CHAPTER 4

GAP

Everyone complains that it has all been done before, but we haven’t even begun. There’s an incredible amount of new tricks up good people’s sleeves.

TIBOR KALMAN, GRAPHIC DESIGNER

If you are feeling cramped by business opportunities here on Earth, have you considered the potential gains from businesses providing services for people and companies working in outer space?

The founders of a California start-up called Inversion have the goal of changing what outer space is used for, to expand what we could think of as the space economy. The gain? “You could do these cool things—whether it be asteroid mining or lunar sample return or research or manufacturing in space—but you also have to do the return,” cofounder and chief executive Justin Fiaschetti said.¹ Inversion’s cofounders saw a big, new gap: returnable rockets and vehicles to transport valuable cargo from outer space back to Earth.

What’s a Gap?

A gap is a missing piece that fills a need—an area not yet explored or underexplored, a question not yet asked, or a population not addressed or underserved. A gap can occur in any discipline; in any form; for any population or population sample of any size, type, or location; for any system, in any situation, in any location, and for any conditions (such as weather, extreme heat or cold). Whether your goal is to design a new device or structure, write a story, create a digital game aimed at seniors (a definite gap), sell more product, open a restaurant, build a crowd-sourced furniture delivery app, build a better whatsit, determine if your goal will fill a gap.

Here’s a mind-blowing example. The official mission of the James Webb Space Telescope—a collaborative effort by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency—is to explore a realm of cosmic history that was inaccessible to Hubble and every telescope before it. In an article in the New York Times, Wendy Freedman of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago is quoted discussing the James Webb Space Telescope’s capabilities: “Today we have a chance to learn something about the early universe. . . . As we have gotten increasingly higher accuracy, the issue has changed—we can now ask if there are cracks in our current standard cosmological model. Is there some new missing [my emphasis] fundamental physics?”²

In the same article, Klaus Pontoppidan, an astronomer with the Space Telescope Science Institute, said, “The telescope was built to answer questions we didn’t know we had.”³

Every unique and worthwhile idea must address a gap—some knowledge, information, entertainment, utility, method, system, framework, creative work, and so on that is missing in any discipline. There is almost always something that remains to be done or learned in any field. If you’re not filling a gap, then you’re likely not contributing something worthwhile, interesting, inspiring, challenging, original (entirely new), or creative (a twist on an existing idea, not entirely original). There are always gaps in knowledge. You might be thinking, How would I find a gap? Think:

•What is needed? A product, system, device, art form, artistic interpretation, business, entertainment, transportation, leadership method, or something else?

•In any field, what is the key question that remains to be solved or answered?

•Think about an audience. This could be a demographic, a psychographic (in marketing, a way of classifying people according to their attitudes, decision-making style, or interests), or really any audience.

•What has been underfunded or underresearched? For example, neglected tropical diseases or science for the most neglected patient populations are typically underfunded.

•What has not yet been interpreted or made clear? What would move the discipline forward?

•What has not yet solved the issues of homelessness, world hunger, clean water for all, extreme weather, sustainability, affordable housing, or curbing carbon emissions? For example, the Danish toy company LEGO promised to start making all LEGO bricks from sustainable sources, recently unveiling its prototype for a recycled PET brick that is nearly identical to the usual brick.⁴

Many gaps have a direct relationship to a lack of equity. There are plenty of problems to solve and gaps to fill. Plenty.

If you have knowledge of something useful in your field, think about how it could be useful in a different field or different region. Do you know of something useful that could be adapted to another field—for example, an aviation-style checklist to help hospitals prevent errors in procedures, or a pilot-type simulation training tool that can be used to train surgeons. Here are more questions to consider. Is there . . .

•a missing piece in research or a product/service category? A void?

•a crack in the research?

•an area that has not been explored at all? (For example, until recently, the thought of regularly transporting cargo from outer space back to Earth might have seemed unattainable.)

•an underserved or unconsidered group of people?

•a lack of understanding about how something works?

•a method that should be tested or retested?

•a new method of delivery not used?

•a new class of drugs or a new operating system? (For example, using mRNA science to create medicine is a fundamentally different approach from what had been done for years.)

•a multidisciplinary platform approach?

•a plant, process, or system not yet examined?

•a more sustainable method?

•a toxic-free production method?

•a child-safe method?

•a way to address the world’s endemic crises (hunger, poverty, human trafficking, and so on)?

•something in your field that can be merged with a system in another field to create a new consequential system?

Think about access, for instance, and literally filling a gap. Who doesn’t have access to important things, information, education, or water? In partnership with the agency Media.Monks, Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that advocates for press freedom worldwide, had a goal: they wanted young people living under censorship to have access to information. The game Minecraft offered a way to fill this gap in access to information—this highly successful game is accessible to millions and became a loophole to bypass censorship. Censored articles by acclaimed journalists were republished as uncensored Minecraft books within the game. The Uncensored Library reached over 20 million gamers, was mentioned in more than 790 news articles, and became an educational tool in schools and universities. The library will stay open, giving the right to access information back to young people.⁵

A gap could be any number of things—a type, a size, a location, a category, an analysis, a system, a product, and so on. You never know what will click. Who would have imagined people could book commercial flights on rockets into outer space during the early twenty-first century or remove carbon dioxide from the air with a carbon removal factory?

If your goal is to get people to comply with a doctor’s or nurse’s orders, to feel less uneasy in a medical setting, or to speed recovery in patients, the gap might be related to something that is not addressing how people feel. Enter Robin the Robot. Literally. Robin, from Expper Technologies, is an artificial intelligence–based robot companion designed to aid with several issues among children in hospitals and dental offices, such as easing anxiety and reducing stress. “The goal was to create a technology that’s not just a device—but a peer and friend,” says entrepreneur Karen Khachikyan, CEO and founder of Expper Technologies.⁶

Robin the Robot offers multiple first-of-its-kind gains and fills several gaps. She can recognize children’s emotions and act like a friend, she is an assistant to the medical personnel, and she acts to reduce fear and stress in children, fostering cooperation with the medical staff.⁷

Let’s look at Expper Technologies’ Robin the Robot through the lens of the Three Gs. The goal is to get children to comply with a doctor’s or nurse’s order, to feel more comfortable, and to be less stressed in a medical setting. The gap? Nothing existed to manage these issues other than parents, guardians, or the medical staff themselves. The gain? Robin reduces children’s fears, lowers their stress, and fosters cooperation.

Seeing a similar gap, my university students and I set a low-tech goal of creating a coloring book based on animal similes for children who are hospitalized, to help them describe their physical or emotional pain, which is often difficult for children. Does your head feel like a bear is sitting on it? Does your belly ache as if a kangaroo punched it? My university students illustrated those imaginary scenarios that the children could select to color.

Once you realize a gap, explore whether your solution might be multi-platform. For example, Eitan Grinspun, former chair of the Columbia University Computer Science grad school, says, “Our insights are applicable to a wide range of problems that involve anticipating the movement of flexible, stretchable structures.”⁸ Perhaps you’ve solved one problem, then realize your solution is applicable elsewhere. We call this multi-application thinking. Grinspun and his team did just that. Grinspun’s research in discrete differential geometry has been instrumental in animated films, including Disney’s Tangled and Moana. His former Columbia University team also explored applications of its research in medicine, robotics, electronics, and infrastructure. For example, Grinspun and his students helped civil engineers at MIT develop a new method for deploying underwater Internet cables that will prevent them from becoming tangled on their way down to the ocean floor.

A gap might not be entirely novel—it could be your unique spin, treatment, or investigation, significant or small. You’d think New York City would have been home to every possible cuisine, given the diversity of the city’s population and its international visitors and citizens. Chef David Chang’s command of the “humble ramen noodle” and his different approach to food changed the culinary landscape of New York and eventually the world.

Many American college students sustain themselves on instant ramen noodles in a cup, an inexpensive fast meal. In 2004, when David Chang opened Momofuku Noodle Bar, a small restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village serving ramen noodles, he changed New Yorkers’ minds about the dish.

Chang’s use of Asian flavors and fresh ingredients is part of a new food movement that helped change notions about Asian food. Influenced by his time living in Japan, dining in ramen shops, and talking with their chefs, as well as his formal training at the French Culinary Institute and his work as a cook at Craft restaurant in Manhattan, Chang found his goal. Chang’s obsession with ramen noodles drove him to try every possible recipe. A lot of creative professionals think this way. It’s about seeking a solution everywhere until you find one.

Momofuku means “lucky peach” in Japanese. Chang chose the name for this first restaurant as an homage to Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen, the food that gets students, Chang included, through college dorm life.

The gap Chang filled is clear to everyone now. Chang’s different approach to what most of the world considers inexpensive dishes, ramen noodles and pork buns, redefined Asian cuisine.

Many say Chang is the defining chef of our times. Besides his restaurants, his Netflix series, Ugly Delicious, also filled a gap. Although heavily influenced by Anthony Bourdain’s thinking and show, Chang’s program probes more deeply into the sociocultural roots of food. Unlike TV food competitions, recipe programs, or travel and food programming, Chang’s unyielding passion and curiosity leads him to delve deeply. “Watching him deconstruct, say, the roots of fried chicken across cultures ‘makes us more curious eaters and more curious people in the world,’” pastry chef Christina Tosi told the Washington Post. “It’s not food for entertainment, it’s not for [the] wow factor. It’s to feed you in a different way.”⁹

Consider Newly Available Technologies

Sometimes a goal and a gap must be in sync with the times; they might be dependent upon available technology. Conversely, they can spur technology. Surprisingly, the first can opener wasn’t invented until almost fifty years after the invention of the can. As you might surmise, the invention of the can, an intriguing story that started with Napoleon Bonaparte, was about food preservation. In 1795 Napoleon offered a prize to anyone who could invent a way to preserve food so it wouldn’t spoil during his army’s long journeys. The winner devised glass jars with lids. The world’s first can of iron and tin was made by Peter Durand, a British inventor who was awarded a patent by King George III in 1810. To open these cans, however, people had to use a knife or hammer and chisel, which led to the loss of many a finger. As cans started to penetrate the regular market, the idea of a dedicated can opener emerged. Ezra J. Warner, a North American, patented the first can opener on January 5, 1858.¹⁰

When affordable 3D printers came on the market, creators and makers were thrilled to have this new tech at their fingertips. What if your goal were to solve the endemic crisis of homelessness using a 3D printer? Such a home undoubtedly would fill a gap. Recent housing enterprises prove 3D printing technology is a viable way to quickly build affordable housing.

3D printing is an additive manufacturing method, which uses machines to deposit thin layers of plastic, metal, concrete, proprietary concrete materials, and other materials atop one another, building a three-dimensional object. 3D printers are used across industries to create various objects, from art to prosthetics. With a goal of providing “housing first” to end chronic homelessness, a company named ICON filled a gap by using 3D printing to build permanent housing for people who are experiencing homelessness.

3D printing brings affordability to the construction industry in a confluence of economic, demographic, and technological developments. This technology, faster and cheaper than conventional construction, could help address out-of-reach home prices for many would-be home buyers as well as homelessness for thousands—those affected by long-term homelessness as well as by evictions and job loss. This confluence supports the goal, illuminates the gap, and yields a worthwhile gain.

To pinpoint a gap, such as the one in housing construction, train yourself to look for an insight—a human truth. Conducting research is a given for scientists, social scientists, and many other experts, whether in a lab, in a studio, or out in the field, which may be in the built or natural environment.

If you’re not a scientist, you can gather information related to your goal by conducting casual or anecdotal research with an eye toward discovering an insight. Stay open to any enlightening bit of information that points to a solution you hadn’t anticipated. I can’t overstate the importance of finding an insight into a behavior that leads to noticing a gap. Think of contemporary technology, products, services, and brands that have come to market and are doing well—3D printers, dating apps, drones, rideshare, ingredient-and-recipe meal kits, virtual reality universes, Alodia, Bombas, Girlfriend Collective, Kiswe, Material Kitchen, Peleton, and UNTUCKit—and reverse engineer their ideas using the Three Gs to see what gaps they filled.

Do Your Research

If your goal is company-driven, your company or an external research firm might supply an insight. Sometimes that research is thorough, and other times it’s skimpy. If you’re working on your own or need supplementary information, conduct a literature search—a systematic, thorough search of all types of existing work on your topic, such as books, articles, and peer-reviewed articles. Search engines, databases, and online libraries make this easily doable.

Plan your search by finding the right keywords and phrases. You can check:

•dictionaries and thesauri—general or subject-specific, online or printed.

•keywords and descriptors used in key journal articles.

•subject headings, phrase lists, or other lists of controlled vocabulary in individual databases.

Phrase searching helps refine your search by allowing you to look for words together in a phrase, in the order specified—typically by surrounding the words with quotation marks. Most databases support this type of search. Google Scholar is also a great resource. If you’re seeking public opinion about a topic, search social media with hashtag words or phrases. Conduct social listening on social media platforms—read what a cross-section of people are saying to get a consensus.

Once you gather information and analyze your data, seek an insight that points to a gap and eventually to a gain, in order to form a goal resulting in an idea that is beneficial.

Data is a great resource that informs potential gaps. For example, data might show that people who tend not to make purchases on their mobile phones may do so for reasons that have nothing to do with the online brand experience. If you examine this data closely, you may learn that they have payment security concerns or do not trust the site; their decision was not about the online mobile shopping experience or a preference for the desktop experience. Therefore, the data would inform the gap—if you’re about to open a shop that offers a mobile experience, make sure consumers know that the payment portal is secure.

You might notice a pattern—a data pattern, something people do over and over, or something that recurs in nature that might solve a problem or that needs to be addressed.

Mindfully observing people and conducting social listening—causal research—are much less scientific approaches but nonetheless have great potential. For example, you notice that many people prefer to exercise at home, so you invent a compact yet high-performance home workout system. Or you notice people don’t enjoy being tethered to their phones by corded headphones, so you invent wireless earbuds.

Like observational comedians, you might be good at recognizing a phenomenon in the environment or in people’s behaviors. You can recognize a characteristic of human behavior because you’re observant and always seeking to understand human behavior. A prepared mind recognizes this kind of phenomenon. Tip: Listen to observational comedians’ acts or read their writing.

Notice Possibilities around You

Another way to find a gap is to stay open to possibilities. If you’re only in the realm of “Well, we’ve-always-done-it-this-way,” you may never find a gap. Stay open to possibilities—see potential everywhere and in everything. It’s a wonderful way to view the world! Seeing potential in everything and everyone is a golden habit to build.

You can notice things serendipitously. Maybe you were seeking an answer to one question when a different answer presented itself. For example, Viagra’s active ingredient, sildenafil, was being tested to treat a heart ailment. 3M’s Post-it Notes were invented when Spencer Silver was studying adhesives in his lab; eventually he and a colleague, Art Fry, realized a use for this low-tack adhesive. Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber by accident. These were all serendipitous findings that came out of other experiments.

Inventors or tinkerers might note a gap while they’re tinkering, taking things apart, building hybrids, and so on. For example, you may take a radio apart to see how it functions, which leads to an original thought about an alternative way to transmit sound or to use a lighter material to create a more portable unit.

Start Making or Doing

Many artists, writers, composers, and choreographers create by doing. They start writing, choreographing, or painting and allow the creative process to lead them to an idea. Inventors or aspiring inventors might assemble, tinker, or take things apart to see how they work.

Director Henri-Georges Clouzot and cinematographer Claude Renoir made a documentary film, The Mystery of Picasso. As we watch Picasso paint, we realize his process is spontaneous—each form he paints brings him to another; nothing is preconceived. His free-form association continues. Five hours later, Picasso declares that he will have to discard the canvas: “Now that I begin to see where I’m going with it, I’ll take a new canvas and start again.” Picasso used the process of painting to find inspiration and direction while painting; he didn’t plan before he began painting.

Similarly, many renowned writers say they don’t plan—they allow the creative process of writing to take over as they go. For example, Stephen King said he doesn’t outline his stories.¹¹

Of course, other writers do plan, but that doesn’t prevent the writing process from presenting itself along the way. John Irving says, “I always begin with a last sentence; then I work my way backwards, through the plot, to where the story should begin.”¹² He says he needs to know what type of story he is writing—exuberant, mournful—and what type of language describes the end of the story. Important connections are known to him, and Irving needs to know what’s waiting for him at the end. However, Irving allows his creative process to blossom as he goes, which makes the journey worthwhile.

Author Alan Hollinghurst says his books creep up on him slowly. Things come at him from different directions, and they accumulate. He doesn’t start until he knows the entire architecture. He has a clear plan: episodes, revelations, phrases. But quite a lot is still unknown, so the writing is an exciting process with discoveries along the way.¹³

Engage with Other People

I haven’t mentioned the benefits of discussing pain points, subjects, or behaviors with other people. Dialogue with others, especially with a diverse group of people that gives you different and multiple perspectives, could spark recognition of a goal or a gap. Too often particular groups of people are excluded from discussions about ideas. Some mainstream brands, for example, do not invest in inclusive design.

Note that you don’t need to mention your goal to others. Counsel from potential naysayers isn’t productive unless they are experts in the field. Even then, many people succeed going against the old guard.

Nonetheless, the practice of exchanging ideas has an illustrious history. The café culture of early twentieth-century Paris fostered intellectual and artistic discussions among innovative artists, writers, and philosophers about issues, literature, politics, society, art, and more. “Due to café culture, Montparnasse became the artistic hub of the world during the interwar period. From Picasso to Hemingway, the place to be for these revolutionary thinkers was the Café de la Rotonde. Here in this corner of Paris, ideas on life and death were transformed.”¹⁴

Let Your Subconscious Work on the Gap

Mind wandering, in contrast to tightly focused cognition, is a kind of spacing out, thinking without focusing. Writers and artists are good at allowing their minds to wander, incubating their thoughts, and allowing for connections to develop or crystallize. By allowing your thinking to incubate, mind wandering might illuminate a gap. It will help unlock your creative potential.

It’s important to allow for an incubation period. A gap might not surface right off; in fact, often you need to allow time for your ideas to hatch, including taking time when you’re not consciously thinking about your goal or pinpointing a gap. Coming back to a task after an incubation period usually allows for fresher thinking. Take a break even if it’s only twenty minutes to take a walk. Designers often turn to reading literature; seeing films; attending a concert, theater performance, or fine art exhibit; or creating art (drawing, painting, sculpting, or photography). Some designers prefer semiconscious behaviors—like doodling or folding paper into shapes—which allow for productive mind wandering. Psychologists say such activity might be especially productive if the mind is turning over a problem.¹⁵ When your brain is not consciously directing your thoughts and your mind is freely wandering—say, on a walk—alpha brain waves, which are associated with imaginative, creative thought, might occur.

Zachary Irving, professor at the University of Virginia’s Corcoran Department of Philosophy, researches mind wandering. “We find a pattern that is really similar to what you find in creative thinking tasks,” Irving said. “That became a central part of our hypothesis, that mind-wandering is this meandering thought that is similar to the thought processes that underlie creative thinking. It fits intuitively, and now we had neural evidence to support that picture.”¹⁶

When I am exercising or dancing, I am best able to synthesize the research I’ve gathered or see a problem in a new light. Or take my friend, Jack, who was sitting on a park bench, no book or phone in hand. Jack’s friend walked by and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Working,” Jack replied.

Jack wasn’t being flip—he was working. Rather than directing his attention to the problem at hand at his desk, Jack was sitting on a bench watching people and dogs pass by—letting his mind wander on purpose. Although he seemed to be doing nothing, Jack was employing unguided attention, allowing his mind to move from topic to topic, to explore without an intentional focus on the business problem he needed to solve.

Undoubtedly, you find yourself working and then your mind wanders—perhaps to a love interest or dream scheme. You could use this common state of consciousness to help you think creatively or imaginatively—to allow your brain to explore. When your mind is wandering, be sure not to ruminate or fixate on an issue or situation. Rather, allow for exploratory daydreaming.

Why does the mind wander?

“One hypothesis I like is that mind-wandering serves the purpose of exploration,” explains Irving. “Without knowing it, you are generating creative ideas, or broadly exploring a base of ideas.”¹⁷

However you choose to incubate—with semiconscious behaviors, mind wandering, changing activities, taking a break, seeking a new perspective—stepping back to expand your understanding is best practice to unlock your creative potential.

Finding an Insight

Let’s recap some ways you can use to find an insight:

•Find the pain points. The difficulties people experience with a product, service, or sector might lead to innovation or creative ideas.

•Challenge the status quo. Create alternatives, work-around solutions, or new ways of doing something. Streaming music, for instance, is an alternative to buying music embedded on hard objects.

•Look for incongruities. Find the things, data, trends, or behaviors that are inconsistent with how most businesses or disciplines operate.

•Use analogies. Co-opt methods, systems, intelligence, or paths employed in other disciplines. For example, TikTok relies on artificial intelligence for its algorithms for users’ “For You” pages.

•Do or make. Writing or making something is one way to experiment with articulating an idea. Writing or making—doing—becomes a process of discovery. When you search for an insight through the process of making or doing rather than immediately jumping on a vague idea, you’re likely to get better results.

•Ask yourself imagination-building questions. What if I were to . . . ? What if I swapped out . . . ? What if I reverse this? What if I change the shape?

•Think about intersections of factors. Such factors could include technology, demographics, trends, the economy, and social movements. For example, think about 3D printed housing, which came about through a confluence of tech, demographic, and social factors.

•Conduct real-world observations. Go on site to see how people behave. Visit a supermarket, for example, to see how people select consumer packaged goods.

Remember that you must prepare your mind for finding an insight. Practice mindful observation, be curious, and see potential in all.

After completing this chapter, here are your action steps:

Think about a gap you’ve noticed or researched, or something you’d like to see in the world that you think doesn’t exist yet. Would your potential idea be filling a gap or taking advantage of an opportunity? Is it worth it? How do you know that?

Use the Three Gs—the keys to unlock your creativity:

Do you have a goal in mind?

Have you noticed or researched a gap in a field or discipline?

Would your idea offer a benefit—a gain to individuals, society, creatures, or our planet? Might it move the discipline or society forward?

More specifically related to this chapter:

Do you think you could use data to pinpoint a gap?

In what way could challenging the status quo in your industry or area of interest possibly lead to recognition of a gap?

Have you tried mind wandering to allow your creative thinking to incubate?

Allow time for incubation. Don’t rush creative thinking or ideation. My best ideas come after I’ve let them incubate for a minimum of twenty-four hours. If I have the luxury of time, my ideas really come together after weeks of incubation.

After you’ve considered your goal, gap, and gain, let the Three Gs incubate—allow your subconscious mind to do some work. When you’re daydreaming, showering, or walking, your mind is still working on your idea—if you’ve done the preliminary work. Take a bit of time away from directly focusing on forming your idea. Feed your thinking, too. Read great literature. See a well-crafted film. Go to a museum. Read about a scientific discovery or a successful business venture. In other words, indulge in whatever nourishes your brain. Then return fresher to focus on your idea.