"Creativity arises where rules are broken."

Mr Erdmann, why did you choose the PROTOTYP car museum as the venue for this interview?

The location shows that innovations are made by courageous people who dare to break new ground. And who also overcome resistance in the process. Prototypes are an essential step in the creative process. They make it possible to concretise ideas, make them visible, try them out and coordinate them with others. Through this iterative process, the idea becomes more and more mature and rounded.

How do you come up with ideas that are worth developing into prototypes?

Good ideas only emerge after an intensive examination of a task. Whether alone or as part of a team, it takes time and repeated back-and-forth analyses of the problem to discover possible solutions. A creative process requires constant "incubation" - then at some point the famous "flash of inspiration" will come. Guaranteed.

Can the creative process be accelerated?

Well, creative service providers - such as agencies - work at high speed. Time and quality pressure determine the daily routine, deadlines are fixed.

You can make better and faster progress in a team than on your own. Especially when there are no boundaries in the team, everything is allowed and everything is communicated openly. An idea belongs to everyone as soon as it is on the table. Everyone can take it up, improve it and create something new from it. The marvellous thing about this is that I have never seen an idea fail to materialise.

What's the difference between creatives and companies?

Companies are basically creative themselves, but are often focussed on specific areas, their product, their technology. One example: our automotive industry is known to build excellent cars, but was caught off guard by the disruption caused by electromobility because it had been living in familiar, success-accustomed ways for too long. An outside perspective can help us to ask new questions and look at completely different perspectives.

So companies should seek external input in good time?

Yes, and that applies to both large and small companies and start-ups. For example, after the start-up, when the young company is going through its first ups and downs, an external perspective can help it to see its own situation and challenges more clearly and find its compass again.

Why are new perspectives so important?

Even if companies, industries and professional groups are in constant dialogue with each other, promote further training and train creativity internally, an external perspective remains important in order to arrive at something fundamentally new. Creativity only comes from breaking the rules, which is easier for outsiders.

Also, mehr Innovation wagen?

Ja, wer sich langfristig am Markt behaupten will, sollte den Innovationsprozess aktiv suchen. Zuerst sollte das Unternehmen seine möglichen Schwachstellen kennen. Dabei können schon interne Kreativprozesse helfen. Eine externe Moderation oder externe Off-Site-Events mit einem Mix aus verschiedenen Abteilungen fördern den Perspektivwechsel. Das bringt meist schon viel. Zusätzlich holt man sich kreativen Input von außen und kombiniert Workshops mit externen Kreativen – wie es der Cross Innovation Hub mit ihrem Kreativpool ermöglicht.

What is special about the Hamburg Creative Society's Cross Innovation Hub?

The special thing about the Cross Innovation Hub is that it brings together creatives from different disciplines and industries. This diversity promotes mutual inspiration and different approaches to creative tasks. The hub also contributes its experience in moderating such mixed groups and uses proven methods such as design thinking to ensure that creative "rule-breakers" quickly and efficiently become an innovative, collaborative team. This mix is what makes the concept so successful.

Which creative techniques are used in the Cross Innovation Hub?

Design thinking, for example, is a proven method for achieving precise, creative solutions. Templates such as the "Product Field" can also be used to develop product ideas. I use a special solution template for the AI workshops. This helps to turn ideas about what you could do with AI into realistic project outlines.

So without coordination and structure, there is no creativity?

I really appreciate the fact that experienced moderators manage the processes in Cross Innovation Hub projects. As a creative person, I don't have to worry about that, but can concentrate fully on finding ideas and even learn new methods in the process. The moderators ensure that the mixed team of company employees and external creatives works well together and that the threads come together. That is very pleasant.

What projects are on offer and what are the objectives?

The range of innovation projects is wide and varies depending on the company's objective and the chosen format. There are one-day and multi-day formats. On the first day there is a short familiarisation phase, then the moderated creative processes begin.

It is important to define clear expectations at the beginning. What is the challenge, what is the goal and what exactly is the "deliverable", i.e. what should be available at the end of the teamwork?
The tasks are different. Sometimes the company has a specific idea that needs to be further developed with external perspectives and results in a prototype. And sometimes there is an open question that can be answered with a strategic document.

Can you give us a specific example?

Yes, a mechanical engineering company manufactures a device that is used in large numbers in industrial production facilities. For the maintenance of this component, the service technician wants to know exactly where the devices are installed, when the inspection is due and where the appropriate seal can be ordered.

In a mixed team, we played through possible user journeys, developed future scenarios and distilled a solution from these. We started with initial sketches on the whiteboard and ended up building a prototype app as a functional model.

In another project, we worked together to develop methods to support a company in developing a new strategy. The result was a kind of "manual" with a clear roadmap and recommended solution methods for the next steps.

What is the feedback from companies and organisations?

As far as I have been able to observe, the feedback is very good. There is a shared enthusiasm in the team and at the end there is a good feeling that the time was well invested. I am particularly pleased when companies can take something tangible away from the workshops. I remember one particularly remarkable, unique product idea from a mixed team. At the end, they were even thinking about filing a patent application.

What do you take away from your work?

That I never stop learning. No matter what company or industry I'm dealing with: You never get dumber. Maintaining this curiosity, keeping your eyes and ears open, always thinking ahead - the Cross Innovation Hub is an ideal biotope for this. This allows many ideas to flourish and the process is enriching for everyone involved.

You come from the advertising industry and now specialise in AI, among other things - what opportunities does AI offer companies?

Companies are already using many AI tools such as ChatGPT to create texts or generate image content. These tools have been adopted very quickly and are spreading rapidly because they offer an immediate, practical benefit without too much start-up time.

However, companies are also considering specific, customised AI solutions for complex tasks. How can such a task be approached? The problem is known, but what exactly should the AI do? And what data could help? Here too, a creative process that combines knowledge within the company with external expertise can help. The hub offers the "AI Sprint" format for this purpose. The result can be a meaningful project outline - or even an initial, executable prototype. External service providers can then use this as a basis for checking feasibility and calculating costs.

How much creative potential is there in AI?

If we think of emotions, touching art, ingenious inventions and similar artefacts, then I still see limits at the moment.

An AI can certainly write the sentence "It smells of lime blossom in the shade of the tree". But it has no idea what the sentence triggers in us, what we feel. It cannot comprehend our associations with cosy summer evenings and cool wheat beer. for it, "fragrance" and "blossom" are just strings of characters that - as it has learnt - can occur together.

The writing style of Rilke can be ordered from an AI. But inspired original creations often lack the "fairy dust", that certain something that makes people queue up in front of a work of art or let themselves be moved to tears by a piece of music.

This touches on the eternal question: what is creativity, what drives us to create something, why do we fill empty pages?

Years ago, there was an art project by Hermann Vaske. He asked creative people from different industries around the world why they are creative and asked them to answer on an A3 sheet of paper. Painting, writing, gluing - everything was allowed. The variety of answers, the rule-breaking, the chutzpah was fascinating and shows how different human creativity can be.