SYSTEMATIC IDEATION Stefania Passera

Understand the problem Need finding Interpret findings Idea generation Building a prototype Test and improve Adapted from the book Design Thinking, Understand – Improve – Apply, Christoph Meinel, Larry Leier, Hasso Plattner

Know yourself How many ideation techniques do you know? Have you used them in the past? Do you know what works for you? Do you know what works for different types of problems?

Learn the methods! It’s ok to get stuck sometimes during ideation… but not if you got stuck because you did not try ideating through different methods Madness = doing the same thing and expecting a different output!

Good resources & references … and many more! It is not difficult to find resources nowadays. INVEST IN YOUR IDEATION SKILLS!

RULE 0: Keep all your ideas documented!  Postpone criticism  Quantity is quality  Categorize ideas  Give yoursellf to the process  Mix convergent & divergent thinking  Select ideas

Write them down: Title + description in a nutshell+ tiny sketch (eventually) Keep them visible for all the team: Post-its Make half slide per idea Make a postcard for each idea Mindmap … 0. Keep all your ideas documented!

1.The ”ideation muscle” needs warm-up! 1.To get a good idea you have to first put down on the table the banal and not-so-good ones, which are the first ones popping up in your head 2.Get rid of ”typical” ideas as soon as possible 3.It’s ok to have bad ideas, as there could be seeds of good ideas hiding inside them: a bad idea might trigger a mental association that leads to a good one 1. Postpone criticism

1.Good ideas do not come easy = you need to increase the odds of finding one! 2.You need quantity if you want to have a chance at discovering the ”idea categories” of your problem space = ideas that belong together (e.g. variants of basically the same idea, solutions that solve the same problem, solutions that follow the same approach, etc.) 3.You must get used to entertain all sort of alternatives and possibilities in your mind. 4.Learn to thrive in uncertainty. Do not to panic if you do not figure out things immediately. Don’t rush to closure, be open. 2. Quantity is quality

less more Concepts “Small Ideas” E-Garage Movable props Cool courses Team spaces 2. Quantity is quality How many ideas is “many ideas”? It depends on the level you are considering Trunk, branches, twigs, leafs…

Exercise Ideate a device to collect balls from a field. One idea per post-it As many different ideas as possible!! Ideas must be sketched, not written 2 minutes

To think outside of the box, you need to recognize the boundaries and every corner of that box The solutions within a problems space can always be categorized When you reach saturation of the initial categories, try to ideate new categories rather than ideate solutions, and only in a second moment try to think of solutions that belong into the new categories Innovation = challenging assumptions & conventions… Aim is still quantity = mixing solution ideation, categorization and ”category tweaking helps you to come up with more ideas, and more varied 3. Categorize ideas

3. Categorize ideas: how to? By persona/ User type (and their needs or activities) By need/specific problem solved By customer journey points (increase/invent good, decrease/eliminate bad, prevent or make something happen) By solution approach (e.g. ”Ideas based on Principle X; Ideas based on Technology Y”)

When we feel that we are reaching the limits of the ideas we can easily get simply by thinking hard about a topic, we need tricks to forget our usual thinking patterns and breaking the rules We need a precise method that forces us to think in a certain way, and allows us to make random and free associations that we would not usually think of 4. Give yourself to the process

DIVERGING Working on breadth, scope Opening up Exploring diversity Finding the ”box boundary” Generating 5. Alternate between divergent and convergent thinking CONVERGING Working on depth Focusing Increasing detail Pinpointing Analyzing

5. Alternate between divergent and convergent thinking Concepts Categories General ideas General principles Opportunity ideas Within category Embodiement Practical solutions Outlines Experimentable ideas Details Parts of system Mechanisms Implementation Execution ideas Iterate continuously, have many ideation rounds and when good ideas start popping up, start selecting them for further development and further fine-grain ideation

Ideation is iterative: after initial rounds creating quantity and variety of ideas, you need to choose your potentially best ones in order to either: 1.Ideate them further in detail 2.Try to prototype them You need to set criteria in order to make your choices If you do not select ideas: You will have troubles in increasing the overall idea quality It leads to redundancy It leads to confusion & overload, stealing space from new ideas It makes category-building more complex 6. Select ideas

Workshop

Put your problem statement A4 in the middle of the table

1. SILENT WRITESTORM -8 minutes -Goal: 20 ideas per person -Individually, write one idea per post-it Brainstroming alone… (warm-up)

1. SILENT WRITESTORM -8 minutes -Goal: 20 ideas per person -Individually, write one idea per post-it 2. BUILD ON OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS -8 minutes -Goal: 10 new ideas per person 1.Put all ideas from the prevoius round in the middle of the table 2.Pick someone else’s idea 3.Build a new, different idea inspired by that idea Brainstroming alone… (warm-up)

1. SILENT WRITESTORM -8 minutes -Goal: 20 ideas per person -Individually, write one idea per post-it 2. BUILD ON OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS -8 minutes -Goal: 10 new ideas per person 1.Put all ideas from the prevoius round in the middle of the table 2.Pick someone else’s idea 3.Build a new, different idea inspired by that idea 3. BRAINSTORMING IN PAIRS -10 minutes -Everyone takes back their own ideas generated during second round -Divide in pairs or triplets of people -Quickly present your ideas to your partner (consider similar ideas as one, and keep only 1 post it) -Come up with new ideas discussing together and write them 1 x post-it Brainstroming alone… and in pairs (warm-up)

20 minutes -Present to the whole group all ideas generated in the previous exercises -If there are redundant ideas, keep only 1 post-it for them -Categorize the ideas -If new ideas come up spontaneously while categorizing, add them to your mindmap 15 minutes -Brainstorm together new idea categories to add to your emerging categorization -To illustrate the new category, come up with at least one idea that belongs to that category, and add it Categorizing

15 minutes break

SCAMPER SCAMPER is a method that forces you to do certain “mental operations” and channel your thinking in one direction. SCAMPER is a mnemonic for: SUBSTITUTE COMBINE ADAPT MODIFY PUT TO ANOTHER USE ELIMINATE REVERSE SCAMPER-ing your customer journey

20 minutes Take out your customer journey, and generate new ideas by using SCAMPER actions on its 1)PAIN POINTS (Substitute, Modify, Eliminate, Put to another use, Reverse) 2)SWEET SPOTS (Combine, Adapt/Add, Modify/Magnify,) 3)CUSTOMER JOURNEY PHASES (Add, Eliminate, Modify, Put to another use…) Put each new idea on a different post-it SCAMPER ACTIONS SUBSTITUTE COMBINE ADAPT MODIFY PUT TO ANOTHER USE ELIMINATE REVERSE SCAMPER-ing your customer journey

15 minutes -Take all new ideas and add them to your categorization -If they belong to new categories, add new categories to your categorization (If new ideas/categories come up spontaneously while categorizing, add them to your mindmap) Categorizing 2

Stretching!

A TOOL FOR DISCUSSION, IDEA COMPARISON AND SELECTION 6 Thinking Hats

2 minutes -Decide together your 2 top ideas for further discussion 15 minutes -Discuss the 2 ideas with the 6 thinking hats method (1 round per idea, 7 min x round) -Everyone uses every hat! NOT 1 person = 1 hat -Mark down all thoughts of the team on the given hat-cards -By the end of the discussion you should have decided for one of the 2 ideas

A TOOL FOR DETAIL IDEATION Lotus Blossom Alterna tive 4 to do A Alterna tive 5 to do A Alterna tive 6 to do A Alterna tive 3 to do A Alterna tive 7 to do A 2424 Alterna tive 2 to do A Alterna tive 1 to do A Alterna tive 8 to do A Idea to define Aspect A Aspect G Aspect B Aspect H Aspect F Aspect D Aspect C Aspect E Aspect A Opens up crucial aspects of an idea in a systematic way. Creates variety and details. Result: 8 different ways to take care of the 8 most crucial aspect of an idea = 64 new, focused ideas on how to take care a number of key implementation details

EXAMPLE SMARTAIR: center of the lotus Lotus Blossom A IoT tag to attach to your baggage so it can be tracked and does not get lost A Material of the tag B Positioning of the tag C Type of technology G Role of desk personnel F Level of awareness of traveller E Role of traveller H Role of handling personnel D What do we track exactly

EXAMPLE SMARTAIR: petals of the lotus Lotus Blossom A Material of tag 1 NFC sticker 2 UV ink stamping 3 UV ink pen 7…7… 6 Plastic chip 5 Magnetic chip 8…8… 4 Chain strap

Lotus Blossom Alterna tive 4 to do A Alterna tive 5 to do A Alterna tive 6 to do A Alterna tive 3 to do A Alterna tive 7 to do A 2424 Alterna tive 2 to do A Alterna tive 1 to do A Alterna tive 8 to do A Idea to define Aspect A Aspect G Aspect B Aspect H Aspect F Aspect D Aspect C Aspect E Aspect A 20 Minutes Write your selected idea in the center Think of 8 key aspects that need to be figured out in your idea, and write them around the center (A-H) Write each aspect in the middle of the 8 petals Ideate different ways to take care of that aspect and write them around their petal (1-8)

Summarizing

Generate idea quantity (some rounds) Minimum ideation process Categorize & select 1 Generate Focused quantity, systematic methods & themes Ideate more in detail, enrich & flesh out few chosen ideas Categorize & select 2 Categorize & select 3

For tomorrow…

Before 14:00 tomorrow… 1.Do sufficient ideation exercises/rounds until you feel you are starting to get good ideas 2.Use Lotus Blossom, and figure out at least some detail parts for your 3 top ideas (no need to make a FULL Lotus for all of them, but you need to brainstorm around some details too)

Two things to bring to class: Your top 3 ideas, also figured out in some detail through LB  you will have to plan and execute a prototype of one of them (or some key aspect of one of them)

Tomorrow 14:00 Back in Egarage Egarage not available

Before you take off today, document the ideas you created in this session. Store these ideas in your idea repository.

SOME EXTRA IDEATION & IDEA SELECTION RESOURCES

1)Chain writestorming: write an idea and pass it to the person to your right. Everyone builds on the idea they received, then pass it on again 1)Drawstorming: instead of writing your idea, you try to draw it 2)Hat-storming: Each team member is allowed to think only from a certain perspective about a specific problem: feeling-driven, fact-driven, money- driven, efficiency-driven, effectiveness-driven, etc… you can even make your own “hats” so that they are specific to your challenge Variations of usual brainstorming

Make a familiar problem strange by looking at it through the lens of an improbable analogy. Example :”I want to be more creative” -> ”What if being creative were like… a toaster?” What if? (1/2) Pick an analogy terms that you are very familiar with, so you can come up with more associations and metaphors, and find more similarities and connections. E.g. ”What if [X] would be like… Hockey -> The team that won the national championship last year”

TYPICAL PROCESS What if? (2/2) What if…we would be the [McDonald] of our industry? What does ”being [McDonald]” means? Fast… many choices, but not so customizable… So, what does it mean for our case if we try to apply those ideas in our industry?

Connecting the previously unconnected to create something new 1+1=3 Force yourself to see relationships between dissimilar things to generate new ideas. Exploit the power of analogy and metaphor. By pairing two things that have not much or nothing at all in common...and seeing what emerges. Hybridization (1/3)

Hybridization (2/3) emergency clinic + pharmacyMinuteClinic =

Hybridization (3/3) taxi+karaoke-barKaraoke Taxi=

The night of the Oscars In order to select some best ideas from many, each team-member can cast only 1 vote for each category: The best rational choice The most likely to delight the users The idea you simply love The one you need to brainstorm more in detail before deciding The long shot / the dark horse The easiest/fastest/cheapest to prototype (… Or according a set of criteria that make sense for your specific problem) Pick the ideas that got most overall votes in each category

POINT A discussion/evaluation tool. Possible shorter alternative to the 6 thinking hats Focus on a certain idea PLUSSES: What are the strengths of this idea? OPPORTUNITIES: What opportunities the idea offers? What opportunities we can pursue forth? INQUIRY: What does worry me? What could not work, how & why? What do we need to test/experiment/prototype? NEW THINKING: How can we solve the obstacles and difficulties?

NUF Test In order to select some best ideas from many, rate each idea (from 1- 10) on these three criteria: newness, usefulness, and feasibility New: Has the idea been tried before? An idea will score higher if it is significantly different from approaches that have come before it. Useful: Does the idea actually solve the problem? An idea will score higher if the problem/solution fit is spot on. Feasible: Can it be done? Ideas that require fewer resources and effort to be realized / prototyped / make an impact will score better. Then select the highest scoring ideas for further development! NewUsefulFeasible TOTAL Idea Idea Idea