Ideation is the creative process of generating, developing, and communicating new business ideas. When we plan to launch a new business, we take advantage of an existing concept or develop our own unique idea. The same applies to growing an existing business. It has always been difficult for me to determine what is more difficult: finding the idea or executing it.
Sometimes ideas are pretty easy to conjure up, and the hard part is deciding if they’re good enough to build a profitable business on. If you have what you think is a “great idea,” the next challenge is to prove or prove that it will translate into a successful company.
Then there are times when a viable idea is the hardest thing to find. It can seem like all the good ideas are taken and you are left on the sidelines with the resources and desire to start or grow a business, but no great idea. The ideation process can take a day or years, and as with the creative process, it’s usually unproductive to rush it. Aside from the other typical resource barriers (money and people), the lack of a “good idea” is often what prevents people from realizing their dream of becoming their own boss.
The creation of a new business begins with the idea. The process of developing that idea, and your business concept, can perhaps include some level of testing through prototyping and iteration. During these early phases, your idea will undoubtedly evolve and may even morph into something completely different. There are three basic categories for business ideas.and considering these categories can help trigger that next big creation or validate the existing one:
- New – a new invention or business idea. Examples may include the Segway, virtual reality, and other product inventions. This is the most difficult category for new business ideas. There are very few true and completely new ideas. By “new” I mean something that absolutely doesn’t exist currently or in the past in any way. It’s easy to mistake a new idea for what is really an improvement on or disruption of an existing or traditional way of doing something. Truly new and unique ideas are hard to find, so don’t get paralyzed that this is the only source of viable new ideas.
- improvement – this is the proverbial best mousetrap. Examples include exterior-express car washes (where you stay in the car), Virgin Airlines, LED lighting, and Disney Land. Most small businesses probably fall into this category. You take an existing service or product and make or deliver it in a better way, either directly or indirectly. You can do it with better quality raw materials, for example, or you can add value to the product or service by including additional services or add-ons.
- breaking off – a new and revolutionary way of doing something. Examples include Uber, AirBnB, and Amazon. Our modern interconnected world, supported and made possible by the Internet, now allows us to completely reinvent, transform and disrupt entire industries. The Internet and other technologies are not the only way to execute a disruptive business idea, but they have certainly accelerated our ability to do so.
Where do great ideas come from? Sources of ideas can include reading, podcasts, art, architecture, personal experiences, travel, conversation, hobbies, borrowing from others, collective creativity, collective sourcing, and attempting to solve problems. existing in our world. For existing businesses, the best source of ideas is often their customers. However, it takes a little more than just experimenting or reading something to spark your next big idea.
In Belle Cooper’s article “How to Generate Good Ideas,” Steve Jobs is quoted as sharing that creative people can “connect experiences they have had and synthesize new things.” In watching him, creative people have consistently “had more experiences or thought more about their experiences than other people.”
Consciously and objectively experiencing new things will definitely influence and fuel your creative abilities, and is one of the most productive ways we can continue to develop our ability to generate great ideas.
Does this mean that you have to be creative to generate good business ideas? I believe that creativity is undoubtedly one of the main ingredients necessary for ideation, along with ingenuity and vision. However, the challenge for many people is that they have little confidence in their inherent creative abilities or do not have the courage to express and harness them. The idea generation process is much like the creative process in that we present something personal for others to judge. You must have the courage and confidence to present ideas that others may think are frivolous or ridiculous. It is appropriate to remember what George Bernard Shaw wrote: “all great truths begin as blasphemies.”
The ideal process is to identify one or more business ideas, test them, and then continue to develop the idea that has the best chance of success. Of course, always remember that the true test of an idea’s commercial viability ultimately rests entirely with the customer. Also remember that if your concept was easy, someone else probably would have already done it.
Some questions to ask yourself to help qualify your business idea:
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What need does my product or service cover? What problem does it solve?
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What are the features and benefits of my offer?
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What is my competitive advantage? What makes this idea truly unique in my market?
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How do my skills and experience fit with my idea?
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How can I try and prove it?
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What resources will I need to turn this idea into a viable business?
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Does my idea solve a problem of a billion people, or the problem of a few?
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Can I envision running this concept for the next 5-10 years?