The Different Light technique is all about perspectives. We are who we are, and often it is extremely difficult to view an issue through a new lens.
* The further removed we are from understanding the target audience, the harder this could be.
* In many markets, the age of the decision makers is quite different from that of those buying the product. The best the marketers and designers can do is to listen to market research.
* This technique asks each attendee to abstract themselves from their normal viewpoint and pretend they are someone else. The more alien the role play, the more interesting the resulting ideas could be.
* Choose some unusual perspectives (in this example I have offered that of a child, a dog, an astronaut, and a refugee).
* As with many of these approaches, you can either apply one frame of mind to the whole group at the same time (in sequence), or can nominate different roles to different participants.
EXERCISE: Choose a manageable number of perspectives with which to view the brief in a different light. Decide whether you want everyone to adopt each role in turn, or if you will let them choose. Work through them and note down the most interesting ideas.