Idea Generation – Definition
Idea generation is defined as the process of creating new ideas. It is the creative process that involves brainstorming activities to generate or develop new ideas that solve the problem in the market.
An idea is generated to serve the purpose of an individual or organization management that tackles the problem and derives an absolute solution.
The idea is the key factor that leads to innovation. A startup company always aspires to enter a new market with disruptive innovation. Idea generation facilitates them with tools and techniques to develop a new product. This makes them stand off the crowd by designing a sustainable business model.
Idea generation is all about thinking outside the box. It gives valuable insights to the entrepreneurs and management team to systematically counter the threats and challenges that come along the way while growing their business.
Importance of Idea Generation
Business Strategy: We all know that Idea generation leads to innovation. In many aspects of operating the business like marketing, advertising, and branding, the unique idea helps in devising the business strategies for the company’s growth.
Problem-solving: It is obvious to say that the management will encounter a problem at the different stages of product development. With an innovation funnel, the team will check the viability of different ideas to handle such problem and structure it with an appropriate solution.
Direction to the Future: The decision that you’ll make today determines the performance of your business for the next 5 to 10 years. Therefore the business owners need to adopt innovative ideas and techniques that guide them to make the right decision. Thus, it directs a successful path towards the future.
Increases Efficiency: Idea generation increases the operational efficiency in an organization. In the entire product development process, various departments and different levels of employees are involved.
Getting inputs from all the employees and evaluating their ideas are crucial for every head of the department. So that it helps in choosing the best solution with the minimum usage of resources, which increases the efficiency and cuts down the extra cost.
Unique Insights: Innovative idea, eliminates the old traditional method that might have cause failure. It avoids repetition and narrows down the thoughts and inputs to find a new possible solution. This creates a unique way to find an opportunity to grow your business which no one had tried earlier.
Idea Generation Techniques
The 5W+H Method
5W – What, Where, When, Who, and Why
H – How
This is a simple and well-known method. But it is important in idea generation because the idea emanates by answering these six questions. These parameters check whether the idea is feasible to solve the problem in reality. If you think that all these questions together are satisfied, then the idea would be the best solution.
Social Listing
Social Listing is the method of getting a public opinion to generate ideas that fix the problem.
If the thoughts and ideas are handled with a fewer number of persons, it might not work to find a suitable solution. Rather it must be an inclusive one. Since you are developing a product for a huge market, getting opinions from the customers who will use your product or service is quite important.
Using the social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to conduct polling and surveys fills the communication gap and helps to create a product-market-fit.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming idea is the most familiar method in the world of business which no entrepreneur can ignore it in the phase of idea generation, especially for the startups.
Brainstorming is a technique that involves a single person or 5 to 10 people to give different suggestions on a specific topic. The ideas might be right or wrong, but that doesn’t matter initially. Even blending one or more ideas could solve the problem. At the end of the brainstorming session the listed ideas are aligned, sorted, and filtered to determine the potential solution that makes the business to huge returns.
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is the famous idea generation technique that represents the thoughts and ideas in the pictorial form. It depicts the central idea and flows with multiple strings around it. It allows using contrasting colours, images, shapes, and sketches that highlight the remarkable points for better understanding.
Sometimes, the management of the company finds it hard to note the whole stuff related to the idea in the written format. Therefore mind mapping technique helps them to simply the critical aspects of the idea generation process.
Reader’s Insight
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