Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators


TEI 246: Spur your creativity with these ideation tools – with Chad McAllister, PhD

September 09, 2019

How product managers generate new ideas and solve problems in a meaningful, productive way.
If your go-to tool for generating ideas with a group is traditional brainstorming, it is time to learn some new tools. Ideation tools are specifically for generating new ideas, such as ways to create additional value for customers, how a problem could be solved, or exploring directions for radical innovation.
Some ideation tools can be used alone, but most are intended for small groups.
In the discussion, you will learn several tools, including:

* SCAMPER
* Brainstorming
* Mind mapping
* Storyboarding
* Brainwriting
* Six thinking hats
* SWOT
* PESTLE
* Delphi

Video Describing the Tools
Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers
[1:55] What is ideation?
I think of ideation as idea generation. A deeper definition is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new ideas. It’s an essential part of the product process. We start with ideas and eventually develop them into product concepts. We also use these ideation skills to push past barriers later in the project, and at the post-mortem stage at the end of the project.
[3:57] SCAMPER
SCAMPER stands for a lot of action words to help us break out of our mindsets.

* Substitute: What can we substitute on a product to make it work differently?
* Combine: What can we combine together to add new value to a product?
* Adapt: Can the product be adapted for another use?
* Modify: How can we modify a product?
* Put to use: Can a product be put to another use? This leads to new market thinking.
* Eliminate: Is there something about a product that can be eliminated? Bosch removed an electrical cord from one of its saws because they saw no one was using it and some contractors were actually cutting through it.
* Reverse: What can you do differently next time?

[7:39] Brainstorming
This is something many of us have no doubt done before. A small group gets together and generates ideas that can solve a problem or improve a process. It’s meant to be free-flowing with no criticism of ideas. The ideas are eventually filtered into something we can work with. Unfortunately, it’s not very efficient.
My go-to method for better brainstorming is called the nominal group technique (NGT). It provides more structure around the brainstorming process. The key difference between NGT and traditional brainstorming is that NGT involves giving people time to generate ideas on their own before the group discussion begins. It really balances the discussion and gives everyone the same amount of time in the brainstorming session. You can go round-robin around the room until everyone’s individual ideas have been shared. If someone’s idea inspires a new idea for you, add it to your list and say it the next time it’s your turn.
From there, you can go through a simple voting process to determine which ideas everyone likes best and thinks are the most viable. NGT moves toward a model of generating more ideas overall and bringing more voices to the table for voting and generating ideas.
[13:52] Mind mapping
Mind mapping is a graphical technique for doing an outline. You start with the key thing you’re analyzing in the middle of the board and then start moving out from there with layers and details about a topic. It’s another great way to bring everyone’s voice into the conversation and get people to think about a problem or product in a different way.
[17:09] Storyboarding
This is particularly useful when we’re trying to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. What is the customer doing before or after they interact with our product? You can use a whiteboard or pieces of paper to create the story of what’s ...