This brainstorming session or ideation workshop was to come up with new product initiatives that would built on the client's core competencies. The client wanted lots of new ideas that could ultimately be winnowed down to one or two new products that could generate over $10,000,000 in sales each. What they didn't want was a simple bunch of line extensions. The following description has been extracted from the actual client report.
We began our list of new market opportunities by brainstorming onto post-it notes. The ideas were created individually and then collected one at a time onto large sheets of paper. For each of the ideas we asked that people identify both the market and the application and the product. About fifty ideas were generated this way.
In this activity people were asked to build on the ideas already generated. The large sheets of paper with the original ideas attached across the top were circulated amongst the group. People were asked to attach to the sheet additional ideas that built on the original ideas. About fifty more ideas were created this way.
In this activity we used art to trigger additional ideas. People were shown some modern art reproductions. Next they were asked to write down the first three things that came to mind and to then use those thoughts in generating another idea for a new market. We generated about twenty-five more ideas this way.
In this activity we asked the group to identify the major assumptions that they seemed to be working under. We then selectively reversed these assumptions and asked people to come up with ideas for new markets that would work if this assumption were reversed. We came up with about twenty-five more ideas this way.
In this activity the group silently and simultaneously sorted all of the ideas that had been created so far into themes. Once the sorting was complete the group worked together to name the various theme areas.
We took some time out to review and revise the ideas that were collected in each theme area. This allowed us to eliminate duplicates and to add some additional explanation on ideas where needed so that the ideas could be accurately interpreted in the future.
This activity was conducted as a straightforward brainstorming. People were told that their personal incomes would have nothing to do with the sale of products. Instead they were to come up with alternative ways that they could create value in the market.
In this activity people were asked to identify the ten ideas that they thought should be pursued further if we could only pursue ten ideas. This was done individually and then collected onto the Affinity Diagram created earlier. This activity was intended to make some of the ideas that had immediate broad-spread support stand out. It was not intended as a definitive priority setting measure. There may well be gems that are still hidden in the pile that did not receive any votes.
At the end of the session the client had a short list of extremely exciting possibilities.
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