12. Personal contacts with family, friends, co-
workers and colleagues.
Read specialized newspapers or magazines.
Visit exhibitions and local markets.
Visit SME development organizations
Internet and TV channels .
Review the list of imported/exported goods.
…..
12
Source of Ideas
14. Your Project could be
14
Solution
Missed
Service or
Product
Hoppy
Upgrading a
project
Complementary
commodity
Society
Needs
.....
New market
product
Innovation
15. SME could be :
New business
Acquiring old business
Change business model
Partnership
Franchise
15
19. What is Ideation?
Ideation is about exploring possibilities,
generating new concepts and discovering
new opportunities.
It is the creative process of generating,
developing, and communicating new
ideas, where an idea is understood as a
basic element of thought that can be either
visual, concrete, or abstract
One step in the Innovation process
19
20. What isn’t?
Not Innovation
Subset of Innovation
Not Traditional Brainstorming
Traditional Brainstorming is involves
validating ideas, weeding out bad
concepts, and correcting current
concepts
20
21. Benefits of IDEATION
When applied correctly, the techniques can
add a high level of energy and fun to your
planning activities as well as generate a
large number of exciting ideas.
The quality of ideas is directly correlated to
the quantity of ideas at a SME’s disposal.
Ideation provides a mechanism for the
discussion and building of all known
possibilities.
21
22. Benefits of IDEATION
Ideation uncovers or “discovers” new
high-potential products, markets, needs,
and features.
Ideation adds significant confidence and
efficiency to the product development
funnel.
Ideation can help any SME develop new
methods for uncovering the best ideas
within the company.
22
23. The most successful companies
have recognized that ideation is
an integral part of their overall
strategic portfolio.
Did you know23
25. Before Ideation Success, Decide 5
Things Before You Start
What's your purpose?
Who needs to be at the table?
Can you find someone who knows
creative process and can be an objective
facilitator?
How are you going to measure success?
Who is your ultimate decision-maker?
25
27. Ideation is a process
Ideation is the process where you generate
ideas and solutions through sessions such
as : Sketching, Prototyping, Brainstorming,
Brainwriting, Worst Possible Idea, and a
wealth of other ideation techniques.
27
28. Ideation = Idea Generation
Ideation is the mode of the design process
in which you concentrate on idea
generation.
Mentally it represents a process of ‘going
wide’ in terms of concepts and outcomes.
Ideation provides both the fuel and also the
source material for building prototypes and
getting innovative solutions into the hands
of your users.”
28
29. Ideation Will Help You:
Ask the right questions and innovate
with a strong focus on your customers,
their needs, and your insights about
them.
Step beyond the obvious solutions and
therefore increase the innovation
potential of your solution.
Bring together perspectives and
strengths of your team members.
29
30. Ideation Will Help You:
Uncover unexpected areas of innovation.
Create volume and variety in your
innovation options.
Get obvious solutions out of your heads,
and drive your team beyond them.
30
31. It’s not about coming up with
the ‘right’ idea, it’s about
generating the broadest range
of possibilities.
31
32. Characteristics Required for
Successful Ideation
Ideation requires purposefully adopting
certain characteristics, whether they are
natural or whether they need to be
encouraged and learnt.
Regardless of one's personality or way of
thinking, we all fall into the trap of sticking to
patterns and familiar ground, and tend to
use the same recipes for solving problems.
32
33. Experts and Novice are the same
Experts and novices alike need to be
constantly self-aware and purposely
intend to adopt some of the following
characteristics, which create an open
mind and fertile ground for sparking
unconventional ideas.
33
34. Characteristics …1
Adapting: Be able to switch how you see,
understand, and extend thinking as new
input gets generated.
Connecting: Be able to connect seemingly
unrelated concepts, attributes or themes in
order to create new possibilities.
Disrupting: Be able to overturn commonly
held beliefs, assumptions or norms in order
to re-think conventional approaches.
34
35. Characteristics …2
Flipping: Turn dead-ends or deadlocks into
opportunities by flipping them over or rapidly
changing direction towards greater viability.
Dreaming and Imagining: Be able to visualize a
new picture of reality by turning abstract needs into
tangible pictures or stories, thereby allowing the
space required for inventing bridges to that reality.
Experimental: Be open and curious enough to
explore possibilities and take risks; be willing and
eager to test out ideas and eager to venture into the
unknown.
35
36. Characteristics …3
Recognize Patterns: Seek to spot common
threads of meaning, and ways of seeing, doing
and behaving; be able to recognize attributes
or shared values across a spectrum of
influence and input; and finally be able to
utilize these commonalities to build solutions.
Curiosity: Be willing to ask uncomfortable,
silly or even crazy questions. Be willing to
explore and experience, in order to understand
and learn something new and different.
36
38. 11 Dos and Don’ts for Ideation Sessions
1) Choose a diverse group. Six to ten people is ideal.
If at all possible bring in some provocative outsiders
to challenge the conventional thinking in your team.
2) Appoint a facilitator. Ideally the facilitator should be
external to the group. They can use different
techniques to manage the process. The manager is
often a poor choice for this role as they cannot stop
themselves shaping the content.
3) Meet off-site. Getting away from the office somehow
helps to break conventional thinking. Unusual
locations are good.
38
39. 11 Dos and Don’ts for Ideation Sessions
4) Suspend judgment. No one is allowed to criticize or even
discuss an idea. As ideas are expressed they are simply
recorded. This can be done on post-its, lap-tops or flip
charts but no fault-finding or comments are allowed to
slow the process of idea flow.
5) Go for quantity. Quantity leads to quality in brainstorms
so don’t stop until you have a large number of ideas –
typically 60 to 100 or more.
6) Go beyond reason. Wild ideas are useful because they
challenge boundaries and provoke other fresh ideas. It is
easier to tame a wild idea than to inject something radical
into a bland one.
39
40. 11 Dos and Don’ts for Ideation Sessions
7) Ride on other people’s Ideas. When one person
suggests a creative concept others should chip in
with extensions, developments and specific ways
to make it happen. Piggyback on each other’s
notions.
8) Displace people out of routine thinking. There
are many good techniques to do this – some of
my favorites are Random Word, Similes, Pass
the Parcel or SCAMPER.
40
41. 11 Dos and Don’ts for Ideation Sessions
9) Set criteria. Make an initial sift of the ideas using some broad
criteria agreed with the group. For example we want ideas that
will please customers, increase awareness and can be
implemented in the next 12 months.
10) Discuss the short list. When you are down to say 10 or 12
good ideas then discuss them constructively. Sometimes there is a
clear consensus as to which are the best. Sometimes you might
want to vote to see which are the most popular. Whittle the list
down to a handful of really good ideas.
11) Assign actions. Start the ball rolling by assigning follow-up
actions for the best ideas. Add them to your to do list and make
sure they are expedited. The brainstorm is worthwhile only if it
delivers actions.
41
45. Mindmap
Mind mapping is a graphical technique in which
participants build a web of relationships.
To get started with the simplest form of mind
mapping, the participants write a problem
statement or key phrase in the middle of the
page.
Then, they write solutions and ideas that
comes to their mind on the very same page.
After that, participants connect their solutions
and ideas by curves or lines to its minor or
major (previous or following) fact or idea.
45
46. Applications for Mind Maps
Note Taking
Problem Solving
Innovation and Ideation
Prepare for Presentations
…..
54. Brain Storming
Brainstorming is a method for generating
ideas to solve a design problem.
It usually involves a group, under the
direction of a facilitator.
The strength of brainstorming is the
potential participants have in drawing
associations between their ideas in a free-
thinking environment, thereby broadening
the solution space.
54
55. It is easier to tone down a
wild idea than to think up a
new one.
- Alex Osborn
Good Quote55
56. Constraints vs Rules
Brainstorming may seem to lack
constraints, but success depends
on the observance of eight house
rules and someone acting as
facilitator.
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57. Brain Storming Rules
Set a time limit – depending on the
problem’s complexity, 15–60 minutes is
normal.
Begin with a target problem/brief –
members should approach this sharply
defined question, plan or goal and stay on
topic.
Refrain from judgment/criticism – no-one
should be negative (including via body
language) about any idea.
57
58. Brain Storming Rules
Encourage weird and wacky ideas – further to
the ban on killer phrases like “too expensive”,
keep the floodgates open so everyone
feels free to blurt out ideas, as long as they’re on
topic.
Aim for quantity – remember, “quantity breeds
quality”; the sifting-and-sorting process comes
later.
Build on others’ ideas – it’s a process
of association where members expand on
others’ notions and reach new insights, allowing
these ideas to trigger their own.
58
59. Brain Storming Rules
Stay visual – diagrams and Post-Its help
bring ideas to life and help others see
things in different ways.
Allow one conversation at a time –
keeping on track this way and showing
respect for everyone’s ideas is essential
for arriving at concrete results.
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61. Braindump
Braindump is very similar to Brainstorm,
however it’s done individually. The
participants write down their ideas on
post-it notes and share their ideas later
with the group.
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62. Brainwriting
Brainwriting is also very similar to a Brainstorm
session.
However, the participants write down their ideas on
paper and, after a few minutes, they pass on their
own piece of paper to another participant who’ll then
elaborate on the first person’s ideas and so forth.
Another few minutes later, the individual participants
will again pass their papers on to someone else and
so the process continues.
After about 15 minutes, you will collect the papers
and post them for instant discussion.
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63. Brainwalk
Brainwalk is similar to
Brainwriting. However,
instead of passing around
the paper, the participants
walk around in the room
and continuously find new
“ideation stations” where
they can elaborate on other
participants’ ideas.
63
65. What is SCAMPER
65
SCAMPER is an idea generation technique that utilizes
action verbs as stimuli. It is a well-known kind of checklist
developed by Bob Eberie that assists the person in coming
up with ideas either for modifications that can be made on an
existing product or for making a new product. SCAMPER is
an acronym with each letter standing for an action verb
which in turn stands for a prompt for creative ideas.
S – Substitute
C – Combine
A – Adapt
M – Modify
P – Put to another use
E – Eliminate
R – Reverse
68. S and C
68
S Substitute
Think about substituting part of your product/process for something else. By
looking for something to substitute you can often come up with new ideas.
Typical questions: What can I substitute to make an improvement? What if I
swap this for that and see what happens? How can I substitute the place, time,
materials or people?
C Combine
Think about combining two or more parts of your opportunity to achieve a
different product/process or to enhance synergy.
Typical questions: What materials, features, processes, people, products or
components can I combine? Where can I build synergy?
69. A & M
69
A Adapt
Think about which parts of the product/process could be adapted to remove the
probortunity or think how you could change the nature of the product/process.
Typical questions: What part of the product could I change? And in exchange
for what? What if I were to change the characteristics of a component?
M Modify/distort
Think about changing part or all of the current situation, or to distort it in an
unusual way. By forcing yourself to come up with new ways of working, you
are often prompted into an alternative product/process.
Typical questions: What happens if I warp or exaggerate a feature or
component? What will happen if I modify the process in some way?
70. P & E
70
P
Put to other
purposes
Think of how you might be able to put your current solution/ product/process to
other purposes, or think of what you could reuse from somewhere else in order
to solve your own probortunity. You might think of another way of solving your
own probortunity or finding another market for your product.
Typical questions: What other market could I use this product in? Who or what
else might be able to use it?
E Eliminate
Think of what might happen if you eliminated various parts of the
product/process/probortunity and consider what you might do in that situation.
This often leads you to consider different ways of tackling the probortunity.
Typical questions: What would happen if I removed a component or part of it?
How else would I achieve the solution without the normal way of doing it?
71. R
71
R
Think of what you would do if part of your probortunity/product/process worked
in reverse or done in a different order. What would you do if you had to do it in
reverse? You can use this to see your probortunity from different angles and
come up with new ideas.
Typical questions: What if I did it the other way round? What if I reverse the
order it is done or the way it is used? How would I achieve the opposite effect?