Stefania Passera

Systematic Ideationworkshop

How many ideation techniques do you know? How have you used them in the past?

Do you know what works best for you?

Know yourself

Learn the techniques!It is ok to get stuck in ideation…

BUT NOT if you get stuck because you haven’t tried ideating with different methods!

Invest in your ideation skills!

… and many more! It is not difficult to find resources nowadays

ABC of systematic ideation

RULE 0: Keep all your ideas documented!

Postpone criticism Ideate the problem BEFORE ideating the solution Quantity is quality Categorize ideas Give yoursellf to the process Mix convergent and divergent thinking Select ideas

Postpone criticism

1. Get rid of ”typical” ideas as soon as possible

2. To get a good idea you have to first put on the table the bad ones

3. You need to ”warm-up” your ideation muscle

4. It’s ok to have bad ideas, as germs of good ideas might be hiding behind them: a bad idea might trigger a mental association that leads to a good one

Postpone criticism

THE WORST IDEA -TECHNIQUE

- Come up with the worst possible ideas to solve your problem- Come up with as many bad ideas as possible!- Always write them down: one idea per post-it

- ALTERNATIVE: You can frame your question in the opposite way:

E.G. ” How can I boost sales?” -> ” How can I make sales drop”

Now, can you find something of value in your bad ideas? How could you reverse these bad ideas so that they would be good ideas instead?

Ideate the problemBEFORE ideating the solution

1. Find your framing of the problem, give it your personal spin

2. Find what are the critical variables of your problem space: what is the scenario you are dealing with? What are the elements of the table? How can you tinker with them?

3. Find the elements of your problem that allow for unconventional solutions

4. Do not think of your problem only in its most general form

5. Finding conventions also help you to understand 1) how the problem is framed in the ”usual” way 2) how you can frame it in a novel way

Ideate the problemBEFORE ideating the solution

REFRAME YOUR QUESTION

Change the key parameters of your question in order to get new answers

E.g. “How do (we) (sell) more (insurance) to (Catholics)?”

Can become

1) How do we get friends of Catholics to be incentivized to sell life insurance to Catholic grandparents?

2) How do we get Catholic Knight Board Members to license the selling of life insurance to Catholic schools. 3) How do we get policy holders to be rewarded for the selling

more life insurance at (or to) the Vatican?

Quantity is quality

1. Increase the odds of finding a good idea

2. You need quantity to discover ”idea categories”, ideas that belong together (e.g. variants of basically the same idea, solutions that solve the same problem)

3. Get used to entertain all sort of alternatives and possibilities. Learn not to panic if you don’t have it figured out yet. Don’t rush to closure, be open.

Quantity is quality

SILENT WRITESTORM- Set a time limit- Set a minimum amount of ideas to reach- Write one idea per post-it

BUILD ON OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS- Put all ideas in the middle of the table- Pick someone else idea- Build a new, different idea based on that idea

Categorize ideas

1. Knowing the different many ”families of solutions” you have helps you revealing the contours of ”the box”… that is the first step to think outside of the box!

2. It is easier to challenge conventions and assumptions in a certain domain when they are explicitly stated and made visible

3. Since you are aiming for quantity, categorizing ideas helps you managing them

Categorize ideas

MINDMAP / IDEA TREES

- Categorize your ideas creating a mindmap or an idea tree

- Add new ideas to the categories as they come

- Think of new categories that do not exist yet, and create ideas for those categories

Give yourself to the process

1. When we feel that we are reaching the limits of the ideas we can easily get, we need tricks to forget our usual thinking patterns and breaking the rules

2. We need a precise method that forces us to think in a certain way, and allows us to make random and free associations that we would not usually think of

Give yourself to the process 1

WHAT IF?Make a familiar problem strange by looking at it through the lens of an improbable analogy.

Example :”I want to be more creative” -> ”Being creative is like… a toaster”

Pick analogy terms that you are very familiar with, so you can come up wit more associations and metaphors, and find more similarities and connections.

E.g.Hockey -> The team that won the national championship last year

What if…we would be the [McDonald] of our industry?

What does ”being [McDonald]” means?

Fast… many choices, but not so customizable…

So, what does it mean for our case if we try to apply those ideas in our industry?

Give yourself to the process 1

Give yourself to the process 1

WHAT IF?

- Ask ”what [your ”business”] would be like…?” and pick a term of analogy to inspire your ideas

- Think of the images and associations you get from the word you picked, look for similarities, connections, think how your ide could work in that way

- Keep track of your ideas, write them down

Give yourself to the process 2

SCAMPER

SCAMPER forces you to do a certain “mental operation” and channel your thinking in one direction.

SCAMPER is a mnemonic for:

• SUBSTITUTE

• COMBINE

• ADAPT

• MODIFY

• PUT TO ANOTHER USE

• ELIMINATE

• REVERSE

Give yourself to the process 2

SCAMPER

- Think of what are the key ”building blocks” that make your ”business” what is it

- Ask SCAMPER questions to reshape and manipulate these typical aspects

- Keep track of the ideas by writing them down!

Mix convergent & divergent thinking

Working on depth

FocusingIncreasing detailPinpointingAnalyzing…

Working on breadth

Opening upExploring diversityFinding the boundaryGenerating…

And iterate between open/close to keep the process manageable!

Mix convergent & divergent thinking

THE LOTUS BLOSSOM

Alternative 4 to do A

Alternative 5 to do A

Alternative 6 to do A

6 3 7 6 3 7

Alternative 3 to do A

Alternative 7 to do A

2 4 2 4

Alternative 2 to do A

Alternative 1 to do A

Alternative 8 to do A

5 1 8 5 1 8

6 3 7 6 3 7

2 4 Ideato

explore

2 4

5 1 8 5 1 8

6 3 7 6 3 7 6 3 7

2 4 2 4 2 4

5 1 8 5 1 8 5 1 8

AspectA

AspectG

AspectB

AspectH

AspectF

AspectD

AspectC

AspectE

AspectA

Open up crucial aspects of an idea in a systematic way.

Create variety and details

“What are the constants or key dimensions in my challenge? If my subject were a book, what would be the chapter headings?”

Result:8 different ways to take care of the 8 most crucial aspect of an idea = 64 new, focused ideas

Mix convergent & divergent thinking

THE LOTUS BLOSSOM

- Write down the 8 key dimensions of your concept: what are the 8 key aspects that make your idea possible?- Ideate alternative solutions for taking care of each key aspect- Work in group, keep track of your ideas by writing them down

Select ideas

1. Ideation is iterative: after first rounds creating quantity, you need to choose your best potential ideas in order to either

1. Ideate them further in detail2. Try to prototype them

2. You need to set criteria in order to choose

Select ideas

FIRST SELECTION

Each of you vote 1 idea for each category:

• The best rational choice• The most likely to delight the users• The idea you simply love • The one you need to brainstorm more in detail before deciding• The long shot / the dark horse • The easiest/fastest/cheapest to prototype

(… Or according a set of criteria that make sense for your specific problem space)

Pick the idea in each category that got most votes

Select ideas

NUF TEST

Rate each concept/idea (from 1-10) on these three criteria: newness, usefulness, and feasibility

New: Has the idea been tried before? An idea will score higher if it is significantly different from approaches that have come before it.

Useful: Does the idea actually solve the problem?

Feasible: Can it be done? Ideas that require fewer resources and effort to be realized will score better.

Then select the highest scoring ideas for further development!

New Useful Feasible TOTAL

Idea 1 7 2 6 15

Idea 2 0 3 10 13

Idea 3 8 9 5 22

For tomorrow

Continue ideating, you should have at least 30+ opportunity ideas.In the end select a refined 1 concept for further development tomorrow

Tomorrow’s workshop is about how to test your idea.

What is ”idea”?What is ”concept”?

• CONCEPT = SOLUTION– E.g. Aalto Design Factory is the best co-working space to

mix students + business + faculty

• IDEA=ELEMENTS OF THE SOLUTION– E.g. In ADF you can wear woolen socks and chill on sofas– E.g. In ADF there are many little spaces for teamwork– E.g. In ADF there is a kitchen to socialize more– E.g. In ADF colors, shapes and materials stimulate

creativity

Stefania Passera

Extra ideation resources

1) Chain writestorming: write an idea and pass it to the person to your right. Everyone builds on the idea they received, then pass it on again

2) Pair brainstorming: instead of brainstorming with the whole group, you divide in pairs. You discuss and write down ideas together for some time. Then each pair presents to the group. New pairs are formed and the whole thing is repeated in rounds, until when everyone has paired up together at least once.

3) Drawstorming: instead of writing your idea, you draw it

Variations of usual brainstorming 1

4) Bound brainstorming: Each team member is allowed to think only from a certain perspective of about a specific problem. You can use these rules together with chain or pair brainstorming and see what comes out!

E.g.1. One thinks only of “decreasing”, another of “adding”, another of

“removing”, another of “increasing”…

2. One thinks only about “ideas related to customer experience” and another of “ideas related to cost savings”…Pick the “themes” relevant for your case.

3. Each person/pair thinks only from the perspective of one user group/ stakeholder relevant to your case.

Variations of usual brainstorming 2

Remove completely the pain points? Decrease the painin the pain points?

Add new benefits?

Increase benefits?

Ideating on the customer journey

But also “remove one step completely and add something new…”E.g. Omenahotelli: remove reception… so we can decrease priceE.g. Southwest: decrease land time… so we can increase number of flights

circus - theater Cirque du Soleil

=animals +

Ideating on the customer journey

Connecting the previously unconnected to create something new 1+1=3

Force yourself to see relationships between dissimilar things to generate new ideas.

Exploit the power of analogy and metaphor.

By pairing two things that have not much or nothing at all in common...and seeing what emerges.

Hybridization

emergency clinic

+ pharmacy MinuteClinic=

Hybridization

taxi + karaoke-bar Karaoke Taxi=

Hybridization