A walkthrough of an idea-finding process.

1. © Neo Innovation, Inc. 2015, All rights reserved.
Beyond
Brainstorming
Creating Breakthrough Ideas For Innovation
March, 2015

2. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Agenda
2
1. Why Opportunity-Finding?
2. The Idea-Finding Process
3. I have an Idea. Now what?
4. Q/A
If you have questions,
Tweet them to @neoinnovate.

3. Why Opportunity-Finding?

4. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
When We Seek Opportunities
4
Create viable
options
Build emerging
businesses
Extend & defend
core businesses
Now Existing Products FutureNext Gen

5. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
When We Seek Opportunities
5
Existing Products FutureNext Gen
Problem Solution
Where
should we
look?
Better
solution

6. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Build, Measure, Learn
6
Ideas
Build
Product
Measure
Data
Learn

7. Where do we look?

8. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
What is an Opportunity?
8
The potential to create value, found at the intersection of unmet needs and
emergent possibilities. (Larry Schmitt, 2013)
Unmet
Needs
New
Possibilities

9. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
What is an Opportunity?
9
The ability to create value, found at the intersection of unmet needs and emergent
possibilities
Unmet
Needs
New
Possibilities

10. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Unmet
Needs
Customer
What is an Opportunity?
10
The ability to create value, found at the intersection of unmet needs and emergent
possibilities
Unmet
Needs
New
Possibilities
Business

11. An
Opportunity
starts with an
Idea.

12. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Build, Measure, Learn
12
Ideas
Build
Product
Measure
Data
Learn

13. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Ideas & Build, Measure, Learn
13
Ideas
Build
Product
Measure
Data
Learn
Idea-Finding Process

14. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Idea-Finding Process
14
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

15. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Idea-Finding Process
15
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

16. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Idea-Finding Example
16
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
1 2 3 4
+ + =
e-commerce
company
looking to
grow
adjacent
services
People in
NYC all hate
the post
office.
Ubiquitous
smartphone
penetration
puts
cameras and
geo-location
in every
hand.
Shyp, the
UBER for
sending
packages.

17. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Idea-Finding Example
17
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
1 2 3 4
+ + =
Limo drivers
spend time
waiting at
airports
Limo
customers
want faster
pickups
FAA
regulation
changes
allow
smartphone
usage in
airplanes.
Limo
company
can dispatch
drivers
based on
real-time
passenger
info

18. The Process

19. Section
MarkerExplain a bit more here
Process Overview
1. Define Strategic Constraints
2. Identify Market Needs
3. Identify New Possibilities
4. Generate New Ideas
5. Filter Ideas for Strategic Fit

20. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
1. Define Business Need
20
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

21. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Strategic Constraints
21
What is the business need? What are the hard constraints?
- To support a strategy, if so, what?
- To attract investment, if so, from whom? What must they see?
- To grow, if so, in which direction, in which domain?
- To defend, if so, from what?
For example, “we provide a shipping and mailing services in the US,
but our customers are not satisfied with our retail experience. We are
losing business as a result.”
Note: these constraints are inherently a leadership choice. In other words,
they are set as a given in order to limit and focus the search.
Begin to draw a border around the search area

22. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
2. Define Market Need
22
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

23. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Market Needs
23
What is the customer, user, market need?
- Designers typically discover this through research.
- D-thinking focus on this discovery through “empathy”
- Founders often understand this intuitively via experience
It’s important to articulate this from the user / customer perspective.
For example, “I avoid my local post office at all costs. I will go out
of my way to go to a UPS Store or Fedex location, but honestly,
that’s a pain too.”

24. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
3. Find New Possibilities
24
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

25. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Changes Reveal New Possibilities
25
“Change is the basic fuel of innovation, its source, its raw material.”
—Robert and Weiss, “The Innovation Formula” 1988
What is possible now that was never possible before? To do this, we must examine
what has changed, and consider what those changes make possible.
For example: a recent FAA regulation change allows airline passengers to keep
their mobile phones on during take-off and landing, provided the cellular radios are
turned off. This makes new capabilities available to airline passengers. They can
track their position with GPS. They can read e-books and listen to podcasts during
takeoff and landing. (What other possibilities can you think of?

26. Idea Finding | March, 2015
Where do we look for changes?
The Unexpected (Successes, Failures, Events)
Demographic Changes
Changes in Perception
New Knowledge
Incongruities
Process Needs
Industry and Market Changes
Drucker’s “Sources of Innovation”

27. Idea Finding | March, 2015
Where do we look for changes?
The Unexpected
Demographic Changes
Changes in Perception
New Knowledge
Incongruities
Process Needs
Industry and Market Changes
Drucker’s “Sources of Innovation”
Useful sources
of “new possibilities.”
Useful sources
of problems to solve

28. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Finding Possibilities
28
…continued.
3.For promising
changes, brainstorm
Possibilities
The process…
1.Select a Source
2.Make a list of interesting
Changes

29. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Unexpected success
Possibility Worksheet, example 1
Selected Change: UBER
What does this change make possible?
People don’t have to use the phone to
call a car
The service knows where you are
People don’t need go outside to hail a
cab.
People don’t need to go to the
dispatcher’s storefront
Cars on demand
29
Unexpected Successes
List unexpected successes in your
industry and in the general economy:
Fedex Stores
UPS Stores
USPS In-Store Kiosks
Pre-paid returns (in e-commerce)
UBER
iPHONE
The “New Possibilities”
you’ll carry forward

30. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Use this worksheet to identify interesting possibilities
Possibility Worksheet
Source: __________________________
List of Changes:
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
30
Selected Change: _________________
What does this change make possible?
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________
Adapted from Robert and Weiss, 1988

31. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Changes in Perception
Possibility Worksheet, example 2
Selected Change: The Post Office is
no longer associated with reliable
service
What are some general ways we could
address this change?
Create a service initiative to change
perception.
Create another brand to deliver
highly reliable service
Partner with a trusted brand to
create a solution.
31
Changes in Perception
List changes in your domain:
People less tolerant of poor service
People ship things rarely, thus are
not price-sensitive
People are beginning to accept the
concierge economy
The Post Office is no longer
associated with reliable service
The “New Possibilities”
you’ll carry forward

32. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
4. Generate New Ideas
32
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

33. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Putting it all together
33
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
IDEA
+ + =

34. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Putting it all together
34
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
IDEA
+ + =
Retail
business is
down due to
customer
satisfaction
problems
Customers
no longer
willing to
visit post
office.
Partner with
a trusted
brand to
create a
solution
?

35. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
Putting it all together
35
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
IDEA
+ + =
Retail
business is
down due to
customer
satisfaction
problems
Customers
no longer
willing to
visit post
office.
“Car on
demand
service” for
mailing and
shipping
?

36. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
5. Filter for Strategic Fit
36
Define
Strategic
Constraints
Define User/
Customer
Problem Area
New
possibilities
Generative
Activities
Why
Us?
Collect Inputs Filter IdeasGenerate Ideas
1 2 3 4 5

37. Idea Finding | March, 2015
Filter for Strategic Fit
What is special about us that makes this idea a good fit?
What capability, asset, channel, relationships, (etc.) do we
possess that our competition doesn’t?
Asking, “Why us?”

38. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Ideas & Build, Measure, Learn
38
Ideas
Build
Product
Measure
Data
Learn
Idea-Finding Process

39. Now, evaluate the idea…

40. Idea Finding | March, 2015
– –
What you know, what you suspect, what you need to learn to be successful
Identify assumptions to test
My target customer will be?
The problem my customer wants to solve is?
My customer’s need can be solved with?
Why can’t my customer solve this today?
The measurable outcome my customer wants is?
My primary customer acquisition tactic will be?
My earliest adopter will be?
I will make money (revenue) by?
My primary competition will be?
…
40
www.talkingtohumans.com

41. Idea Finding | March, 2015 – –
Then… Build, Measure, Learn
41
Ideas
Build
Product
Measure
Data
Learn

42. Idea Finding | March, 2015
Questions?
Want to learn more?
Our full-day workshop digs into idea-finding and innovation. You’ll
articulate strategy in an easily actionable format, you’ll find
breakthrough ideas, and you’ll create a plan to quickly assess their
value.
http://bit.ly/IdeasWorkshop
josh@neo.com
www.neo.com
www.neo.com/education