SARK ENGINEERS & CONSULTANTS
Product Ideation & Concept
The product ideation process is an essential part of the lifecycle of any product. Product ideation is important not only for product owners and product managers but also for developers, manufacturers, business analysts, and any other key decision maker throughout the product development process.
The ideation process has the power to help teams think thoroughly about the product they are building, helping identify key aspects that need to be prioritized, as well as analyze the viability and feasibility of specific functionalities. These sound like minor things, but they can make the difference between a successful product and a failure.
To make the most out of this process, it is important to have ideation sessions where teams can freely discuss their thoughts on the product they are building. This allows creative ideas to flow, and most importantly, it allows products to take shape.
There are various ideation methods; some may be better suited for your project depending on several factors. Ultimately, it all comes down to the product type and the resources available for the project, such as time and money.
Stages of Ideation
Generation
In this first stage, the idea is to allow teams to diverge and come up with random thoughts regarding the product.
Selection
It is important to narrow down the different ideas into a list that can help the development process, not make it cumbersome, even if it means discarding some.
Implementation
To achieve this, product owners and product managers have to translate the resulting ideas into concrete goals that can be easily achieved throughout the development of the product.
What are the four methods of ideation?
When it comes to the different ideation methods, there are various alternatives for your team to choose from.
There are four popular ideation methods. These aren’t the only ones, but they’re definitely some of the easiest to use to obtain outstanding results.
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Storyboarding
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Brainstorming
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Brainwriting
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Worst Idea
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Storyboarding
This method is a great way to improve processes or design them from scratch. The goal is to create a visual story to present ideas and analyze the user journey. Participants are expected to imagine the potential outcomes of their ideas so that they can identify what works and what doesn’t. This also helps identify potential problems and steps that might have been omitted.
The result will be a series of storyboards that resemble a comic strip. Participants that don’t know how to draw can write texts on the storyboards.
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Brainstorming
This is a collaborative exercise where participants share their own ideas and build over those of others. Ideally, you don’t want to restrain others from sharing their ideas, so avoid focusing on the quality of the ideas.
To make the most out of a brainstorm session, it is recommended that the group consists of five to seven people. The more diverse your group, the more successful the exercise will probably be. Have a facilitator who can guide the exercise and keep things under control.
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Brainwriting
This is a variation of the Brainstorming exercise. In this method, participants have five minutes to write down on a piece of paper a list of solutions to a specific problem. Once the time has passed, they will pass their piece of paper to the next person, and they will build upon others’ ideas. This allows everyone to participate.
This process works great for introverts or people who prefer not to share their own ideas out loud. The exercise ends when everyone has contributed to each piece of paper. As in the previous method, this one also has a facilitator.
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Worst Idea
During ideation, almost everyone wants their ideas to be acknowledged as the best. However, in this exercise, the opposite becomes true. Participants will be required to share their worst idea on how to solve the problem. Other participants will then try to make those ideas even worse.
Discussing bad ideas is a great way for participants to see things that sometimes seem obvious but are rarely discussed. This is a great way to help everyone remove their fears of being judged.
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Final Thoughts: The Product Ideation Process
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There isn’t just a single method to perform product ideation. The important thing is that you and your team keep in mind that this is a powerful exercise that requires team dedication, and that it pays off even if they feel that they are fooling around.
Coming up with new ideas to solve a problem is a particular process that sometimes requires teams to think in a totally different way. Although ideating sounds like a game, there is much that needs to be done to guarantee its success.
The best you can do is find a product development partner who can lead the sessions. Ideally, they need to specialize in products. If they do this, they will probably be very good at the product ideation process.