Idea generation is the creative process of developing new concepts, solutions, or innovations.

Whether you’re brainstorming for a school project, business venture, or artistic endeavour,
this process involves exploring different perspectives, combining seemingly unrelated ideas,
and breaking through mental barriers. It’s about thinking outside the box and embracing
curiosity. Different stimuli like brainstorming sessions, observation, or daydreaming can
generate ideas. The goal is to generate fresh, valuable ideas leading to exciting opportunities
and problem-solving. So, let’s dive into the fascinating world of idea generation and unlock
your inner innovator!

Table of Content
 What is Idea Generation?
 Techniques of Idea Generation
 Brainstorming
 Mind Mapping
 SWOT Analysis
 SCAMPER Technique
 Tips for Effective Idea Generation
What is Idea Generation?
This is the first and most important step in product development. It involves collecting ideas
from various sources. These sources include individuals, groups or communities willing to
provide their ideas. Ideas are generated using various techniques.

Role of Idea Generation in Innovation and Problem-Solving

Idea generation is pivotal in innovation and problem-solving, the initial spark driving
progress. Take Apple Inc. as an example. Their relentless commitment to idea generation has
led to groundbreaking innovations like the iPhone. Apple has revolutionized communication,
work, and entertainment by continuously generating and refining ideas. In problem-solving,
idea generation helps identify novel solutions. When Apple faced declining sales in the early
2000s, Steve Jobs’ idea to create sleek, user-friendly products and innovative marketing
revitalized the company. Thus, idea generation fuels innovation by spawning fresh concepts
and problem-solving by offering creative approaches to challenges, leading to remarkable
advancements and successful business strategies.

Techniques of Idea Generation

Techniques of idea generation include Brainstorming, Mind Mapping, SWOT Analysis and
SCAMPER Technique.

Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a collaborative and creative technique to create a wide range of ideas for a
specific problem or task. It typically involves a group of individuals but can also be done
individually. The key principles of brainstorming are:

Quantity Over Quality: The goal is to initially produce as many ideas as possible
without judgment or criticism. The more ideas, the better.
Free Expression: Participants should feel free to express any idea, no matter how
unconventional or seemingly impractical it may be.
Build on Others’ Ideas: Encourage participants to expand on or combine ideas put forth by
others, fostering a collaborative atmosphere.

Example: In a brainstorming session for a new restaurant concept, team members might
suggest ideas like a themed menu based on classic movies, an interactive dining experience,
or a sustainable farm-to-table approach.
Mind Mapping
Visual brainstorming techniques like mind mapping help organize ideas in a structured and
interconnected manner. It starts with a central idea or concept and branches into related
subtopics or ideas. Key elements of mind mapping include:

Central Idea: Begin with a central topic or concept and write it down at the centre of a page.
Branching: Create branches extending from the central idea, each representing a subtopic or
related concept.
Hierarchy: Subtopics can have further sub-branches, creating a hierarchical structure that
captures the relationships between ideas.
Keywords and Visuals: Use keywords and visual elements like icons or colours to enhance
understanding and memory.
Example: When planning a marketing strategy, you can create a mind map with the central
idea “Marketing Plan” branching into subtopics like “Target Audience,” “Advertising
Channels,” “Budget Allocation,” and “Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).”

SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning tool to assess a business or project’s internal strengths
and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats in the market or environment. It
involves the following components:
Also read: What is Strategic Management?
Strengths: Identify the internal attributes and resources that provide a competitive advantage.
These could be skilled employees, cutting-edge technology, or strong brand recognition.
Weaknesses: Recognize the internal limitations or areas where improvement is needed, such
as lack of funds, outdated infrastructure, or poor management.
Opportunities: Examine external factors that benefit the organization, like emerging
markets, changing consumer preferences, or new technologies.
Threats: Identify external factors that could harm the organization, such as increased
competition, economic downturns, or regulatory changes.
Example: In a SWOT Analysis for a small retail business, strengths might include a loyal
customer base, while weaknesses could involve limited financial resources. Opportunities
could include expanding into e-commerce, while threats might include a downturn in the
local economy.
SCAMPER Technique
The SCAMPER technique is a creative thinking tool offering seven ways to manipulate
existing ideas, products, or processes to generate new and innovative solutions. Each letter in
SCAMPER represents a specific action:

Substitute: Identify elements that can be substituted with something else. For example,
replacing traditional fuel in vehicles with electric power.
Combine: Merge different concepts, features, or ideas to create something new. An example
is combining a smartphone with a fitness tracker to create a health-monitoring device.
Adapt: Modify an existing idea or concept to suit a new context or purpose. Adapting a
restaurant’s menu to cater to vegan or gluten-free diets is an adaptation.
Modify: Alter specific attributes or characteristics of an idea, such as changing the size,
shape, or colour. An example is modifying a backpack’s design to include solar panels for
charging devices.
Put to Another Use: Find alternative uses for an existing product or concept. Repurposing
shipping containers into housing units is putting them to another use.
Eliminate: Identify elements, features, or steps that can be removed without compromising
the overall concept or function. Eliminating physical buttons on a smartphone in favour of
touchscreen technology is an elimination.
Reverse (or Rearrange): Change the order or sequence of elements in a concept. Reversing
the order of a recipe’s steps can lead to a new dish.
Example: Applying the SCAMPER technique to the concept of a traditional bicycle, you
might “Combine” it with an electric motor to create an electric bicycle or “Reverse” the
handlebars and pedals to create a recumbent bicycle.
Tips for Effective Idea Generation
Creating a Conducive Environment: To enhance idea generation, provide an atmosphere
encouraging creativity. Offer a comfortable physical space, free from distractions, where
individuals can focus on brainstorming. For example, companies like Google create
innovation hubs with playful décor and relaxation areas, like the Googleplex, to foster
creativity and inspiration.
Encouraging Diversity of Thought: Embrace diverse perspectives and backgrounds within
your team. Different viewpoints bring a variety of ideas to the table. For instance, Pixar
Animation Studios credits its success to its diverse team of storytellers, artists, and
technologists, each contributing unique ideas that lead to groundbreaking animated films.
Overcoming Creative Blocks: Teach techniques to overcome mental barriers. Tools like
meditation, brainstorming exercises, or time management strategies can help. An example is
author J.K. Rowling, who overcame writer’s block while creating the Harry Potter series by
changing her writing environment and routine, allowing her ideas to flow more freely.
Conclusion!
Idea generation is the lifeblood of innovation, problem-solving, and creativity in all aspects
of life and industry. It’s a dynamic process that thrives on diversity of thought, conducive
environments, and the ability to overcome creative blocks. Individuals and organizations can
tap into their creative potential with the right techniques and mindset. It continuously
produces fresh, valuable ideas that drive progress and transformation. In an ever-evolving
world, the power of idea generation remains a vital force for shaping the future.
How to Generate Ideas

Why is it that some people seem to have lots of ideas and others don’t? If you feel like you
struggle to generate ideas, there are a few simple techniques that can help transform you into
an “idea person.”

We call the process of coming up with new concepts “ideation.”

Ideation is the generation of ideas. Ideas become innovations when they are successfully
implemented. Innovations improve our quality of life and entrepreneurs create jobs by
commercializing them.

Here are some ways to ideate:

 Ask questions: Foremost, idea people are curious people. They ask a lot of questions
of others and especially of themselves. Their sentences often begin with “W” words—
who, what, where, when, why—and also “how.”
 Write Your Ideas Down: Creative people keep lists and notes. Edison had thousands
of notebooks with notes and ideas in them. Leonardo Da Vinci’s notes were written in
mirror writing and his notebooks also contained fascinating drawings. Don’t lose
those ideas!
 Think Associatively: Many ideas are the result of associative thinking. By that, I
mean taking an idea in one context and joining it with another possibility or
opportunity. Steve Jobs had a great ability to adapt computing technology to new
practical uses. He appreciated the artistic aspect of science and made Apple’s
products simple and beautiful. New experiences often yield ideas when people
observe different perspectives and are astute at adapting existing approaches to new
opportunities.
 Put Ideas to the Test: Innovators know the importance of experimentation. Testing is
key to many advancements.

7 idea generation methods for out-of-the-box thinking

Successful organizations run on great ideas.
Whether you want to improve standard protocols or pitch original initiatives, fresh ideas keep
your team and projects from growing stagnant. But idea generation sessions can get messy,
with disparate thoughts or unfocused tangents stealing focus from more pressing issues.

Luckily, various techniques exist for encouraging focus and more innovative solutions. Find
the right method for your team and enjoy a tried-and-true way of turning out-there concepts
into actionable innovation.

Idea generation definition: What is it, and why is it important?

Idea generation — or ideation — is the collaborative creation and development of ideas. It

kicks off the idea management process, through which you can build out abstract, concrete,
or visual concepts to determine solutions or explore new opportunities.

Fostering a culture that welcomes fresh ideas allows teams and organizations to grow with
market shifts and fluctuating consumer demands. When a marketing team brainstorms a new
campaign or product managers scout expansion opportunities, diverse perspectives in the
ideation stage empower innovation. Varied viewpoints enrich the proposal pool and
encourage innovative insights, paving the way for more strategic and successful strategies
and initiatives.

How a proactive idea generation process benefits your team

Creative thinking turns vague ideas into groundbreaking changes, turning your team into
industry leaders. Here are a few more pointed ways effective idea generation benefits your
team:

 Offers a competitive advantage — The right ideation method for your team brings
out the best in them, resulting in initiatives that help you stand out in the market.
Getting creative with brainstorming techniques doesn’t mean you have to act on every
wild idea. It’s about setting the stage for forward-thinking concepts. And when an
innovative, worthwhile idea pops up, you’re ready to refine it into a product or service
that resonates with consumer needs and market trends.
 Enhances team engagement and morale — effective idea-generating techniques
bring all stakeholders on board, making team members feel vital to the company’s
mission. And when insights transform into actionable strategies, it fosters
collaboration, productivity, and more open communication.
  Enables anticipatory problem-solving — being proactive with regular solution
generation lets you anticipate challenges rather than scramble for
solutions. Consistent brainstorming focused on improvement pinpoints potential
hurdles early, leaving room for preemptive problem-solving. This forward-thinking
approach facilitates strategy adjustments and lets you capitalize on emerging
opportunities.
7 idea generating techniques to try with your team

Depending on your objectives, here are seven idea generation methods to tease innovative
concepts out of your team.

1. Mind mapping

Mind mapping is more than just a visual outlining method. It’s a structured approach to
organizing complex information and concepts.

Imagine you’re launching a new product. To create a mind map, you’d write the product's
name in the center of your outline. From there, you’d draw branches representing major
categories, such as marketing, product design, and distribution. Next, you’d add sub-branches
that detail specific actions or elements.

This visual representation focuses on organizing every project detail, highlighting

interdependencies, and ensuring teams see the big picture so they can collaborate effectively.
It’s a useful way to plan complex projects while keeping sight of overarching objectives.

2. Blue sky thinking/brainstorming

Blue sky thinking, or brainstorming, encourages unrestrained creativity. When developing a

new project, team members throw out specific details or constraints and voice any and every
idea, no matter how unconventional.

While the approach might sound chaotic, focusing on quantity rather than the quality lets
groundbreaking concepts emerge. Once brainstorming concludes, you scrap unrealistic
suggestions and turn viable ones into actionable strategies aligned with your product vision
board.

3. Brainwriting

Like brainstorming, brainwriting focuses on amassing different perspectives. But rather than
shouting out ideas, team members jot everything down on paper. They then pass their papers
around in a circle, and receiving teammates build on each other’s ideas by adding new
perspectives or pointing out pain points. The cycle continues until everyone has their original
paper back — now fleshed out with team reactions and elaborations.

This technique diversifies ideas and stimulates inclusivity, which is useful for large groups
where some team members might be more comfortable verbally sharing ideas than others.

4. SCAMPER

SCAMPER stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and
reverse. It’s a technique to reimagine existing ideas, services, and products. For teams aiming
to refresh their offerings, SCAMPER is a structured way to dream up enhancements and new
directions.

Imagine a product development team brainstorming ways to revitalize an old product to meet
current consumer trends. Using the SCAMPER method, they explore multiple options for
reinvention. The “substitute” prompt might lead to swapping a material for another with a
lower cost, while “adapt” might stimulate ideas for tweaking the product to cater to a new
audience.

5. Role-playing

Sometimes, it’s helpful to step out of your role as a designer, developer, or project manager
and think from your consumer's perspective. Role-playing requires you to simulate the users
you aim to serve.

Think about building a mobile app. Instead of relying on market data alone, role-playing
would have you consider the app from the perspective of your target audience. You might
think of how busy parents and teenagers uniquely navigate the app, providing real-time
feedback to generate potential refinements and spotlight user concerns.

If your team struggles to reverse roles, build AI-generated scripts based on customer metrics
to create an accurate back-and-forth.

6. Storyboarding

Like frames in a comic strip, storyboarding sequences your idea's journey from concept to
final product. Using images, quotes, and other graphics brings procedural or product
management to life. Storyboarding transforms abstract ideas into clear visual narratives,
pointing out potential areas for enhancement and friction points in a way that suits visual
learners.

7. Synectics

Teams sometimes get stuck on existing thought patterns, struggling to look beyond solutions
they’ve already discussed or executed. Synectics utilizes unrelated problem analogies to
stimulate creativity and generate new ideas.

Consider a development team that misunderstands customer needs and wastes time and
resources designing unnecessary functions. The team could liken their situation to buying
expensive toys for a dog who doesn’t like to play with them. The team would then brainstorm
ideas to fix the issue in the analogy — like letting the dog choose a toy at the pet store. This
idea can inspire the team to approach their problem in a similar way — by letting the
consumer dictate their own preferences rather than prescribing them.

To put this idea into action, the team could generate customer surveys or lead focus groups to
gather user insights and then refine their development approach accordingly.

Tools for managing ideas

You experimented with several idea generation techniques and now have many concepts to
iron out. Without proper management, potential catalysts for innovation might get lost.
Arming yourself with effective tools and alignment strategies ensures that change is
innovative and purposeful.

Templates and management tools let you store all your ideas in one place. A shareable
template ensures all stakeholders can revisit and organize thoughts in a centralized space.
And materials like vision-to-values boards let teams measure the value of an idea against the
organization’s overarching mission and goals.

3 tips for successful idea generation sessions

Solution generation requires more than just choosing a method. It’s up to managers to set the
scene and create guidelines to push brainstorming in the right direction. Here are three tips to
consider.

1. Clearly define the problem or opportunity

Ideas that successfully tackle a problem or seize an opportunity need clear frameworks. Start
by giving a detailed definition of what ideation seeks to accomplish. When team members
understand the core issue, it directs brainstorming efforts and ensures targeted and relevant
suggestions.

2. Involve the right people

Idea generation benefits from diversity of thought, experience, and expertise. To enrich your
solutions pool, welcome insights from team members across various departments and roles.
Incorporating varied viewpoints helps you anticipate cross-departmental challenges, identify
overlooked opportunities, and craft well-rounded solutions.

3. Consider execution

Throwing out ideas is just the beginning of successful ideation. It’s just as essential to
develop a clear plan for evaluating, refining, and implementing new initiatives. Tools like
Notion’s idea-to-execution template help nurture suggestions from start to finish.

From brainstorm to breakthrough with Notion

Idea generation is a fun — and oft-chaotic — team exercise. But with structured tools, you
can turn out-of-the-box thinking into actionable strategies.

Notion’s idea generator and product and content idea generator templates enrich the process
by structuring your process. Or search the template gallery to find something that perfectly
suits your needs.

What is Idea Generation? – Definition, Techniques and Success Factors

Ideas are the key to innovation. Without them, there isn't much to execute and because
execution is the key to learning, new ideas are necessary for making any kind of
improvement.

It's obvious that ideas alone won't make innovation happen, as you need to be able to build
a systematic process for managing those ideas. The point of ideation isn't just about
generating tons of them but about paying attention to the quality of those as well.
We agree that it can sometimes be difficult to come up with more of those high-quality
ideas. It’s not unusual to get stuck in our old habits and routines when we’re supposed to
be creating something new.

To break out of that rut, we've decided to look into idea generation as a whole as well as to
introduce some of our favorite tips, tools and techniques that can be used to generate new
ideas more systematically.

What is idea generation and why it's important?

Idea generation is described as the process of creating, developing and communicating

abstract, concrete or visual ideas.

It’s the front end part of the idea management funnel and it focuses on coming up with
possible solutions to perceived or actual problems and opportunities.

As mentioned, ideas are the first step towards making improvement. Us making progress
as individual human beings depends on new ideas. From the perspective of an individual,
new ideas can help you to move forward if you feel stuck with a task or are unable to solve
a certain problem.

Perhaps you're looking for new ways to overcome a creative block or you're after a better
solution to your problem?

Maybe you need new ideas so that you can fully explore a new opportunity?

When it comes to your organization, generating and collecting new ideas from your
employees is the best way to uncover creative, tacit knowledge. The ability to create and
develop new ideas allows you to:

 Stay relevant
 Make positive change happen in your organization
“Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change”
– Barbara Januszkiewicz

Perhaps your organizational goal is to improve your and your team's efficiency or you
need new ideas for making your product better?

Regardless of your goals or the types of ideas you're looking for, the purpose of new ideas
is to improve the way you operate.

On a larger scale, economies depend on innovation to drive growth and increase well-
being. Innovation creates new technologies and businesses, which provide new jobs for
people.

So, although innovation isn’t about ideas alone, they are an important part of the equation
as there wouldn’t be one without the other.

Tools and techniques for generating ideas

Okay, now you need ideas. What do you do?

The odds are that you’d run a brainstorming session. It has, however, been shown that
brainstorming not only takes more time and leads to less ideas, but also worse ideas than if
the same participants had just tried to come up with ideas by themselves.

There are several other reasons why brainstorming may not be the best way to come up
with ideas. Scheduling, organizing and documenting the session in a usable format will all
take up even more time.

Although there are certain ways to improve brainstorming performance, it’s beyond the
point. The point is that you shouldn’t automatically default to brainstorming.

Idea Challenge

Idea challenge is a focused form of innovation where you raise a problem or opportunity
with the hopes of coming up with creative solutions.
The point of idea challenge is to participate in ideation and generate ideas around a pre-
defined theme for a limited period of time.

It allows you to form a specific question and direct that question at a specific audience to
receive new ideas and unique insights.

Before setting up an idea challenge, it’s important to define what you want to accomplish
with it.

Because there are two types of idea challenges, problem centric and solution centric
approaches, you should first clarify whether you’re looking to identify
challenges or develop potential solutions for them.

When organizing an idea challenge, there are different parameters that you can choose to
achieve the outcomes you’re looking for, such as theme, audience, responsibilities,
time, or channels.

Keep in mind that idea challenge is the best technique when you need to generate lots of
new ideas. It may not be the most effective way to generate ideas if you only involve a few
experts in your ideation process as it’s proven to be more useful for engaging large
audiences.
Although idea challenge enables you to gather lots of ideas fast, careful planning takes
time and might not be worth the effort if there are no resources to execute it properly.
Also, right timing is necessary for it to succeed.

If you're interested in running your very own idea challenge, we've written a
comprehensive guide to idea challenges, which you can download here.

SCAMPER Technique

The SCAMPER technique is created by Bob Eberle, and is a method used for problem-
solving and creative thinking. It’s a holistic way of applying critical thinking to modify
ideas, concepts or processes that already exist.

The purpose of the SCAMPER is to make adjustments to some parts of the existing idea or
process to reach the best solution. It consists of seven actions that can be used to replace
parts in the process:
1. Substitute – Substitution technique refers to replacing a part of your product, concept
or process with another to achieve even better outcome.

2. Combine – The combine technique explores the possibility to combine two ideas into a
single, more effective solution.

3. Adapt – Adaptation analyses the possibilities to make the process more flexible and
focuses on other similar incremental improvements to the idea, process, or concept.

4. Modify – Modifying the idea looks at the problem or opportunity from a bigger
perspective and aims for improving the overall results, not just the idea.

5. Put to another use – This approach focuses on finding ways to use the idea or existing
solution for another purpose and analyses the possible benefits if applied to other parts of
the business.

6. Eliminate – The elimination technique is quite straightforward: it examines the possible

outcomes if one or more parts of the concept were eliminated.

7. Reverse – This action focuses on reversing the order of interchangeable elements of an

idea.

Although the SCAMPER technique was originally designed for brainstorming sessions, it
can be applied to your own thought processes as well.

Often, people tend to focus on finding the next big idea. When generating new ideas, it is
easy to forget that the continuous incremental improvements are the ones that really make
an impact in the long run.

When you make ideation a constant practice, you’ll have a good chance to win that big
idea through a number of small ones. Sometimes, all it may take is to have look at what
you’ve already got. Using your existing ideas or processes as a starting point can reveal a
lot about your current situation, which is what the SCAMPER technique is about.
Opposite Thinking

Opposite/reverse thinking is a technique that can help you question long-held

assumptions related to your business. It’s a useful tool to consider if you feel your team is
stuck with the conventional mindset and coming up with those “out-of-the-box ideas”
seems to be difficult.

Often, finding the best solutions aren’t found through a linear thought process. Although
our brains are wired that way, opposite thinking can help us question the norm.

With this type of thinking, you consider the exact opposite of what’s normal. You can
even think backwards to find unconventional solutions.

Brainstorm Cards

Brainstorm cards are a useful tool created by the Board of Innovation for coming up with
dozens of new ideas related to whatever challenge or problem you are currently working
with. Brainstorm cards help you consider external factors such as: societal trends, new
technologies, and regulation in the context of your business.
This approach allows you to generate a great number of ideas with little effort. Although
many of the ideas won’t make sense, this tool can still be very beneficial for getting you
out of the rut if you’re suffering from a creative block.

Brainstorming cards can be used as part of more complex workshops, as brainstorming

sessions take different shapes and forms.

We wrote an in-depth guide on how to run an efficient brainstorming session and how to
make the most out of it. You can also prepare for brainstorming by collecting ideas in
Viima, which you can later discuss during your in-person session.
Analogy Thinking

Analogy thinking is a technique for using information from one source to solve a problem
in another context. Often one solution to a problem or opportunity can be used to solve
another problem.

Analogy thinking can, for example, be used for analyzing a successful business,
identifying what makes it great, and then applying those same principles for your business.
This is an effortless method for coming up with new ideas that are pre-validated.

You’ve probably heard of the countless start-ups that are the “Uber for [insert industry
here]“. This is exactly the method every one of those companies has used. However,
although this is such an easy and intuitive tool to use, the obvious combinations are likely
to be very competitive.

The aforementioned techniques are some of our favorites for generating ideas but
definitely not the only ones out there. The ones that work for you can be found by testing
different options.

Managing ideas

Although generating ideas is often the easy part of innovation, collecting and managing
them can be challenging without a proper tool.

Because people often come up with new ideas then and there, they should be able collect
these ideas right when they arise.

Many people use digital or physical notebooks to write down their ideas on the go. This
method works well when you just want to make notes for your own use. However, when
you want to share that information with others and ask for feedback for further
improvement, this isn’t the most effective way.

If you need to involve more people in your ideation process, you might want to consider a
dedicated idea management tool to make sure all of the potential ideas are collected in one
place.
Idea Management Tool

As idea management is such a vast topic and larger companies are always going to have
thousands of ideas, using a dedicated idea management tool often makes sense for most
companies.

An idea management tool serves as the backbone of your idea management process. It's
where you’ll collect the ideas, discuss them, evaluate and prioritize them, and keep track
of their progress, as well as the strategic direction of your ideation activities.

Managing ideas via a dedicated tool is only as effective as the underlying process behind
it. To make ideation a continuous habit, you should build a process that makes generating
and refining new ideas easy. Too complex processes will only frustrate users, so don't try
to make it too complicated.

If you want to get started with an idea management tool, book a demo with Viima and see
the software in action.

Succeeding with Idea Generation

Before engaging more people to use these tools and techniques for generating more ideas,
there are a few more tips that can help you get more out of your ideation methods.

 Define the problem or opportunity

Although this seems obvious, the more accurately you’re able to describe your current or
perceived problem or opportunity, the better chances you have of actually generating
useful ideas.

Before you start, try to gather as much information about the problem as possible to get to
the heart of the problem. Identify what you already know about it and what information is
still needed.

 Involve the right people

For your ideation to be as productive as possible, it is important to involve the right people
to the process. Engage those people who know about the topic and are genuinely interested
in making a change in your organization.

If your plan is to engage a larger group of people to generate ideas, make sure your
audience is relevant and well informed on the subject.
  Set constraints

Communicating that any idea is a good idea may hinder creativity, so make sure your
goals are ambitious and specific enough. One way to get more of actually creative ideas
from your audience is to set constraints.

If your general goal was to reduce costs, it’s likely that people would suggest ideas such as
spending less on office equipment or buying cheaper coffee. However, the ideas you’ll get
will be a lot different if you’d ask: “What could we do to save 70% on costs?”.

Without constraints, people typically come up with small suggestions for improvement
with little or no creativity. But when describing the challenge in more detail and setting
more ambitious goals, people really need to use their imagination to achieve a desired
outcome.

What is ideation?

Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating ideas. We

can divide ideation in these three stages: generation, selection, and development.
Ideation starts with idea generation, but the process itself has already started earlier, when
you identified and defined the problem or opportunity. To facilitate the communication of
ideas you can have various activities such as brainstorming sessions or idea challenges.

Unfortunately, for some, this is where ideation stops, and bottlenecks are created. In fact,
ideation shouldn’t stop once you come up with ideas. They also have to be evaluated,
refined, selected and developed. After all, what is an idea worth unless you can implement
it and make it work?
The important thing to remember is that both innovation and ideation should be present in the
everyday work of your employees. You can see results when you persist and commit to these
practices, but ideation alone won’t solve everything. Instead, you should make idea
management a continuous practice and, on the way, use ideation to boost your results.

Why is ideation important?

Ideas fuel innovation, they help improve products or services, they can drive new business
and help you move forward.
Ideation is useful to solve a wider variety of problems and uncover opportunities that impact
the entire organization. We should look at ideation as more than a “suggestion box” and
integrate it into an organization-wide plan.
But let’s narrow it down, and look at some very specific benefits of ideation:

 It can increase your innovation opportunities

Ideas are good when they have potential to turn into something that brings value for the
organization and the customer. The good thing about ideation is that you can generate tons of
ideas and when you have more, it means that you increase your chances of having more of
the good ones.
As they say, the best way to get to the good ideas, is to have many ideas to choose from.
Inevitably, you will have plenty of bad ones, but if you organize your ideation process to
include evaluation and refining, you can sift through those with higher potential for
innovative outcomes, and even if those would fail, you’ll still have a better idea of the
challenges that are top-of-mind within your organization.

 Ideation can bring together different perspectives and ways of thinking

The purpose of your ideation and the expected outcome will influence the type of ideators
you’ll bring together. Through a more nuanced ideation process you give people the
opportunity to exchange ideas in a transparent manner and build on each other’s ideas
through feedback and evaluation.
When working on a specific problem, trying to come up with solutions or new ways of
approaching an issue, we sometimes wear blinders. We think we can objectively look at the
presented issue from all angles, but our knowledge or biases might prevent us from seeing
things differently.
That’s why when we bring together diversity in terms of experiences and knowledge, we can
look through a fresh lens and take advantage of new ways of thinking. Diversity in thought
and knowledge can also reveal new areas of exploration, which takes us to the next benefit on
the list.

 Develop and refine those into better ones

An ideation process that has been planned and prepared in advance to solve a specific
challenge or to aim for a certain goal will help you challenge existing ideas and make it easier
to select the most promising ones.
Most good ideas will be quite complex and will need some close consideration to become
better, before being passed to the next stage. And this is linked to the next point on our list.

 Helps you prioritize ideas and pick the most promising ones
A well-planned ideation process will help you prioritize these ideas and choose those that
have the highest potential for implementation.
Evaluating ideas and choosing which ones to take further can become complicated, especially
if you are dealing with more complex ideas. So, it’s important to find consistent criteria to
evaluate and prioritize ideas.

 Encourage an open, innovative culture

Ideation is not just about the ideas. It’s also about the culture it nurtures in your
organization. When people are encouraged to participate and speak their mind in a
transparent manner, they will feel more connected to the cause, and will have a sense of
belonging because they can actively contribute to the bottom line and their own ways of
working.

Tools and techniques for ideation

Ideation is meant to find solutions, ideas, opportunities, all with the goal of bringing more
innovation to the organization. However, there are many obstacles that can stay in the way of
innovation and badly managed ideation can be one of them.
To prevent ideation from becoming a blocker in itself, you need to remove any unnecessary
barriers from the process. For example, enable people to contribute with ideas whenever
they feel inspired.
Most of us have that Eureka moment in the least expected moments and places. Even more, if
you constrain your ideation process to a workshop or session, not only are more introverted
people less likely to participate, but you also risk watering down good ideas into the average
of the group and end up with a lukewarm compromise.
Ideation doesn’t have to be tied to an event or a space to occur and there are many tools and
techniques that can help you create a better ideation process. Naturally, some small projects
will benefit from a more focused activity like a brainstorming session.
We’ve made a list of tools and techniques you can use according to the ideation needs:

1. Generation and communication

Brainstorming is the most popular method when mentioning ideation, but as it turns out, it
can actually lead to less ideas.
Instead of jumping straight to brainstorming when you want to get more ideas around a
specific topic, you should also look into other methods.

 Idea challenge

An idea challenge is a focused ideation method for finding creative solutions to specific
problems, opportunities, or areas of improvement. In short, you decide on a question you
want to address with a specific audience.
This topic is quite extensive and that’s why we also created a comprehensive toolkit for idea
challenges.
In the initial stage of ideation, you focus your idea challenge on the problem, by first
discovering and defining it and then you continue with the solutions stage. Idea challenges
are a great way of gathering the entire organization around a strategic goal and get everyone’s
creative input to find solutions to specific matters.
if you believe your challenge needs the input of only a handful of professionals, like a small
team that knows the topic very well, this might not be the best option for this situation. But
there are many other idea generation tools you can choose from.

 Brainstorm cards

The brainstorm cards are a tool developed by Board of Innovation. Used more like a game,
the cards have 52 triggers to help you consider external factors such as societal trends, new
technologies and regulations in your business.
A simple, fun way of coming up with ideas, best used in a brainstorming session where you
can develop plenty of creative ideas. Make sure you give everyone some time alone to be
creative before you bring them together to discuss and develop their ideas.

2. Evaluation and selection

This is a crucial part if you really want to identify the ideas that are most likely to help you
get you to your goals.
So, when you want to evaluate ideas, you should first consider that different types of ideas
should be evaluated differently. An idea related to incremental improvements will be
evaluated in a different, much more lightweight manner than a new idea for a business
(disruptive ideas).
  The impact-effort matrix

Making the distinction between the types of ideas will guide your choices in the process, as
well as the evaluation criteria.
For example, if you have to choose from different incremental improvement ideas, evaluate
how well they fit with the current priorities, what is their business potential and what is the
effort required for implementation.
This is mostly known as the impact-effort evaluation. You can use the impact-effort
matrix to identify ideas that seem to be easier to implement while providing the most
favourable impact for your organization.

In the image above you can see the four quadrants. The first two are those that should be
implemented first. In short, the lower the implementation effort and the higher the impact, the
better.
This matrix can help you start your prioritization work and gives you the framework to make
informed decisions. However, you should still treat ideas individually and consider that not
all ideas can be prioritized using the same model.

 Idea management tool

You have your methods of choosing which ideas to pursue, but how to manage all the
information? The easiest, most transparent way to go about this, is to use an idea
management tool. While there are other options out there, we believe Viima is still the best
tool for the job. With Viima you can stay organized and automate many of the manual tasks,
like calculating evaluation scores, comparing results, and transparency for all those involved
in the process.

 The stage-gate process

The stage-gate process, also called the phase-gate process, is probably the most well-known
process for selecting your ideas as it helps you reduce uncertainty. You can create a roadmap
that helps you organize your process into smaller, manageable stages. It works best if you
have an agreed set of standards as it can add clarity to processes that are a bit ambiguous.
The basic principle here is that you will always have more ideas than resources available.

This model helps you ensure consistency among your ideas and eliminate those that are bad,
or too similar. Keep in mind that this works best in environments with highly predictable
demand where you’re trying to address mostly technical challenges. If you are after the
disruptive-type ideas, the stage-gate process is usually not the best solution.

3. Refine and Develop

 Storyboarding
Another option that works for face-to-face sessions is storyboarding. This is a tool that can
help you explore existing ideas in a visual manner so you can have a better understanding of
the connections between some of them.
You don’t need to draw a story per se, but rather just write down a sequence of events
starting with your ideas. You can use this as research to gain more insights into those ideas
that make more sense to consider for development.

 Analogy thinking

Analogy thinking can help you put the pieces together. This tool is used to refine and develop
ideas because you can take already existing information from one source and apply them to
your problem.
You start with a simple analogy thinking canvas, on one side you add your researched
companies and on the other, after you’ve brainstormed both individually and as a group, you
add the ideas that were inspired by those successful businesses. The seven simple steps of this
exercise are explained on Board of Innovation.

 Opposite thinking

Opposite thinking can be a little bit more complicated than the analogy thinking, but it’s a
great way to give you a more structured approach on how to get to those out of the box ideas.
The purpose is to make you question your long-held assumptions.
With this tool you can challenge your own thinking and broaden your horizons and find new,
unexpected ways to develop a solution. For example, you start by listing your assumptions
and then you come up with a negative statement that contradicts the assumption. This can be
used even outside of your ideation process, as a method to change perspectives and see
problems from different angles.

Key challenges for ideation

Challenges can arise in any area of the ideation process. You can choose the best idea and
develop it, but the delivery can still fail.

 “Functional fixedness”
Functional fixedness is a term generally describing the inability to realize that something with
a specific function can be used with different functions as well. This kind of cognitive bias
can affect our ability to think creatively and come up with new ideas.
To overcome this in the context of ideation, try asking questions like “why not” or “what
if”. A great example of this is how Van Philips thought “why should prosthetic limbs look
like human ones?”. This led him to create the C shaped blades for amputees. Observing
animals and the mechanics of diving boards and pole vaulting, he didn’t focus on the bone
structure, but on ligaments and tendons, and how they can be replicated.
An important element that might have contributed to Van Philips’ success is that he looked
for solutions to a problem that affected him too, having lost a leg in an accident. He was not a
professional in the field, a doctor, or a surgeon so he had no previous experience that would
block his creativity. And this takes us to our next point.

 “Déformation professionnelle”

This term borrowed from French is another cognitive bias that shows how expertise is not
always a recipe for success. Just like in our previous example, sometimes those who come
with the best ideas, aren’t necessarily experts in the field they innovate.
That’s why it’s very important to bring the right people in your ideation process. And by
“right” we don’t mean the best, most experienced in the field, but diverse people, who have
different backgrounds, skills, and knowledge. For this, you need an open mind and to set
aside the “this is how we do things here” thinking.

 It can be chaotic

Ideation is often associated with the group sessions, the post-its on the walls and the fun-
looking events. While these can have their time and place, the outcome of such activities can
be chaotic and messy, and a lot of good ideas are often lost in the process. Even if the activity
is guided, ideas are written down and passed on, this workflow is still very limiting. If you
want to maximize the chances to succeed with ideation, it’s best to use an ideation tool alone,
or in combination with these methods.
With an ideation tool you can transparently share ideas, gather feedback, refine, evaluate, and
further develop them. Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, an ideation tool can
dramatically increase knowledge sharing and allow people to keep on building on top of the
existing one.

Key success factors for ideation

If you want to succeed with ideation, remember that it’s not just about having ideas, and
collecting them in a drawer for later use. You’ll always have ideas that need to wait their
turn, but if you create a well structured plan and gather them in the context of a project,
chances are it will be easier to take them to completion.
And now that we’ve seen some of the major challenges of ideation, let’s see what you can do
differently to increase your odds of success.

 Align ideation with strategic goals

It’s essential to set a quantifiable goal for your ideation. The goal you choose should be easy
to reach, but also ambitious enough.
Is this goal pursuing a long-term agenda or is it a one-time thing? How will ideas move
forwards, who’s in charge and so on. This step will also give some clarity on the problem or
opportunity you’re working to solve. A detailed plan that fits the strategic goals of the
organization will make things easier along the way.

 Structured and methodical approach

Building an innovation culture is a much more complex topic, but it’s something you need
to strive towards. Train your mind, and your employees to think of ideation as a regular
everyday activity, not something that happens at bi-annual off-sites.
Sometimes it’s perfectly fine to have one-time activities, but the structure and methodical
aspects are still essential. You have to figure out how to turn raw ideas that are always
bubbling on the surface, into something that can actually create value. For this, it’s important
to allocate resources in advance and have a safety net prepared for implementing these ideas.

 Ask the right questions

If you want to get the most of your ideation efforts, you should first get down to the core of
the problem and break it into smaller, fundamental truths. This first principle thinking helps
bringing focus and frames the problem better. Some of these questions are:
  What do we certainly know to be true?

 What is universally thought to be true but isn’t?

 What could be possible but currently is not for some reason?

 Has someone else solved a similar problem?

These will also help you question your assumptions and change perspective.
Furthermore, don’t be afraid to set the bar high. Instead of asking how we can make it 10%
better, ask how to make it 10x better.
To ensure that everyone knows how to ask the right questions, train everyone in the
organization to become a facilitator and to encourage this approach.

 Get the right people

For this, you need to consider relevance, size and reachability.

These three elements are pretty straightforward, and you should find the right balance
between them. You will first need experts to help you narrow it down, find the right focus
and then work on it. However, if you have a less concrete topic that concerns many people in
the organization, like how to reduce waste in the office, then you can reach a wider audience.
The idea is that the right people will depend on your goals and requirements and all these
three factors will vary accordingly.

 Express and test assumptions behind the ideas

Even though you’ll probably focus mostly on collecting and evaluating the ideas, it doesn’t
mean you can’t go wrong with your assumptions. You’ll never eliminate uncertainty
completely, but to minimize it you should always test assumptions in the real world.
What’s more, you could end up with really bad ideas, even when the underlying problem they
address is really important. Thus, you can get more value in articulating the problem, than in
the ideas themselves. That’s why it’s essential to make it a habit for everyone involved in
ideation to explicitly express the assumptions behind their idea.

 Love the problem, not the idea

Drawing from the famous quote “learn to fall in love with the problem, not the solution” we
can extend the same thinking to ideas. Falling in love with the problem, in this case is more
about getting to the bottom of your problem because that’s how you can get the ideas that can
bring value. And until you test those ideas, you won’t know if you are wrong or not. Commit
to the problem, and ideas will follow.

 Remove barriers

Make it easy to share information, provide feedback and allow everyone to build on top of
others’ ideas in a transparent manner. This can be achieved with the right processes and tools.
However, along the way you will encounter other barriers that need your attention, such as
bureaucracy and the lack of processes and tools. This takes us to the next point on the list.

 Use an ideation tool

There are plenty of idea management tools out there, some more useful than others. It’s up
to you to choose what suits your needs. It’s crucial to have an effective process for managing
ideas, not just for collecting them. The process will look different for each organization.
We’re obviously biased, but using Viima to set the process is a great way to get started. It’s
completely free and it gets you going in just a few minutes.

Conclusion

Even though ideation might sometimes get a bad reputation, the problem is usually not with
ideation, but with the lack of systematic processes to get from vague ideas to implemented
solutions that serve the organization’s overall goals.
The point is to not get discouraged if you don’t see the results right away. Ideation has its
limitations, but it’s a key part in the journey of innovation. Just make sure it doesn’t stop
once you’ve captured the ideas.