Ideation is a critical process in any business or organisation, be it B2B, government, B2C, war strategies and tactics, or P2P. It is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas. This process involves several stages from innovation to actualisation.
10 Rapid Ideation Strategies That Work
Here are ten rapid ideation strategies that work effectively across various sectors:
1. **Brainstorming**: This is a classic ideation strategy that involves gathering a group of people to generate as many ideas as possible within a set time frame. The key to successful brainstorming is to encourage free thinking and discourage criticism of any idea.
2. **Mind Mapping**: This strategy involves creating a visual representation of your thoughts around a central idea. It allows you to explore various aspects of an idea and how they connect.
3. **SWOT Analysis**: This involves identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to a business or project. It helps in generating strategic ideas for improvement and growth.
4. **SCAMPER Method**: This stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse. It’s an excellent tool for transforming existing products or services into new ones.
5. **Role Play**: This strategy involves stepping into the shoes of different stakeholders (like customers or competitors) to generate ideas from their perspective.
6. **The Five Whys**: This technique involves asking ‘why’ five times to get to the root cause of a problem and generate solutions.
7. **Storyboarding**: This visual technique allows you to illustrate your idea’s journey from start to finish, helping you identify potential challenges and solutions along the way.
8. **Worst Possible Idea**: In this method, you intentionally think of the worst possible ideas related to your problem or challenge. The aim is to stimulate creativity by thinking about what you should avoid doing.
9. **Starbursting**: This focuses on creating as many questions as possible about an idea or problem. The more questions, the more potential avenues for exploration.
10. **Challenge Assumptions**: This strategy involves questioning every assumption you have about your problem or challenge to generate fresh perspectives.
Case Studies in Ideation Innovation
Let’s look at some case studies:
**B2B Innovations**: IBM uses the ‘Jam’ ideation strategy, a form of brainstorming where thousands of employees participate in an online discussion to generate new ideas.
**Government Innovations**: The UK government uses the ‘Policy Lab’ approach, which involves using design principles and methods to generate policy ideas.
**B2C Innovations**: Procter & Gamble uses ‘Connect + Develop’, a strategy that involves collaborating with external partners to generate innovative product ideas.
**War Strategies and Tactics Innovations**: The U.S. military uses war games and simulations to generate and test new strategies and tactics.
**P2P Innovations**: Airbnb used ideation strategies like brainstorming and assumption challenging to transform the traditional accommodation industry.
Implementing Ideation Strategies Step-by-Step
To implement these ideation strategies, follow these steps:
1. Define your problem or challenge clearly.
2. Choose an appropriate ideation strategy.
3. Gather a diverse group of people for the ideation session.
4. Facilitate the session effectively, encouraging free thinking and discouraging criticism.
5. Capture all ideas generated during the session.
6. Evaluate and refine the ideas after the session.
Demonstrate Ideas that Transform Your Thinking
To demonstrate these strategies visually, imagine a mind map for mind mapping, a grid for SWOT analysis, a flowchart for the Five Whys, or a comic strip for storyboarding. These simple sketches can help you understand and communicate these strategies more effectively.
Remember, ideation is not about finding the perfect solution immediately; it’s about generating as many ideas as possible and refining them into effective solutions. So don’t be afraid to think big and think creatively. Happy ideating!
