Ind. 2.04 - Generate venture/product ideas to contribute to ongoing business success. SMALL BUSINESS

Why learn about techniques for idea generation? Someone somewhere at sometime came up with the idea for every item that you see around So that you can invent the next great product!! Product ideas come from different places Existing products made better Brand new products

DISCUSSION What is a product you wish you had invented? In what situation do think it was invented?

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Make an educated guess as to what the word “IDEATION” means…………

Ideation… The process of generating and developing new ideas One of the primary purposes in business is to generate ideas for new goods and services

Businesses need product ideas because… Markets change constantly They need to stay ahead of the competition Product life cycles are becoming shorter

Where do business look for inspiration for need products? Trends – the general direction in which people or events are moving (i.e. fashion, TV, music, etc.) By studying trends, business get a sense of what customers need Examples: What is needed in the health and fitness trend? In the increasing number of “Baby Boomers”?

Where do business look for inspiration for need products? (cont.) Customers Observe and notice when problems exist of people seem to have an unfulfilled need Talk with them – i.e. surveys, focus groups, satisfaction cards, one-on-one conversations Talk to the people who deal with the customers – i.e. salespeople

Where do business look for inspiration for need products? (cont.) Existing Products Find the limitations and make them better Look to develop complimentary products (they “go with” another product) Look to develop substitute products (takes the place of another product) i.e. Blu-Ray to replace DVD and digital books to replace paperback books

Methods of creative thinking used to generate new product ideas Lateral thinking methods – involve approaching an issue from new illogical directions and using illogical methods to develop new ideas Programmed thinking methods – Organized, logical, and analytical thinking techniques

Lateral Thinking Method - Brainstorming Primary goals is to identify as many ideas as possible Relay– teams responding to teammates ideas in a certain order Round Robin – no teams, participants respond in order Brain drawing – members add to drawings to try to develop a product Free Association – state the first thing that comes to mind Forced Questioning – used to answer a specific question

Lateral Thinking Method - Brainstorming Primary goals is to identify as many ideas as possible Synectics – making connections through forced relations (two items that seem unrelated to find new practical combinations). More time consuming than brainstorming but it good when other creative methods have failed Forced Analogies – using metaphors and similes to create connections where none exist (i.e. waiting on the bus on a cold day, think of other times you wait, like a doctors office to help you come up with a solution

Lateral Thinking Method - Brainstorming Primary goals is to identify as many ideas as possible Starbursting Draw a 6 pointed star and write the product opportunity in the middle Write the following words at the tip of the star – who, what, why, when, where, and how? Answer each question based on the recognized product opportunity

Lateral Thinking Method - Brainstorming Primary goals is to identify as many ideas as possible Mind Mapping In the center of the paper write the main problem, which the market opportunity that you identified From the starting point, draw a line to other words and phrases that are related to the main idea From each of these words, draw other lines that relate to the particular word and so on This helps to expand thinking and get lots of different ideas down on paper

Programmed Thinking Techniques Attribute listing – List the products characteristics that make it unique from other goods then find ways to improve those attributes Morphological Analysis – List a products characteristics then combine some or all of those to create a new product

Making it pay! New product ideas are essential for long term business success No two business use the exact same method to develop products!