Ideation is the process of creating a space that fosters and generates a very broad set of ideas on any given topic without judgment or evaluation.
It's a great way to entertain ideas that wouldn't necessarily be considered and a way to think outside the box.
You know how much we love boxes at DTC… 😉
A friend of DTC Newsletter, Elliot Roazen from Unilever, recently shared insights on how his team came up with over 200+ brand concepts in the past 18 months.
Elliot's role and experience make him uniquely qualified to talk about ideation as he brings new ideas to life in short time frames. 💡
🤗 How to optimize your team for ideation
When starting an ideation workshop, it's important to strike a balance between having the right people and having the right number of people.
📏 Size: Amazon has the two-pizza rule, where they limit their teams to a size that two pizzas can feed.
A smaller team can permit frictionless collaboration, self-accountability, and a tighter relationship with team members. A larger group may be intimidating to some and limit the flow of free-form conversation.
🎸The WHO: No, we are not talking about the English Rock band from the early 70s. We are talking about those that should be IN your Ideation workshops.
It's essential to diversify your contributors – hanging with your marketing squad doesn't give you fresh perspectives.
Bringing folks with different disciplines and those representing product creation stages like R&D and supply chain can offer critical counterweight perspectives that will offer insights on design processes and packaging.
🧐 How to run an ideation workshop
Sorry, cancel the corporate retreat to Mexico…
A quality ideation workshop can be organized quickly and usually takes less than a day.
When it comes to the organization process of an ideation workshop, it's like any other meeting – you need an agenda. The agenda should be organized by items of concern in allocated time blocks.
Make the agenda accessible to your designated attendees. It helps to display the agenda during the workshop for every participant to see.
It's a collaborative and open space, but providing a basic structure and keeping people focused on the ultimate goal will make it smooth sailing.
👊 The 2x2 system
Once you have your ideas brainstormed and out in the open for everyone to see, you need a way to vote on and prioritize the best ones.
The 2x2 matrix is a great way to do this.
It's an efficient way for your team to take a step back and see what's most likely valuable to your customers vs. what effort is involved in delivering.
Draw a square with four quadrants on your whiteboard and categorize the ideas into categories of effort and impact.
- Low effort/high impact = No brainers.
- High effort/high impact = A more expensive project worth the investment.
- High effort/low impact = Money pit/not worth it.
- Low effort/low impact = Blah.
Once organized and visualized by the group, find a consensus and take action!
Ideation workshops are a great way to allow your team to share ideas, think outside the box, and reach new levels.
Do you do ideation workshops with your team? Reply to this email and let us know! 🔥
