IDEATE: ThE BASICS

Now that we came up with our HMW question it is time to explore new possibilities and options to answer that question. Ideation is about coming up with lots and lots of ideas quickly. This is critical and often very challenging. To ideate you need to be fluent in sharing ideas and for some people, this is not always easy as it sounds. Fortunately, there are some rules to be followed and ideas will spark. Then, when you come up with a large number of ideas - time to select those to prototype.

Ideation is about diverging and letting your team go wide and wild. That means you have to quickly generate, develop, and test ideas. It is important to get comfortable with generating a big number of ideas, even ones that at first might seem crazy or ridiculous. Why? Some of the most brilliant ideas come when you fight the urge to stop on the first idea and embrace the discomfort that comes from exploring more. Divergent thinking invites you to play longer and go beyond your early ideas. Remember, the first ideas are memories and we want to go beyond that by creating connections and memories that previously were not there!

"Where do new ideas come from? The answer is simple: differences. While there are many theories of creativity, the only tenet they all share is that creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions. The best way to maximize differences is to mix ages, cultures, and disciplines."

- Nicholas Negorponte

There are two basic characteristics of ideation

Embrace a playful mindset even when the topic is serious. When teams are loud and laughing it is a high chance the ideation is getting well. When there is silence it means teams are judging themselves too much and this kills creativity. There are two basic characteristics of ideation

1. IDEATION IS MEANT TO BE A TEAM SPORT - to diverge with the style it helps to have diverse perspectives and put different experiences at work. Don't get attached to your ideas and don't attach a single person to a single idea.

2. DIVERGE A BIT LONGER - this is often critical and too often gets wrong. It is important to sta stay in the mindset and keep going. The "divergent muscles" must be trained and keep your urge to converge and stop the flow. It's not time for decision-making now!

The Why, When, How and Who?

After coming up with a lot of ideas and our wall or Mural is full of post-its, it is time to converge and make some decisions. Using your insights, judgment, and intuition you will choose the two to three early ideas to prototype. Keep in mind that every time you converge you will uncover new questions to explore and you can ideate further on those. How to make decisions? To start with, there are a few questions that can help you.

WHAT ARE IDEAS THAT…

(1) you love and are passionate about?

(2) resonate with your insights about people and their needs?

(3) are really risky, scary, or seem hard to impIement?

This last one is the most interesting one as most organizations are focused to race towards solutions. In this race one common mistake is they rule out ideas that are too edgy or too risky. But that does not result in the most innovative outcomes. So, be brave!

THE 4 STEPS THAT WILL HELP YOU CONVERGE

1. VOTE - give everyone 3-5 votes to vote for their favorite ideas.

2. CLUSTER - this can happen before or after voting. It is about looking for similarities between ideas and clustering them into common themes. Sometimes combining ideas together can make ideas stronger and see a bigger picture.

3. DISCUSS - summarize key ideas and discuss which ideas to prototype. Sharing why you like the idea will help the discussion flow.

4. DECIDE - Input from others is welcomed, but the final decision belongs to the core team or the team leader. Listen to others and then make a call - ensure you move forward. Don’t dismiss an idea just because it seems hard to implement. Through prototyping and iteration, it can turn into a viable solution.