Lesson 16: Ideation!

Ideas Ideas Ideas!!!

Ideation is the third phase of the Design Thinking process, and, as the name suggests, is all about generating ideas and solutions.

The aim of an ideation session is to create a large number of ideas that the team can filter through and cut down to the best, most innovative, and practical solution.

It’s not about coming up with the ‘right’ idea, it’s about generating the broadest range of possibilities.

The most important component of ideation is that there is no judgement in the space and that everyone is striving to achieve the end goal as a team, not to win the right answer individually. In this space, team members are encouraged to push their ideas and imagination far and wide.

The best exercise for ideation

1. Define your point of view:

   First, you have to define your point of view. You can't create a strong product or service unless you've worked through who the user is, what their needs are and what you know about them.

   Draw out a diagram to generate these insights to fuel your brainstorm session.

   A good rule of thumb is to generate your answers to each stage as so: [User . . . (descriptive)] needs [Need . . . (verb)] because [Insight . . . (compelling)]

   Always make sure that your point of view:

   • Is narrow enough to follow.
   • Frames the most important aspect for the user
   • Is valid, insightful, actionable, unique, narrow, meaningful, and exciting.

2. Rephrase the problem as a “How Might We…”

   This is where we take the problem and reword it so our challenge becomes a chance for positive thinking and generating ideas that can not only fix the problem but take the product or service that much further.

   How to generate How Might We statements:

   1. Begin with your point of view on the problem you are facing. This could be something like “Catering is too expensive for the events”
   2. Rephrase the problem into a How Might We…
   3. “How Might We.. save costs on catering for our events”
   4. Then ask the team to brainstorm on ways to resolve the problem
   5. Active solutions could be things like “By asking the participants to do a potluck”, “By finding a new catering company”, “By having a company cooking day”, “By not catering the event at all and implementing a lunch hour”
   6. This way you can get so many positive solutions and really open up the possibilities.

Other useful ideation methods include Crazy 8s, brainwriting, SCAMPER, analogous inspiration, and constraint-based prompts. The method matters less than separating idea generation from evaluation so early criticism does not collapse the option space.

Run a focused ideation session

Share the problem statement and evidence before the session. Define a clear “How might we” question, constraints, and the decision that follows. Give participants quiet individual time before group discussion so the loudest voice does not anchor everyone. Cluster similar ideas, then evaluate them against user value, strategic fit, risk, effort, and testability.

The winning output is not the most exciting concept. It is a small portfolio of distinct ideas with documented assumptions and a plan to test the riskiest ones. Move from ideas to evidence with idea validation and MVPs.