Why is Ideation used?
Ideation is a creative step where we generate as many ideas as possible and prioritize them. It is the fourth stage of the design thinking process. We have created a hypothesis and validated them with our customers’ perspective. Furthermore, we did the root cause analysis to get to the bottom of the problem in the design challenge phase.
In ideation, we use various tools to understand which solutions have the biggest potential of solving our design challenge. We also check the feasibility of the implementation and customer relevance to assess the complexity. Here the participants are required to come in with an open mind so that no existing judgment influences the free-flow of thoughts.
Breakdown of the process
The goal here is to generate as many solutions as possible. For this, we could bring in external participants for their relevant expertise. A lot of innovation flow happens here. We can follow multiple ways to develop solutions for our design challenges. Some of them are mentioned below:
Transformation method:
Here we remove the elements of the design challenge in order to leave voids to fill. For example, we have defined our design challenge to constitute of the stakeholder, the need, and the context in the previous step. In the transformation method, we imagine the design challenge without each of these elements and then fill these voids with an alternative.
Let’s take the example of a food delivery app. E.g. the delivery boys (the stakeholder), should learn to take payments through cards (the need) in order for the customers to pay easily (the context). Here, we remove the stakeholder, i.e. delivery boys. In the absence of the stakeholder, other ideas could be takeaway kitchens or food buses. Similarly, we can remove the need and the context to come up with more ideas.
Brainwriting method:
This method, though simple, helps in generating a lot of ideas for us to prioritize. Here, for each design challenge, the participants (usually 7-8) write 3 ideas for a particular problem statement on a design card. Each participant then passes their card to the next person who generates 3 more ideas based on these ideas. This is repeated for all the business challenges. This method helps us generate a lot of ideas in a short amount of time.
There are numerous other ways to brainstorm for ideas but these are the fastest and most effective. You can generate a number of ideas here for the problem statements. We prioritize these solutions on the basis of the customer experience and ease of delivery. The ones that offer the most value in terms of customer fulfillment, and are easy to deliver are given highest priority.
Take away from Ideation
Ideation is a process where we imagine and discover a lot of interesting solutions. There is a lot of curiosity and the disruptive nature of this step should be looked at with an open mind by all the participants. Here we create a “point of view” that inspires our team and guides our innovation efforts.
Wear your creativity shoes for this one and be fearless in ideating leaving all conventional ways behind. The multiple solutions that we generate here help us make a tangible prototype in the next phase of the design thinking process.
External links:
- Design Thinking process
- Design tools: http://www.designkit.org/methods