It is the growing demand in society to master the skills, methods and basic principles of innovation. Sigh the basic principles of innovation (1). Social demand drives innovation: social demand is the source of innovation and all external driving forces of innovation, including current, potential and possible demand, which drives people to knock on the door of innovation and reap the fruits of various inventions that meet people's needs. Stephenson, who invented the train, was originally just a small clerk working in a coal mine and had nothing to do with the invention. However, during the Anglo-French War, the government forces requisitioned all the horses responsible for transporting coal, which made it impossible to transport the coal mined in coal mines, resulting in the accumulation of coal in jingshan park. People needed coal for cooking, cooking and boiling water, especially in cities. It is the urgent need of this society and the sharp contradiction between supply and demand that drives Stephenson to study how to transport coal out. At that time, Watt had invented a practical steam engine. Stephenson applied the principle of steam engine to the train as the power of the locomotive. In order to transport coal at Dora high speed and reduce the resistance of the train wheels, rails were laid under the wheels. This is how Stephenson was pushed to the road of invention by the needs of society, and finally invented the train. From washboards to single-cylinder washing machines, to the invention of semi-automatic and full-automatic washing machines, from rice cookers to electric cookers, to the invention of fuzzy microcomputer electric cookers, computers and computer networks, all of them are driven and germinated to create inventions because of needs, so that people can enjoy the fruits of inventions. (2) Characteristics of demand: Social demand is a concept with rich connotation and extensive extension. It covers all the needs of production and life, including material, spiritual, potential and possible needs, and has the following characteristics: 1. Unlimited social demand is a dynamic concept, which happens every day, develops and changes, and never stays at a certain point. Today's needs will be met, tomorrow's needs will be met and the day after tomorrow's needs will be updated. It will never be satisfied. As long as human beings live in this world, the needs of society will develop infinitely with the development of society. 2. The demand development of a changeable society is not linear, but tortuous, and sometimes it may go backwards. What is out of date today may become a public demand in a few years. This kind of renege is not uncommon. Variety and new things are the same thing. Different people have different needs, what's more, people are old, middle-aged, young, young, infant, male and female, and their needs are not only the same in the same age, gender and class. Therefore, when designing products, we should not use "unified" specifications and styles of "thousands of people and thousands of faces" to adapt to "thousands of faces", but use "unified" what we don't need today, which doesn't mean that we don't need it tomorrow. 5. Social demand is often restricted or caused by some factors in society, such as political, economic, psychological and technical factors, which will cause changes in demand. For example, because of the legend that the price of household appliances is going to rise, some household appliances that have been unsalable have been snapped up by customers who flocked to hear the news within a few days. All the factors in society are fluctuating, sometimes even huge. 6. Group social needs refer to the needs of "a group of people", not individual needs. The larger the group, the greater the social demand and the higher the purchasing power. Any product is designed, produced and provided for demand, so the group symbolized by demand cannot be ignored. If this group is extremely small, this product is inevitably lacking. From the above characteristics, we can see that social demand is like the sea of Wang Yang, which is boundless, choppy, surging, rapidly changing and unpredictable. Only those who are good at grasping the characteristics of needs can swim freely in the sea of social needs without being submerged by the sea, and can control social needs and reach the destination of victory. (3) On-demand development method: it becomes a method to apply theory, principle and ideology to practice. Necessity is the social motive force to promote innovation. If this principle is put into practice, it can be a method of creating, inventing, developing and innovating products. We call it a requirement-based development method. The key of requirement-based development method is to discover and capture new requirements. Social needs are like the sea of Wang Yang. How can we find, screen and capture them from the sea of Wang Yang? Sometimes it seems easy, but it is not that simple to really capture effective demand information. 1. Seeking different needs of different personalities and hobbies Because of the diversity and variability of users, there will be different needs for the same product, which is changing all the time, such as clothing: red skirts are popular today, black pants may be popular tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. Can promote unlimited business opportunities due to changes in fashion, such as a textile. When the movie was over in the evening, I heard two young women talking about the beautiful clothes worn by the heroine in the film. When the factory director heard about it, he immediately called back to the factory, demanding that the materials of this color be produced immediately and sent to the market for sale. Sure enough, as soon as it was listed, it was favored by young women and soon sold out, with many business opportunities. 2. Seek the needs of different living habits and hobbies of different ethnic groups in different regions. Wuxi people, on the other hand, like to eat sweets and even put sugar in meat buns. The demand for products is as complicated and picky as people's tastes. There is a clothing factory in Shanghai. In the case of numerous domestic garment factories and fierce competition, it is unique and has a new way, focusing on the famous Japanese clothing-kimono. Sewing and service costs labor and materials. Japanese raw materials and wages are several times higher than those in China. Therefore, the kimono they produce is very competitive in the Japanese market, welcomed by Japanese nationals, and has also created a lot of foreign exchange for the country. 3. Look for different needs of people at different levels, including the old, the young, the young and the infants. From the perspective of economic income, there are super-rich, rich, well-off, well-fed and poor; The demand difference between people of different ages and different economic incomes has opened up. For example, in terms of age, young people have more products and old people have fewer products. There has been a remarkable "silver market" abroad, but in a huge Shanghai, the elderly population has accounted for more than 18% of the city's population, but there is no "shopping center for the elderly" or "silver market", which fully reflects this point. 4. Seeking the special needs of special people, such as the blind, the deaf and the disabled, which is in sharp contrast with foreign markets. For example, a kind of blind ink recently developed in France quickly solidifies and bulges after being written on paper, so that blind people can "read" letters with their fingers; According to the needs of the blind walking, Japan has developed a kind of guide car, just like a stroller pushed by hand, which is equipped with a computer and infrared rays to guide the blind. As for products such as cameras for the blind (with voice control), telephones for the deaf (with TV screens) and sports equipment for the physically disabled, they have developed for a long time, but we are almost zero. 5. the need to seek "things", as the doctor said to some busy people. According to this demand, Taiwan Province Province has developed a medicine that can make owners take medicine on time. They installed a timer and pager on the bottle cap, which will beep as soon as possible to remind the owner to take medicine. In Germany, according to the needs of construction workers to climb, they have to grasp the ladder with one hand and only operate it with one hand. So, they developed a one-handed nailing hammer, which can drive nails into wood or walls with one hand, like this one that needs to be grasped from "things". Many products can be developed. 6. The China Asian Games and the World Cup were held at the same time. When watching sports games and football matches, the audience wants to have a portable telescope to watch. A township enterprise in Zhejiang seized this opportunity and developed a folding paper telescope. When watching the game, they can watch it as soon as they pull it, and they can put it in their shirt pockets at a discount after watching it. Convenient and cheap (only 1.5 yuan/piece), which can meet the needs of the audience. At one time, supply was in short supply. After learning about it, the foreign businessmen ordered 100,000 pieces at one time. A small factory with only 40 to 50 people could not produce and supply even if it worked overtime, so it suddenly increased to more than 500 people in just one year, and its scale expanded tenfold! The technology of folding paper telescope is not complicated. Its successful development is mainly to seize the two opportunities of the Asian Games and the World Football Match, and meet the needs of the audience with cheap and convenient products. 7. Seeking for labor-saving, time-saving and convenient needs, inventions and innovations are often produced to meet the needs of lazy people. Compared with remote control TV, ordinary TV only saves three or four steps and two seconds, but it is different in market competition. Remote control TV sets are obviously more popular with customers, because people are always lazy and always require products to be as labor-saving, time-saving, convenient and simple as possible. This is human nature. Seeking this convenience can develop or innovate many new products. For example, in the Japanese market, because people can't eat hot dishes, they develop spontaneous combustion cans. They installed a sandwich at the bottom of the jar with chemicals in it, and then pulled the switch. As soon as the chemicals are mixed, enough heat is released to steam the food in the can to meet the needs. 8. Seeking to meet people's psychological needs, people buy goods not only to buy functions, but also to meet psychological needs. For example, Japan changed the old round-faced bucket and developed a set of plastic buckets with four hearts and stacked them together. Because it is heart-shaped, it is more concentrated and convenient to pour water. More importantly, this change can meet people's psychological needs and win a good impression of "heart-to-heart". Therefore, all newly-married families will definitely buy this kind of bucket and give it as a special gift, so the market is very prosperous. 9. The need to find health and safety Due to the gradual improvement of people's living conditions, people are paying more and more attention to their own health and safety, and the demand in this area is growing. The market is flooded with a large number of health drinks, oral liquids and health products. Although there are many varieties and fierce competition, the demand is expanding, so there is still hope for sales. Since 1980s, obesity has become a popular civilized disease in western countries. Obesity increases the burden on the heart and causes many diseases. Weight loss craze has become a fashion in the west. An American saw this demand and founded the first fast food restaurant to lose weight in Atlanta. Specializing in the supply of low-calorie and low-fat food, the result was very popular and customers flocked to it. In just a few years, it has developed 90 branches in 43 States in the United States. The average annual income of this store in Atlanta alone is 165438+ ten thousand dollars! The success of slimming fast food restaurants.