An Innovator’s Toolkit: AWEC’s Top 4 Tools For Generating New Ideas in Your Business
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Innovation may seem like a daunting concept. With an app for everything being produced every second, it's easy to believe there's no space for improvement. However, this is not true. Instead, each issue opens up to a new opportunity for improvement.
Have you ever considered the process of refining, revamping or updating things? Or have you asked yourself if there is a more efficient method of doing something? If you have, then you’re already on the road to innovating. Innovation is all about enhancements or finding ways to do something differently. On the other hand, your improvements are only as excellent as your ideas. While brilliant ideas provide fantastic solutions, mediocre ideas yield mediocre results. Is this to say that we should all emulate Steve Jobs and create an entirely new category? Not really; but we can certainly share some simple and effective ways on how to develop good ideas.
But first, how can we tell the difference between a good idea and just…an idea? Paul Taylor does a great job of summarising the anatomy (or features) of a good idea into four parts:
The cost of the problem you are trying to fix is understood (or at least estimated).
The cost of the solution needs to be less than the cost of the problem
There should be no easily available alternatives that are just good enough.
It’s not a one-shot; this one doesn’t always hold true, but generally, a great idea solves a problem that is repeatable i.e people need the solution more than once.
He continues by emphasizing that the most profound concepts are frequently the simplest. Therefore, while your proposal may be intricate in implementation, it should be straightforward in principle.
How, then, do you come up with an excellent idea? Exercises in design thinking are the secret sauce for developing novel ideas. They give a framework for resolving issues until other alternatives become apparent.
At AWEC, we use several design thinking techniques to unlock brilliance across our teams. Here are four of our favorites:
Brainwriting
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Brainwriting is a technique for idea generation in which participants write down their thoughts on a specific issue for a few minutes without speaking. Then, each individual passes their ideas to the next person, who utilizes them as a springboard for developing or refining their own.
This fast-paced tool ensures that even your most introverted team members are heard and no one person’s opinion weighs more than another’s. We love the collaborative results and use this tool often.
This technique can be done both in-person and through online whiteboards. We like Miro, but there are others like MURAL and Stormboard that you might prefer. Learn more about how to lead a brainwriting session and try it out with your team. Duration: Expect to spend 45 minutes, longer if your team is new to this and will need time to learn the exercise
Idea Napkin
Image credit: Miro
The Idea Napkin is an easy-to-use framework that allows participants of ideation sessions to enrich and enhance their ideas by applying a structured approach that allows for better assessment and comparison of ideas. While still an intense exercise, it is not as fast-paced as Brain Writing and allows for participants to think more deeply about a specific idea. At AWEC, we like to use this as a “phase 2” exercise, after we’ve brainstormed initial ideas and selected ones that we want to dive more deeply into.
The Idea Napkin can also be used offline and online through tools like Miro. Here’s how to use it:;
Title: Give your idea a catchy title that attracts attention.
Elevator pitch: Describe the essence of your idea - get people excited and to lure them into reading the full description of your idea.
Target group: Describe the audience or users that your idea addresses.
Problem: Write down the specific pain point that your idea solves.
Solution: Add more detail to your idea by describing what it is, how it works and where and when it can be used by your target group.
Benefits: Finish your Idea Napkin by noting down how you, your company or your clients will benefit from your solution.
The final step is to rate the idea based on importance, effort and impact. Your understanding of these three factors can help you and your team to prioritize which ideas to act on first. Duration: Plan to spend 45-60 minutes, depending on the natural pace of your team. Most of the time should be spent writing your individual Idea Napkins, while allocating each person to 5 minutes to present their idea at the end of the exercise.
The ‘Stop-Start-Continue’ Approach to Feedback
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The Stop, Start, Continue approach is a simple and useful framework that helps individuals overcome some of the challenges of both giving and receiving feedback.
To use this model, simply request or provide feedback in three sections:
Stop: Things that are less effective and should be stopped
Start: Things that your team is not currently doing but should start
Continue: Things that are good and should be continued
You can use this technique to run action-oriented meetings that encourage participants to come up with practical ideas for team-based improvements. Duration: As little as 15-20 minutes
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.
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The SCAMPER approach assists you in generating new product and service ideas by encouraging you to ask seven distinct questions. These questions will assist you in determining how to innovate and enhance existing goods, services, challenges, and ideas. SCAMPER is an acronym formed from the abbreviation: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate, Reverse.
It is one of the best ideation methods since it has a series of thought-sparkers or provocations which help you to innovate on an existing product, service, or situation by looking through different lenses. Once you learn how to run this exercise, you can be surprised at the sheer volume of unique ideas that will emerge from the session.
To sum this up: Good ideas don't just happen - they need to be encouraged and cultivated from all areas of your company or organization. Learning design thinking activities is a dependable, teachable, and repeatable way for you and your teammates to become an innovation powerhouse. It might be the missing piece in the puzzle that will transform your business forever.