Idea in Brief
The Problem
Traditional ideation methods, such as crowdsourcing and design thinking, result in an overabundance of ideas for new offerings and business models. But managers lack a method for capturing the most promising possibilities.
The Solution
Identify fundamental changes in society and technology that might alter what customers will value. Then develop a new direction your company could take. To create this screen for assessing ideas, employ an inside-out process that relies on the art of criticism, not ideation.
The Steps
(1) Ask employees to reflect on their own about potential new directions. (2) Pair people who feel comfortable working together to refine their visions. (3) Discuss the results in groups of 10 to 20 people. (4) Solicit input from a wide range of outsiders to help strengthen the most promising new directions.
The business world is awash in ideas for new products, services, and business models. Thanks to powerful ideation approaches such as design thinking and crowdsourcing, it has become incredibly easy and relatively inexpensive for companies to obtain a vast number of novel concepts, from both insiders and outsiders such as customers, designers, and scientists. Yet many organizations still struggle to identify and capture big opportunities. A division head at a global consumer electronics corporation recently told me, “We have a mass of ideas, but honestly, we don’t know what to do with them. While we’ve tried to explore some unusual avenues, we’ve ended up committing ourselves to ideas that are already familiar.” From what I have observed, his company is the rule rather than the exception.
