Purposes
In general, when product teams are given genuine business problems to solve instead of predefined solutions, and they actively engage with real users and customers, generating a sufficient quantity and quality of product ideas becomes less of a challenge.
However, for the majority of companies (excluding those excelling in product development), product teams often have limited involvement in ideation. Instead, ideas are typically handed down through prioritised features on product roadmaps, originating from customer requests, stakeholders, or executives. Unfortunately, these ideas often lack the desired level of quality.
The main purpose of Idea generation techniques are as follow:
Uncover Customer Needs and Pain Points: Discovery ideation techniques aim to understand and uncover the true needs and pain points of customers. By engaging in user research, customer interviews, and empathy-building exercises, these techniques help product teams gain valuable insights that lead to the development of solutions that address genuine customer problems.
Generate Innovative and Viable Product Ideas: The purpose of discovery ideation techniques is to generate a diverse range of innovative and viable product ideas. Through brainstorming sessions, ideation workshops, and collaborative exercises, teams can explore different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and come up with creative solutions that have the potential to meet customer needs effectively.
Stimulate Creativity and Innovation: Idea generating techniques aim to foster a creative and innovative environment within teams. By employing various brainstorming methods, such as mind mapping, SCAMPER, or random word association, these techniques encourage participants to think outside the box, explore unconventional approaches, and generate a wide range of ideas.
Lets jump right into the secrets of generating brilliant product ideas!
Technique 1: Customer Interviews
The customer interview is a fundamental technique that I will cover in this blog. Ideally, it should be assumed that product managers possess proficient skills in conducting effective customer interviews regularly. However, reality often reveals a different picture. Either customer interviews are not conducted at all, or if they are, the product manager's presence is lacking, resulting in limited understanding and significance given to the learnings derived from these interviews.
When Should we do it?
Establishing a consistent schedule of customer interviews is essential for continuous discovery of new product ideas. It is recommended to allocate a minimum of two to three hours per week for conducting these interviews.
By engaging in interviews early on before diving deep into the development process, product teams gain valuable insights directly from target customers. These insights play a crucial role in identifying pain points, understanding customer needs, and uncovering opportunities for innovation. Conducting interviews at this stage equips teams with valuable information that informs the development process and increases the chances of creating products that truly meet customer expectations.
How Does it work?
Customer interviews come in various forms, making it a diverse set of techniques rather than a single approach. They can range from informal conversations to structured methodologies like contextual inquiry. Regardless of the format, each interaction with users or customers presents an opportunity to gain valuable insights.
Here are some tips for getting the most out of these learning opportunities:
Objective: The purpose of these interviews is not to prove a specific point but to gain a deep understanding and learn rapidly. This mindset is crucial and should be approached with sincerity.
Participant recruitment: While usability testing will cover this topic in detail, it is important to primarily engage with individuals from your target market. Aim for approximately an hour of their time.
Location: Observing customers in their natural environment can provide valuable insights, but meeting them in a convenient location or having them visit your office is also acceptable. While video calls are not ideal, they can still be utilized if necessary.
Preparation: Clearly define the problem you believe they are facing and consider how you can either validate or challenge that assumption.
Attendees: It is recommended to have three individuals present: the product manager, the product designer, and a rotating engineer from the team. The designer can guide the interview, the product manager can take notes, and the developer can observe.
Interview process: Maintain a natural and informal atmosphere, asking open-ended questions and focusing on understanding their current behaviors and practices rather than solely their desires.
Post-interview: Debrief with your colleagues to ensure everyone has gained consistent insights and learnings. If any commitments were made to the customer during the session, be sure to follow through on them.
Validate product ideas: Enhance customer interviews by verifying product ideas, such as usability testing and value testing. Remember, the process doesn't have to end with the interview. Follow up by conducting user tests to gather valuable feedback on your latest product ideas.
Key Benefits:
Great source of product inspiration: Mastering the art of customer interviews is a vital skill for product managers and often sparks innovative product ideas.
Help the product team understand customer needs and interest in products or services, and what factors would prompt them to switch to your solution, and how to tailor marketing and sales effort accordingly.
They highlight pain points, allowing businesses to improve the customer experience
They foster empathy by providing insights into customer challenges and roadblocks
Customer interviews can identify new target audiences for potential expansion
They help businesses learn customer's lingo and vocabulary used by customers for effective communication
Customer interviews build trust and demonstrate commitment to customer success
Feedback from customers obtained through interviews guides successful business decisions
Special Mention: Focus Groups
This technique resembles customer interviews but involves a larger group comprising individuals with diverse characteristics, ideally from different target customer segments. It aims to gather structured information through qualitative research methods, including interviews, to understand reactions and perceptions towards a product or service. By extrapolating insights from this group, one can gain an understanding of what can be expected from a larger population. This technique proves especially valuable in the early stages of ideation, aiding in strengthening concepts or features by incorporating user feedback before investing in actual development.
Technique 2: Concierge Test
The concierge test is a recently coined term for a tried-and-true method. It involves taking on the customer's tasks ourselves, manually and personally. Imagine visiting a hotel concierge to request theater tickets for a sold-out show. While you may not be aware of the intricacies behind securing those tickets, you trust that the concierge is taking action on your behalf.
When Should we do it?
This technique is particularly useful at the start of the product discovery cycle as it does not require a prototype or product, essentially in this case the product manager is the product. It helps product manager to understand how customer are performing the task at the moment, and provide product manager with a first-person perspective of the pain point that customer faces.
How Does it work?
You become the concierge and perform tasks on behalf of the user or customer.
It differs from interacting with customer service or success staff, as it involves proactively helping customers before they reach out with a problem.
The concierge test entails directly assisting users and customers in accomplishing their goals or tasks.
It may involve observing and learning from users to understand their work processes and provide improved solutions.
With this method, you don’t actually need to build a product - Food on the Table - a tailored shopping list generator - is one good example. When Manuel Rosso founded the service, he didn’t have a website or an app. Instead he sold the service in person and generated the lists as he accompanied shoppers around the store.
Building an actual product is not necessary; for instance, Food on the Table generated personalised shopping lists without a website or app.
If you're developing a customer-enabling product, you can apply the same technique by learning from colleagues' job experiences.
The concierge test is most effective when conducted by the product manager, product designer, and an engineer.
Key Benefits:
Customer-centric perspective: Gain a deep understanding of the customer's pain and challenges, fostering empathy within the team and enabling the delivery of effective solutions.
No product development required: Instead of investing time and money in building an actual product or website, All you have to do is ask your customer: ‘Would you X service so you can achieve Y benefit?’. The whole thing is transparent to the customer and you will learn what works and doesn’t work without spending time and money making something first.
Direct interaction with customers: Engage with customers in their natural environment, observing how they would actually use the product. This ethnographic interaction not only generates feedback but also offers practical insights into the product's functionality and usability.
Technique 3: The Power of Customer Misbehaviour
In the past, product teams have primarily used two approaches to identify product opportunities:
Market-focused approach: Assess market opportunities and target areas where significant pain points exist for potential customers.
Technology-focused approach: Explore what technology or data enables, identifying new possibilities and matching them with significant pain points.
Both approaches have led to successful products, with the former following the market and the latter following technological advancements. However, there is a third approach that has been overlooked in the industry but has proven to be highly effective for certain companies.
This alternative approach involves embracing and encouraging customers to use products to solve problems beyond the intended scope or official support. By allowing customers to find unique uses and solutions, companies can uncover unexpected opportunities and tap into new market segments. This technique holds immense potential but requires careful consideration and may not be suitable for every organization.
When Should we do it?
This technique is effective both for start-ups when they are actively trying to find product-market-fit,.
When start-ups are trying to find product-market-fit, as this would uncover opportunities for pivoting when the existing use cases are not as compelling .
When the product has gained a solid user base and customers have shown a high level of engagement and creativity in finding unique solutions.
There is a need to expand the product's reach and tap into new market segments or customer groups.
How does it work?
Tips on encouraging customer misbehaviour:
Build product features that encourage customer misbehaviour: Mike Fisher explores the concept of customer misbehavior in his book, "The Power of Customer Misbehavior." Within the context of eBay, he highlights the presence of the "Everything Else" category, which emerged as a space where users could engage in transactions that eBay couldn't have predicted. Despite eBay's anticipation of various categories, significant innovations and surprises arose from observing customer behavior that deviated from the expected use cases. Examples include the trading of concert tickets, used cars, and other items that went beyond the traditional scope of eBay's offerings.
Embrace a positive and open-minded attitude: Instead of getting upset about customers using products for unintended purposes, view it as an opportunity for strategic advantage. Recognise that supporting these unique use cases can lead to valuable insights, customer satisfaction, and potential business growth.
Cultivate curiosity and exploration: When customers use your product in unexpected ways, be inquisitive and seek to understand the underlying problem they are trying to solve. Dig deeper into their motivations and identify patterns that emerge from these unconventional use cases. This exploration can unveil new product opportunities and guide future innovation efforts.
Special mention: Developer-lead Innovations
By providing a public API, companies essentially invite developers to explore the possibilities and unleash their creativity with the available services. It's an acknowledgment that developers can leverage these offerings to create amazing solutions that the company itself may not have envisioned.
Facebook's platform strategy serves as an excellent illustration of this approach. By granting access to their social graph, they discovered the multitude of possibilities that developers could unlock when leveraging this valuable asset.
Developers consistently prove to be a rich source of truly innovative ideas. With their deep understanding of emerging technologies and trends, developers are uniquely positioned to identify what is now achievable. Many groundbreaking innovations owe their success to these valuable insights.
Key Benefits:
Stimulating Customer Innovation: By fostering an environment that encourages customer misbehavior and unconventional use cases, organizations can tap into the creative potential of their customers. This can lead to innovative ideas, unexpected solutions, and unique perspectives that drive product evolution.
Unlocking Hidden Opportunities: Embracing customer misbehavior allows companies to discover untapped growth opportunities. By observing and learning from customers' unexpected uses of products or features, organizations can identify new market segments, unaddressed needs, and potential avenues for expansion.
Enhancing Customer Satisfaction: Supporting customers in their unintended use cases demonstrates a customer-centric approach and fosters a positive relationship. By being open-minded and receptive to their needs, organizations can build trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among their customer base. Additionally, this mindset can lead to valuable insights that help improve product design, usability, and overall customer experience.
Technique 4: Hack Days
There are two main types of hack days: directed and undirected. In an undirected hack day, participants are free to explore any product ideas that are loosely aligned with the company's mission.
On the other hand, a directed hack day focuses on a specific customer problem or business objective. Product teams self-organise and work on ideas that address the assigned objective, aiming to create prototypes that can be evaluated and potentially tested with real users.
The purpose of these self-organising groups is to encourage exploration, innovation, and the development of tangible prototypes that align with the company's goals.
When Should we do it?
Hack days would be very useful to unlock hidden potential within the wider organisation as people that don't usually work together get a chances to cooperate and compete to resolve problem. As a result of that, hack days are particularly useful to tackle hard customer problems and aspirational business objectives that requires a multi-disciplinary approach.
How does it work?
How to effectively utilise hack days:
Cultivate Positivity:
Positive energy is crucial for successful hack days. It enhances creative self- efficacy and the belief in generating and executing original ideas.
Lead with enthusiasm and positivity. Create a dedicated Slack channel, invite special guests, host an official kick-off, and introduce fun prizes to build anticipation.
Foster a joyful and playful environment to encourage team creativity, while ensuring a safe and comfortable atmosphere.
Break Down Hierarchies:
Set aside traditional reporting lines and expand collaboration beyond usual teams.
Encourage the entire team to embark on self-contained projects that can be executed within a single day.
Create opportunities for cross-company collaboration and emphasize that hack day projects don't necessarily need to align with company goals, allowing for unrestricted creativity.
Embrace Constraints for Enhanced Focus:
Hack days provide a limited timeframe, which acts as a catalyst for creativity.
The time constraint induces "challenge stress," releasing neurochemicals that heighten focus, strengthen social connections, and facilitate the flow state where the best work is often produced.
Foster Creativity Through Light Competition:
Encourage individual autonomy and intrinsic motivation by allowing team members to showcase their work.
Light-hearted competition can stimulate problem-solving and innovation.
Conclude the hack day with voting for the best projects and award fun prizes in multiple categories to celebrate achievements without intense competition.
Key benefits:
Facilitates the inclusion of engineers at ideation: Directed hack days offer two significant advantages, the first being the practical aspect of involving engineers in the ideation phase. Throughout this book, I have emphasised the valuable ideas that often arise from the engineering team, and it is essential to ensure their active participation. This technique ensures ongoing involvement and contribution from engineers.
Cultural - building a team of missionaries: This technique is effective at fostering a team of dedicated individuals driven by purpose rather than just financial gain. Engaging engineers in directed hack days allows them to delve deeper into the business context and assume a more substantial role in driving innovation.
Breaking out of norm: Encouraging team members to step out of their daily routines and explore new possibilities is a key benefit of directed hack days. This is particularly valuable in startup environments where teams are often occupied with overwhelming to-do lists, leaving little room for skill development or the creation of non-essential projects.
Technique 5: Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a widely recognised and effective approach for generating innovative ideas and solving problems. The goal is to generate a multitude of ideas within a set time limit, without any criticism or evaluation during the session. All ideas are documented, including even the most unconventional ones, to ensure they have a fair opportunity for consideration.
An ideal group size for brainstorming typically ranges from 6 to 10 people, allowing for ample exchange of ideas, clustering, and the possibility of merging concepts together. This size enables effective collaboration and diverse perspectives to enhance the brainstorming process..
When Should we do it?
Idea Generation: When starting a new product development process or seeking fresh ideas, brainstorming can be employed to generate a wide range of potential concepts and solutions.
Problem Solving: If you encounter a specific problem or challenge related to your product, brainstorming can help generate innovative solutions and approaches to address it effectively.
Product Improvement: Brainstorming can be used to continuously improve existing products by generating ideas for enhancements, new features, or ways to enhance user experience.
Market Expansion: When exploring opportunities for entering new markets or targeting different customer segments, brainstorming can help identify potential product adaptations or expansions.
How does it work?
These are some of the variation of brainstorming techniques that a product manager can consider:
Brainwriting: Participants write down ideas related to the topic without verbal discussion, promoting equal participation and avoiding bias towards the first idea.
Rapid ideation: Individuals generate as many ideas as possible within a time constraint, allowing for a high quantity of ideas and avoiding premature critique.
Figure storming/Role Storming: Participants adopt different roles to gain new perspectives and generate fresh ideas by imagining themselves as clients or managers.
Online brainstorming (brain netting): Using a central location like a shared document or online platform, team members contribute ideas asynchronously, accommodating remote teams and busy schedules.
Round-robin brainstorming: Each participant shares one idea in a round-robin fashion, ensuring equal participation and providing time for everyone to contribute before discussion or critique.
Step-ladder technique: Team members brainstorm in stages, with two people discussing ideas first and gradually adding more individuals to the discussion, allowing for a broader range of ideas and avoiding undue influence from initial ideas.
Mind mapping: Starting with one central idea, participants visually connect sub-ideas to explore different branches and connections, particularly suitable for visual thinkers.
Starbursting: After selecting an idea, the team uses six key questions (who, what, when, where, why, how) to thoroughly examine the idea from various angles and identify potential solutions.
Key Benefits:
Boosts team morale: Brainstorming in a group setting fosters a supportive and collaborative environment, enhancing team morale and bonding. Withholding criticism during idea generation promotes a positive atmosphere.
Stimulates creative thinking: Dedicated brainstorming time allows for the free flow of ideas and encourages employees to think creatively. It provides a space where half-formed ideas can be shared and built upon, sparking new and innovative solutions.
Harnesses diverse perspectives: Group brainstorming brings together individuals with different strengths and perspectives, leading to a wider range of ideas and more comprehensive problem-solving approaches. The collective wisdom of the team can result in unique and valuable insights.
Generates a large quantity of ideas: Group brainstorming generates a high volume of ideas, increasing the chances of discovering novel and effective solutions. While not all ideas may be feasible, the sheer quantity allows for cherry-picking the most promising concepts to pursue further in planning and execution stages.
Technique 6: SCAMPER
The SCAMPER technique is a creative thinking method by Bob Eberle and is used to generate new ideas and solutions by exploring different dimensions of an existing idea or problem.
Sometimes, all it takes is to study what you already have. Utilizing your current ideas or processes as a starting point can take you to places you never thought were possible.
SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for:
S - Substitute: Consider substituting or replacing components, materials, or processes with alternatives.
C - Combine: Explore opportunities to combine or integrate existing elements, concepts, or ideas in new and innovative ways.
A - Adapt: Adapt or modify existing features, functionalities, or processes to better suit the desired outcome or target audience.
M - Magnify/Minimize: Amplify or reduce certain aspects, characteristics, or components to enhance or simplify the idea or solution.
P - Put to another use: Explore alternative applications or contexts where the idea or solution could be used in a different way or serve a different purpose.
E - Eliminate: Identify and eliminate unnecessary or redundant elements, steps, or components to streamline and simplify the idea or solution.
R - Reverse/Rearrange: Consider reversing the order, sequence, or perspective of elements or rearranging components to create a fresh perspective or unlock new possibilities.
When Should we do it?
Product Improvement: Use SCAMPER to identify opportunities for improving an existing product or its features. By exploring each element of the product and applying the SCAMPER techniques, you can generate ideas for making substitutions, adaptations, or modifications that enhance its functionality, usability, or value.
Market Expansion: If you're looking to enter new markets or target different customer segments, SCAMPER can help you explore possibilities for adapting or repurposing your existing products to meet the unique needs or preferences of those markets.
How can we use it?
Choose an existing product, service, or idea as a starting point for improvement or future development.
Utilize the SCAMPER technique by asking questions about each of the seven elements.
Apply the questions to various aspects such as values, benefits, services, product attributes, pricing, and markets.
Evaluate the answers to identify any standout solutions or ideas for creating new products or enhancing existing ones.
Further explore the promising ideas to develop them into viable concepts.
Using the example of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc used SCAMPER in numerous ways: to sell restaurants instead of just burgers (Put to other uses), implement a self-service model to eliminate the need for waiters (Eliminate), and having customers pay before they dine (reverse)
Other examples of SCAMPER's application include as combined washer-dryer machines and smartphones that serve multiple functions like calculators, GPS, and cameras.
More information on how to use the SCAMPER matter here: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/learn-how-to-use-the-best-ideation-methods-scamper
Key Benefits:
Structured Framework for Creativity: SCAMPER stimulates creative thinking by providing a structured framework to generate new ideas and innovative solutions. It prompts individuals to think beyond conventional boundaries and explore different possibilities for improvement or transformation.
Systematically examine various aspects of a product: The SCAMPER technique encourages the generation of a large number of ideas by systematically examining and questioning various aspects of a product, service, or concept. By applying different SCAMPER prompts, individuals can uncover unique perspectives and opportunities for improvement or development.
Facilitates Problem Solving: SCAMPER helps in solving problems and overcoming challenges by providing a systematic approach to analyzing and modifying existing elements. It prompts individuals to consider alternative approaches, perspectives, and combinations that can lead to effective problem-solving and the development of innovative solutions.
Conclusion
Idea generation techniques play a crucial role in driving innovation and fostering creativity within organisations. I hope that you are able to use the secrets of generating brilliant product ideas mentioned here to unleash your idea generation capability.
By employing a variety of techniques such as customer interviews, brainstorming, SCAMPER, hack days, and more, teams can tap into the collective knowledge, insights, and perspectives of individuals to generate a wide range of ideas.
These techniques provide structured frameworks, encourage collaboration, and promote outside-the-box thinking, leading to the discovery of novel solutions and opportunities. Idea generation techniques not only help in developing innovative products and services but also foster a culture of continuous improvement and adaptability. Embracing these techniques enables organisations to stay ahead in a rapidly changing marketplace, meet customer needs, and thrive in today's competitive landscape.
However, it is important to note that simply generating ideas through these techniques does not automatically warrant their immediate implementation. While these ideas may be exciting, it is crucial to subject them to further testing and validation. This entails ensuring their value and usability for customers, feasibility for engineers, and viability for the overall business. Testing is necessary to determine the feasibility and potential success of these ideas before committing resources to their development. By conducting thorough testing and validation, organizations can make informed decisions and prioritize ideas that align with their goals and have the greatest potential for success.
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