What methods, tools, or processes do you use to develop new ideas or expand on existing ideas?
As someone that does a lot of new product development every year, I’m always interested and intrigued to hear what is working for another business owner. Additionally, is there anything in this area that leaves you feeling stumped or frustrated?
@Jef Lippiatt without question whatever I use has to be visual.
Have used a number of different methods and in some cases the good ole whiteboard is as good as anything!
Greg
The person with the idea is responsible for creating a presentation in some form. A document or whiteboard work fine. From there it's reviewed by the affected department heads, put out for all senior management to view and comment on, then we do a Managers meeting to hone it down to what will work best. It is again vetted by the department manager who will be responsible for inplementation, and is then put into action. It sounds laborious, but really only takes a week or two to get rolling.
Recently, expanding my knowledge on "Systems Thinking" has helped me understand problems better. After all, a new idea or product is an attempt to solve a problem.
I've noticed a trend of entrepreneurs trying to find a problem for their solution (ie cryptocurrency, AI), which seems to a hard way to come up with a new idea. Unfortunately, venture capitalists and investors have been driven towards these new solutions.
So interesting @Gregory Vekar . What steps did you use to expand your knowledge?
I agree with @Gregory Vekar that currently far too many businesses and entrepreneurs are inventing the problem and then presenting their solution. This is why many ideas, products, and services fail. The problem only exists in the mind of the creators.
Customers want real value. They will be for perceived value, but once bought if the actual value don’t match the perceived value, that customer will likely not return.
Would love to hear your thoughts/experiences @Keith Rowley , @Beau Ushay , @Bronwen Sciortino , @Chris J "The Only CEO with a Mohawk" Reed - 1,600 LinkedIn Recommendations , @Quentin Aisbett , @Lisa Creffield !
Jef Lippiatt, Owner at Startup Chucktown
@Greg Rogers - I definitely agree with the method using visuals. Most people learn in a variety of ways, but I found when trying to present something completely new, visuals help bridge the gap that just talking about can leave people thinking they are on the same page when they are not.