BUSINESS BUSINESS ESSENTIALS

Ideation
REVIEWED BY WILL KENTON | Updated May 29, 2019

What Is Ideation?
Ideation refers to the process of developing and conveying prescriptive ideas to others,
typically in a business setting. It describes the sequence of thoughts—from the original
concept to implementation. Ideations can spring forth from past or present
knowledge, external influences, opinions, convictions, or principles. Ideation can be
expressed in graphical, written, or verbal terms.

How Ideation Works

Simply put, ideation is the literal action of forming ideas, from their conception to real-
world application and implementation. Ideas and the act of ideating can come from
anyone
tangentially or directly associated with a business or organization, including low-level
employees, managers, customers, partners, and stakeholders. Actual ideations can be
the result of brainstorming sessions, online forums, seminars, team-building exercises,
surveys, and social media platforms.

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Ideation is a key component of any successful business. For example, Google

encourages employees to spend as much as 20% of their work hours meditating on
new ideas that personally intrigue them and potentially solve real problems. This focus
on ideation allows companies to become innovative or remain competitive, by
increasing the likelihood of new products rollouts, increased customer acquisition, and
superior financial performance.

The Ideation Process

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Although the ideation process does not necessarily have to conform to any one
universal model, there are general guidelines that people can follow to help them
maximize the
effectiveness of ideation and the solutions it generates. First and foremost, ideation
does not necessarily start with a randomly generated thought. Instead, ideas are
reverse engineered to fit emergent problems. It is thus critically important to initially
clearly define the problem and understand its key underlying factors, such as industry
trends, business environments, customer needs, budget constraints, and any other
causes behind the vexing issue at hand.

Once key pain points are identified, as well as their root causes, brainstorming
sessions, and other collaborative pow-wows are initiated in an effort to crowdsource
potential ideas and generate possible solutions to the problems being posed. Ideally,
these collaborations should blend right brain and left brain thought processes,
because many problems require both creative and pragmatic approaches to
cultivating viable solutions.

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These forums should invite open, unrestricted, and unencumbered dialogue, where
participants feel safe to float ideas without fear of ridicule. All ideas, from the deeply
academic to the wildly fanciful, should be enthusiastically embraced and should be
treated with equal fairness and open-mindedness.

The plethora of ideas generated during collaboration stages is then pared down to one
prevailing idea that can best drive the future actions of the group. This marquis idea is
tested against the problem and adjusted as needed. It is then tirelessly reworked,
retested and finessed until a potential solution is perfected. The idea is then
implemented in the real world, and if it’s deemed successful, the ideation process
concludes.

Styles of ideation include the following:

Problem solution. This straightforward method is where an individual identifies a

problem that he or she subsequently solves.
 Derivative idea. This involves making improvements to an existing idea.
Symbiotic ideas. This is a collision of several incomplete ideas that combine to
create a fully-baked, holistic idea.

[Important: Some people are dubious about the term "ideation," claiming that it is
vague.]

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