Albert Einstein, a master at great ideas, once said:

“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it”

When solving real product user problems one needs to have empathy, understand the need, and come up with creative, innovative ideas. This is where the concept of ideation, a critical step in the design thinking process, helps us to challenge assumptions, think outside the box, and explore uncharted territory.  Ideation is where, as a community, we can explore and come up with as many ideas as possible. Some of these ideas will go on to be potential solutions and some will end up in the reject pile. At this stage though, the focus is on quantity of ideas rather than quality in order to uncover new angles, think “outside the box”, and do this in a ‘judgment-free zone’.

Submit your idea and win the prize!

MindsDB has set-up an ideation challenge that will run on GitHub for the next 3 weeks from May 31, 2022 to Jun 19, 2022 for members of the community to generate, validate, and rate ideas for data source integrations and machine learning models. At the end of the submission and voting period we will award prizes for the top voted ideas:

• $1,000 for first,
• $500 for second,
• and $250 for third.

To spark the innovation and creativity engine we'd like to suggest the SCAMPER method as an acronym to get you thinking ‘outside-the-box”. Here’s what each of the letters stand for:

• S: stands for Substitute. Brainstorm alternative processes, or techniques to what MindsDB is currently using,
• C: stands for Combine. What processes or products that are currently separate can be combined?
• A: stands for Adapt. Brainstorm how to adapt to something MindsDB already has to solve customers' problems.
• M: stands for Modify. Consider what areas of MindsDB’s product can be modified to get closer to your ideal result.
• P: stands for Put to other use. Think of alternative uses for MindsDB machine learning products or services.
• E: stands for Eliminate: What inefficiencies in MindsDB products or services can be gotten rid of?
• R: stands for Rearrange. How you might rearrange how things currently work to reach a new solution.

To get started -> visit the contest’s GitHub page for more information.

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