Ideation Overview

The NPD process starts with the generation of pursuable ideas.  This initial phase - often referred to as the "fuzzy frontend" - is typically the most frustrating for left-brained managers who self-describe themselves as long on analytical skills, but short on creativity.  In fact, though, effective new product development is a blend of creativity (creating a new world) and analysis (fitting an existing world) that maximizes potential while containing risk.    

The inspiration for the new product ideas can come from a driven leader (top-down) or can bubble up from trenches (bottom-up).

And while ideas can occasionally emerge from near-divine spontaneous inspiration, most mere mortals have to resort to systematic idea generation processes that range from traditional market research techniques (surveys and observation) that tend to find the "white spaces" in the existing world - to mind-stretching analyses of cultural and technological trends and scenarios that provide far-reaching directional visions of the future.

Some studies have concluded that over 85% of the relevant customer input can usually be garnered from relatively small "impact" samples of 10 to 20 subjects.  For example, Kenichi Ohmae, the oft-quoted former McKinsey consultant says "Personally, I would rather talk with 3 housewives for 2 hours each on their feelings about, say, washing machines than conduct a 1,000 person survey on the same topic.  I get much better insight and perspective on what they are really looking for."  Accordingly, the middle ground - intensive analysis of heavy and leading-edge users, change agents, and decision-makers by multi-disciplined experts - is the mainstay of consultants  and an increasing focus of influential academic research (e.g., "Spark Innovation through Empathetic Design", Leonard & Rayport, HBR, November 1997).

A few empirical observations that are commonly drawn with respect to ideation are:

(a) Internal company thinking tends to be very conservative, staying within a comfort zone by incrementalizing past successes.

(b) Similarly, most market research tends to be understandably "near in" (focusing on current dis-satisfiers and unmet needs) since customers' thinking is contained by their bases of experience and technical knowledge.

(c) Pure marketing initiatives often require invention or an impossible combination of features and costs.

(d) Technology-driven ideas often lack a clear target market or require an impractical level of market development.

The most effective ideation is multi-disciplinary (technology and marketing), externally-focused (especially on competitors and high impact customers), and thought-stretching within practical boundaries.