MODULE 2

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. Discuss how to come up with innovative ideas that are uniquely position
to create and bring to market;

2. Identify strategies for managing in the creation and implementation of

innovative ideas; and

3. Assessing, navigating and practice the ideas to discover new strategies

to establish and grow innovation in a corporate setting.
Generating New Ideas, Design
Thinking, Market Testing and
Experimenting
“Creative thinking
inspires ideas. Ideas
inspire change”

Barbara Januszkiewicz
Generating Ideas

is “the process of creating, developing, and

communicating ideas which are abstract, concrete or
visual.” As the first stage in the idea management
funnel, idea generation simply focuses on identifying
solutions for a problem.
 The Problem
 Target Audience
 Culture
 Stakeholders and team
members
 Constraints
Popular Methods and Techniques for
Generating Ideas

Brainstorming is a useful tool

for coming up with dozens of
new ideas related to whatever
challenge or problem you are
currently working with.
Brainstorming can help you
consider external factors such
as: societal trends, new
technologies, and regulation in
the context of your business.
Popular Methods and Techniques for
Generating Ideas

Mind mapping is a visual framework

representing tasks, concepts or items
linked to a central concept. The main
benefit of this technique is to help
organize and categorize ideas faster so
you can more quickly identify
relationships between concepts.
Popular Methods and Techniques for
Generating Ideas

SCAMPER technique focuses

on understanding the
problem. Developed by Bob
Eberie, the acronym stands
for (S) substitute, (C)
combine, (A) adapt, (M)
modify, (P) put to another
use, (E) eliminate and (R)
reverse. This technique
works by using each of the
seven prompts to ask
questions about existing
products with the goal of
improving upon them or
innovating new solutions.
Design Thinking

is a process for solving problems by prioritizing

the consumer’s needs above all else. It relies on
observing, with empathy,
how people interact with their environments, and
employs an iterative, hands-on approach to
creating innovative solutions.
Steps in Design Thinking process

1. EMPATHY

In this first stage, the designer observes consumers to gain a deeper

understanding of how they interact with or are affected by a product or
issue. The observations must happen with empathy, which means
withholding judgment and not imparting preconceived notions of what
the consumer needs. Observing with empathy is powerful because it
can uncover issues the consumer didn’t even know they had or that
they could not themselves verbalize. From this point, it’s easier to
understand the human need for which you are designing.
Steps in Design Thinking process

Typical activities:

Observations: You’ll go where your users go and

see what they care about.

Qualitative Interviews: You’ll hold one-on-one

interviews with a handful of your users to
understand their attitudes on the topic you are
exploring. Asking someone to tell a story about
the last time they experienced the problem
you’re investigating provides a rich description
that highlights details you might not have
otherwise considered.
Steps in Design Thinking process

2. DEFINE
In this second stage, you gather your observations from the first stage
to define the problem you’re trying to solve. Think about the difficulties
your consumers are brushing up against, what they repeatedly struggle
with, and what you’ve gleaned from how they’re affected by the issue.
Once you synthesize your findings, you are able to define the problem
they face.

Typical Activities

Clustering and Themes: There are a lot of different ways to go about

the Define phase, but it’s safe to say you’ll need a wall of sticky notes;
these will be filled with the quotes, observations, and ideas you heard
throughout your research. Group and cluster ideas together until you
find the prevailing or most prominent themes.
Steps in Design Thinking process

3. IDEATE
The next step is to brainstorm ideas about how to solve the problem you’ve
identified. These ideation sessions could be in a group, where your team
gathers in an office space that encourages creativity and collaboration, an
innovation lab, or can be done solo. The important part is to generate a
bunch of different ideas. At the end of this process, you’ll come up with a few
ideas with which to move forward.

The ideation phase is usually a very creative and freeing phase for a team
because they have permission to think of out-of-the-box ideas
Steps in Design Thinking process

4. PROTOTYPE
This is the stage that turns ideas into an actual solution. Prototypes are not
meant to be perfect. The point of a prototype is to come out quickly with a
concrete version of the idea to see how it is accepted by consumers.
Examples of prototypes include a landing page to test consumer desire for a
product or a video that demonstrates streamlined logistic processes.

Through trial and error, your team identifies which of the possible
solutions can best solve the identified problem(s). This typically will
include scaled-down versions of the products or systems in question so you
can present and get feedback from the people they are intended to serve.
Steps in Design Thinking process

5. TEST
Once you give a prototyped solution to consumers, you must observe how
they interact with it. This testing stage is the one in which you collect
feedback on your work.

Testing is essential because everything should ultimately be about the

people who will use your products. Now’s the time to revisit the problem
statement and make sure the end solution is meeting those needs and
resolving frustrations.

You want to see what real people think about your idea. This stage allows for
all details to be flushed out and refined to create the best solution possible.
Testing and Experimenting in Market

As an entrepreneur, coming up with new ideas and executing them is a matter of

course. Creating new, innovative ideas and ways to improve is essential for
stimulating success within a company. Having or lacking success is not only beneficial
or negative for the organisation itself, but could also have far-reaching positive or
negative consequences for society.

After idea generation and/or problem identification:

 Find one idea/problem to focus on

 Make Hypothesis
 Collect data
 Select your metrics
 Execute the experiment
 Analyze the results
Forms Tests and Experiments:

1. A/B TESTS
A/B testing is a testing method that is also based on a hypothesis. This
experiment often makes use of two configurations of a certain set-up, such
as a website. The old situation is compared to the situation after the
experiment. The terms “control group” and “treatment group” are also used.

2. PROTOTYPE TESTS
Another form of business experiment is developing a prototype. In the case
of a prototype, a certain hypothesis about a product or service is tested by
actually developing it. Based on the results after analysis of the prototype, it
is then decided whether or not to continue developing the end product.
Forms Tests and Experiments:

3. CONCEPT TESTS
Concept testing is essentially a marketing experiment in which input from
the potential customer is used in early phases of the design of a product or
prototype. An important aspect in concept testing is gathering customer
feedback through interviews, focus groups, or market research.

4. MOCK-UP
Mock-ups are used in production and design units within a company, and are
often scale or full-size models of a design or device. The mock-up is used for
promotion, design evaluation, knowledge transfer, and other ends. A mock-
up can be seen as a prototype in which at least part of the original design is
functional. Mock-ups are mainly used to gather feedback from users.
Forms Tests and Experiments:

5. THOUGHT
EXPERIMENT
In a thought experiment, the consequences and effects of a certain
hypothesis, procedure, or idea are evaluated. Thought experiments are
developed in order to research ideas that don’t require physical experiments.
Concrete thought experiments can be carried out using logic and arguments.

6. PILOTS
A pilot, also known as feasibility study or experimental test, is a relatively
small-scale experiment that tests whether a large project could also work
well in practice. It provides organisations with a platform for testing certain
projects, proving their worth, and uncovering shortcomings. It’s important
that this be done in advance, before a considerable amount of money,
energy, and time is spent on a large project.