BA Innovation Workshop

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From idea to business concept
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Modules 1 – 5

Odense, Slagelse, Sønderborg, Esbjerg, Kolding

BA Innovation Workshop

Table of contents

Time schedule

Case description

Module 1

 Work sheet
 Group forming
 Hand in module 1

Module 2

 Work sheet
 Hand in module 2

Module 3

 Work sheet
 Circle of Business
 Business Model Canvas
 Hand in module 3

Module 4

 Work sheet
 Power point ”How to present your idea”
 Hand in module 4

Module 5

 Work sheet
 Evaluation of ideas / criteria
 Hand in module 5
 Module 1
Module 1 Introduction and kick off
Aim Introduction to the workshop and the challenge/case
To start the creative process
Content Participants are introduced to the specific case.

Ideation phase.

Presentations
 Introduction to campus
 Introduction to the course Entrepreneurship
 Introduction the workshop
 Introduction to ideation

Forming of groups and introduction to workshop assistants.

Creativity session.

Ideation
 Idea generation
 Looking for opportunities

Tools Description of the case.

Group forming tools

Tool Training sheets

 Focus your search – Know what you are looking for
 Trendspotting – Identify general trends
 Creative focus – define your question
 Brainstorm – Generate ideas – lots of ideas
 Negative brainstorm

Hand in day 1
Output Each groups hands in 3-5 ideas in title form.
Group forming ”Name Game”

Form a circle. The one with the darkest shirt starts.

Say you name and a verb starting with the same letter as
your name. Illustrate your verb/skill while you say it.

E.g. My name is Charlotte and I can cook.

The person to the left repeats it and present herself in the

same way. And so on until everybody has presented
themselves.
Group assignment: ”What do we have in common?”

Each group discusses what similarities there are within the group.
Does everyone have a bike? Have you all been to London? Do you
all dislike cheese? Etc.

You have 15 minutes to come up with 5 similarities (crazy,

special, unexpected or?).

Present to the other groups.

 Focus Your Search

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Know what you are looking for

- but be open about where you look!
When you want to make user driven innovation, you should start by
defining what you are looking for:

Who do we want to do something

for? Define the buyers and users that you want to develop some-
thing for. Be careful not to define the problem too narrowly - and don’t
say anything at all about the solution.

The most important is to find the right problem and solve it right - not
solving the wrong problem right!

What is valuable to us? Even if you work with user driven

innovation, you should also gain from it yourself:

Who would we love to have as customers?

In which areas do we want to improve our own skills?

Where do we have unique skills, that could be the basis for

developing something new?

Which ethical standards should be the foundation of the

business?

How feasible ideas do we seek? Must our ideas be

realized fast, or is it all right to develop ideas, that it will take a long
time to realise. And should it be feasible with our own money, or will we
accept taking loans or involving investors to realize our idea.

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Take Off - 

 Trendspotting

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Identify general trends through observation of lifestyle. Read magazines,

visit fairs, search the web. Speak to opinion leaders, specialists and ex-
perts - or read what they write.

Trends can be found in lifestyle, culture, politics, technology and many

other areas.

Four important trend indicators

Economics and demography. Economic and/or

demographic changes cause many long lasting trends.

Who have become richer? Or poorer? Where do people want

to live? How many kids do they get? When? When do they start
your working carreer. When do they retire? Etc.

Shortfalls. A trend often starts, when we will demand what

we feel we fall short of in our lifes.
What do we long for? What do we have too little of? What do we
want a little more of?

Backlash. A new trend will often be a reaction against what

has become mainstream or a clash with whatever has been
dominant in the market for years.
What is getting a little to ordinary? What are we bored with or
tired of doing, buying and looking at.

Style. The style ideals will often swing like a pendulum from one
extreme to the other. Which style ideals ar starting to swing the
other way. Clothes, haircut, home, body ideals etc.

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Market - 

 Creative Focus

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

“To have a usable answer, you need a

good question”
Creative Focus is a method for formulating assignments and problems
in such a way that it appears to generate ideas in the following creative
process.

The specific formulation of the assignments is decisive for what ideas

the then occurs.

The usage presupposes a joint conception of the assignment or

problem.

Method
1. Formulate the assignment as a question – begin with how/what/
when/why etc.

2. Formulate the assignment as brief and open as possible,

preferable only one sentence.

3. Formulate the assignment from different viewpoints/angles.

Ask the question in different ways.

4. Choose the preferred formulation.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

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 Brainstorm

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

1. Arrange the meeting for a group of the right size and make up
(typically 4-8 people)

2. Write the initial topic on a flip board, white board or other system where everyone
can see it. The better defined, and more clearly stated the problem, the better the
session tends to be.

3. Make sure that everyone understands the problem or issue

4. Review the ground rules

• Avoid criticising ideas/suspend judgement. All ideas are as valid as each other

• Lots, Lots & Lots - a large number of ideas is the aim, if you limit the number of
ideas people will start to judge the ideas and only put in their ‘best’ or more
often than not, the least radical and new.

• Free-wheeling. Don’t censor any ideas, keep the meeting flow going.

• Listen to other ideas, and try to piggy back on them to other ideas.

• Avoid any discussion of ideas or questions, as these stop the flow of ideas.

5. Have someone facilitating to enforce the rules and write down all the ideas as they
occur (the scribe can be a second person)

6. Generate ideas - either in an unstructured way (anyone can say an idea at any
time) or structure (going round the table, allowing people to pass if they have no
new ideas).

7. Clarify and conclude the session. Ideas that are identical can be combined,
all others should be kept. It is useful to get a consensus of which ideas should be
looked at further or what the next action and time scale is.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

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 Negative Brainstorm

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Positive question
Describe you task as a question - like “how do we solve problem X?”

Negative question
Reformulate the question to a negative question - the opposite of the
positive question.

Examples:
How do we create a solution, that the users won’t use?
How do we create a solution, that we can’t make a profit on?
How do we create a solution, that no distributors will take in?

Negative ideas
Create ideas from the negative question. It will be a kind of reverse and
distorted ideas.

Positive ideas
Go through each negative idea and try to change it into a positive ideas.
That will not be possible for all ideas, but it may lead to surprising and
original ideas.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Idea - 

Hand in form for module 1

Innovation workshop

Team number: ____________________________

Team name: ___________________________

Based on the case presented to you, each team must hand in 3-5 ideas in title form:

1. ________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________________________

5. _________________________________________________________________________________
 Module 2
Module 2 Idea selection and concept formulation

Aim Based on the ideation phase each group decides on 1 idea and formulates a
short description of the idea and concept.

Content Idea evaluation

Idea sorting
Idea specification
Idea improvement

Tools Tool Training sheets

 Summarizing – Create an overview of your ideas
 Idea sieve – Prioritize your ideas
 Idea improvement
 NAF – Novelty, attractiveness & feasibility

Output Each group hands in 1 specific idea.

Describe ”We will … to … by…”

 Idea / What
 Target group / who
 Implementation / how
 Summarizing

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Summarizing is used to create an overview when a large amount of

ideas have been produced.

Grouping
Sort the ideas by topic or in groupings with natural affiliations. (This
might cause some debate)

Overlapping
Screen the individual ideas, search for overlaps, by assessing if the idea
is a copycat of some of the other ideas (like a sub idea to a main idea), if
this is the case it should be deleted.

Combination
Screen the individual ideas again and see if there are natural affiliations
or combinations that can be compiled as one idea. Do this combination
of ideas when/if you find this.

Elaboration
Is the individual idea clear and concrete so everybody understands it,
otherwise the idea must be elaborated by asking how, if you cannot
elaborate on the idea, then delete it.

Relevance
Clear out ideas that has no value for a solution to the problem or assign-
ment. Ask for each idea:
- Is this idea relevant for the purpose? (Your problem definition). If not,
delete it.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Idea - 15

 Idea Sieve

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

The idea sieve is a method for fast prioritising of a large number of

ideas.

The techniques Summarizing and The idea sieve are supplementing

each other and are useful tools if you first use the Summarizing followed
by The idea sieve.
The idea sieve is a method for assessing and prioritising the ideas, NB!
This method also works on its own.

Choice of criteria
Choose 1, 2 or 3 simple assessment criteria that fit this specific task.
Examples:
- Is the idea feasible?
- Is the idea useful?
- Is the idea new?
- Is the idea competitive?

Individual assessment
Every group member must individually make up their mind of how he/she
would assess every idea based upon the assessment criteria agreed
upon in the group.

Based upon this personal assessment he/she appoints each idea with
points according to the following scale:
Criteria are met: 2 points
In doubt: 1 point
Criteria are not met: 0 point

Count and prioritizing

Chairperson makes a counting of the points. When the points are
counted, the ideas are prioritized based upon the score of each idea.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

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 Idea Improvement

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

1. Idea description
All members of the group must have the same clear picture of what the
idea is.
Therefore start by making a description of the idea, continue until every-
body has the same perception of the idea.

2. Strenghts
Find all strengths of the present idea.

3. Weaknesses
Seek for weaknesses of the idea, find all problematic qualities of the
idea.

4. Idea development
Look at the strengths in Step 2 and search for improvements or
developments.

5. Idea development
Look at the weaknesses in Step 3 and search for ways to alter or avoid
these weaknesses.
How can this be done?

6. Summarize
Assess the individual ideas and suggestions from Step 4 and 5.
The ideas and suggestions which can be utilised, recapitulate these
with the basic idea.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Idea - 18

 NAF

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

This is a simple way of scoring / assessing potential solutions to a

problem. Give a score out of 10 for each of the three items:

Novelty How novel is the idea? If it isn’t novel for this situation, it
probably isn’t very creative

Attractiveness How attractive is this as a solution? does it com-

pletely solve the problem? Or is it only a partial solution?

Feasibility How feasibly is it to put this into practice? It may have

been a really attractive solution to use a time machine, but is it really
feasible?

Once you have the mark out of 30 for each potential solution, you can
easily rank them to then refine the top few.

FOCUS GENERATE SORT DEVELOP EVALUATE

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk Idea - 21

Hand in form for module 2

Innovation workshop

Team number: ____________________________

Team name: ___________________________

In short, describe your idea in the following way:

“We want to _________________ for _________________ by _______________”

(eg. We want to provide efficient means of transport for students by providing them
with cheap tickets. )

Please notice that you explain:

 What it is you plan to do

 For whom you are making it
 How you plan to make it
 Module 3
Module 3 Idea, market and users
Aim Describe the business potential related to your idea.

Content The business potential – the financial viability of the idea.

Business Model Canvas

Describe the market, customers and competitors
Who are your users
“Show me the money”
Visualize the idea

Tools The Circle of Business – what elements are part of the business rationale

Business Model Canvas – based on the Circle of Business

Tool Training sheets

 User profiles – illustrate who your users are
 Storyboards – visualize your concept

Output Business Model Canvas

Circle of Business
How do we
Customers How do we support the
wishes or Difference customer
draw attention
needs between evaluate our
Who are the to our
customer/ product/service? How do we
customers? One product/service
consumer? deliver our
or several ?
product/service
groups of to the
customers? customer?

To whom do we
offer our idea?
What How is our
value/benefit relation to the
do we provide customer?
to our (personal
customer? assistance, self
service, online
services)?

Do we have
different
Which problems relations to the
do we solve/which goups of
needs are ful customers?
filled?

How to we create
strong relations
What is so to our customrs?
unique about
our
product/service?
What activities
and ressources
are needed?
How do we fix the How do we
price?(Fx volume produce our
discount, product/service?
subscription) What is the 2
What ressources
most expensive
Is our focus to minimize are needed ?
activities/
our costs (Fx Ryanair) or (human, psysical) How are we
ressources?
to create unique value different from
(Fx luxury hotel)? our compeditors?
© Nielsen, Clausen & Toftild
Business Model (based on the Circle of Business)

What is our idea? To whom do we offer How do we supply the How is our relation to
our idea? idea to our customer? our customer

What activities and resources are needed? What are the cost and how do we make money?
 User Profiles

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Make up a person that represents a group of users. A user profile should

describe the specific user in very specific details. Fx.

Name Yes, give him or her a name. You will find, that he/she can not

be given just any name.

Portrait Find a photo to portray the profile. It helps your imagination.

Demography Sex, age, family status, address, occupation,

education, income etc.

Personal goals and values. What would the person like to

achieve and what are his/her personal values - in general and concerning
the specific product area. What is good and what is bad.

Consumption and buying habits If your product/service is for

private use, it is especially relevant to consider which specific products
and brands the profile buys - and where they are bought.

Needs What are the specific needs and problems in the area, where
you are searching for solutions.

Skills How experienced and knowledgable is the person concerning

your product area. What are his habits, at where are the limits of his
abilities.

Perspective on the task and product For which purposes is

the person using the product or service, and how important are these in
his daily life? What is the persons role, when the product/service is used.

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk User - 

 Storyboards

Take Off Market User Idea Concept Evaluation

Make little cartoons of scenarios where the target user is using your
product or service, or where he/she is doing something, where you want
to make it easier or better for the user. Focus on the critical actions and
situations.

You might also use photos to illustrate the senario. Make them yourself
while observing the user in action or search the web.

© IDEA House - www.idea-house.dk User - 

Hand in form for module 3

Innovation workshop

Team number: ____________________________

Team name: ___________________________

Your concept:

Hand in a description of your concept based on the Circle of business and the
Business Model Canvas:
 Module 4
Module 4 Pitch your idea
Aim To present your idea – sell the idea and concept

Content Presentation skills

Pitch training

Prepare a pitch

Tools Power point on pitching

Output Each group delivers a 3 min pitch, focusing on selling the idea including e.g.
power point slides, story board, posters, video etc.
Hand in form for module 4

Innovation workshop

Team number: ____________________________

Team name: ___________________________

Your pitch / presentation:

In the form of a power point, pictures, slides, posters or notes for your 3 minutes
presentation.
 Module 5
Module 5 Final pitch and evaluation

Aim To present the idea

Evaluate the ideas and selction of the most promising idea and concept
Content Presentation in front of a jury

Tools Evaluation form – scale 1-5

Output All teams make a presentation

Each team is given feedback

The winners are…

Evaluation

Innovation workshop

Jury member name: ____________________

Team number.: ____________________________

Team name: ________________________

On a scale from 1-5 you must evaluate the following (5 being best):

Is the idea: attractive

Is the idea: feasible

Is the idea: imaginative

Is the idea: at the right time and

place

Is the idea: profitable

How was the presentation

TOTAL