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How to generate new ideas: 5 steps leading to innovation

Generating ideas is essential to the survival and prosperity of a business.

By Mazhar HassanPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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As changes accelerate in markets and in technology, through InventHelp companies must continually innovate to be competitive, to grow, and to remain relevant to their customers. Here are 5 steps to improve the way you generate new ideas and technologies.

1. Foster a culture of innovation

It is a culture that encourages employee participation and trust, and that allows you to try new things, adapt them, and learn. Your team must see that management values, encourages and rewards ideas. We cannot be content with fine words. Employees will easily know if their contribution is really sought after, or if everything that is said about innovation is just fine to talk.

2. Identify challenges and gather ideas

You are now ready to start collecting ideas. . It's common to start by identifying a challenge - for example, new technology, and unmet customer need, a production bottleneck, a product or price problem - and then brainstorm ideas for meeting this challenge.

• It is important to find various ways to generate ideas inside and outside of your organization. For example, to get feedback from your team, you can:

• Set up a whiteboard in the cafeteria or near the coffee machine and post a weekly challenge for employees to submit ideas to.

• Set up a suggestion box where employees can post their suggestions.

• Hold regular town hall meetings or “brainstorming sessions” (meetings to discuss specific challenges and gather ideas).

“Often the team sees what's in the owner's and management's blind spot. What is coming and what is transforming the market. You have to tap into this organizational knowledge. ”

3. Validate

Next is the time to explore your best ideas to find out if they are worth developing and even implementing. For example, if the idea is a new digital service, you can determine who the target customers are, validate the value proposition with them in social media or directly, examine the market potential and talk to your team about the possibilities, design and production.

Innovation must be based on evidence, not wishful thinking. It is not worth spending too much time on an idea that cannot solve customer problems or meet an unmet need. You have to be creative in how you test the idea without making it happen. The challenge is the difference between what customers say and what they actually do.

4. Implement the idea and develop it

Once you are convinced that an idea has potential, it is time to move on to its implementation. You can start quietly - with a pilot project or a prototype, for example -, seek feedback as you work out the issues, and then move on.

Innovation must be based on evidence, not wishful thinking. It is not worth spending too much time on an idea that cannot solve customer problems or meet an unmet need. You have to be creative in how you test the idea without making it happen. The challenge is the difference between what customers say and what they actually do.

5. Measure your efforts

Think of some key performance indicators you can monitor, such as the following:

• Number of ideas from employees, customers, and others;

• The proportion of employees who come up with ideas;

• The proportion of ideas that go through validation and implementation;

• Revenue generated or cost savings achieved through new ideas;

• Training and learning acquired along the way.

However, don't make the common mistake of over-analyzing ideas and not implementing them. Ideas stimulate businesses, increase productivity, create economic value, and transform social lives. In the conceptual era, organizational adaptation and long-term survival depend heavily on creativity and innovation.

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About the Creator

Mazhar Hassan

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