More on the mysterious process of ideation and how techniques can speed up access to the ideas circulating in your brain.

This is where the magic happens. You have done all of the preparation, you have let your mind turn it all over, so how do you create the spark to produce a great idea.

Once you have done all of the preparation and packed your brain full of good stuff you just let your subconscious get on with idea generation. But how do you start the process? And how do you keep it going?

The parts of preparation that are specific to the new design. Working out what it has to do, mapping out the difficult parts, and what designs already exist. The ethics of tear-downs.

Most mechanical designs are transfers of ideas from one tecnology area to another. So to get better at mechanical design you need to build up a good knowledge of exsiting solutions. How designs have been solved in the past.

Inventing is a skill in itself that needs to be developed through practise. The importance of working in a supportive environment. Encouragement to just keep going.

How you build up the knowledge needed to practice as a mechanical designer. How practical skills are essential to allow you to build up a feel for engineering so you can think like a designer.

The sequence of stages we need to go through to generate ideas, and a brief description of what we need to do at each stage. How we can use this model to help us when we get stuck.

When to change your thinking approach based on how well you are doing with your problem. How human beings naturally like to work when generating new ideas.

How we use different types of thinking when we refine a design and when we come up with new ideas, and how each type interferes with the other.