Ideation in Action

Name: Ideation in Action
Author: Laura Portolese

In these lessons, you’ll learn how to run an effective ideation session. You’ll also learn about best practices, such as setting an agenda and goals, and how…

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Course: On-Demand

What exactly does ideation look like in action? The following lessons will address how ideation fits into the context of marketing, how to run an ideation workshop, and what to do with new ideas after having a workshop. According to the Design Thinking model, a successful ideation process follows six different stages: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement. The Empathize Stage revolves around identifying and researching the problem you want to solve. For example, let's say you want to investigate your company's low engagement on social media. During this stage, you will gather background information and statistics to better understand the problem, then you can move on to the Define Stage, which requires a statement of focus. Maybe your company's low engagement on social media is due to the fact that you are posting irrelevant content. By researching and defining the specific issue, your team will have a better chance of finding a solution. Together, the empathize and define stages, allow you to better understand your organization's needs, strategic direction, and goals for ideation. During the Ideate Stage, your team will come up with solutions to the problem you've researched and defined. For example, your team members may pitch some ideas to improve your social media engagement by appealing to certain trends or using platforms that excite followers. With the right encouragement, your team can develop solution-oriented ideas that target the main problem. Once you filtered your ideas and selected the best ones, you'll start the Prototype Stage. This process involves creating models or other representations of your ideas and deciding how they will function, serve the market and meet your goals. Their prototype stage allows team members to workshop and outline ideas to give them a better chance of succeeding. Once an idea is fully formed in the prototype stage, the Test Phase will allow your team to evaluate its effectiveness. This could mean asking for feedback from customers or other company's staff. Once the idea is tested, team members can analyze the results and make improvements. When the idea is finalized, your team can then move on to the Implement Stage, which is simply integrating the new idea into your work and strategy. When a marketing team starts generating ideas consistently, they may eventually need a system to keep track of how certain ideas relate to target goals. Doblin's Innovation Framework can help companies categorize different ideas so they can be used to solve complex problems in the marketing operations. The innovation framework involves 10 different categories of ideation, including profit model, which helps companies discover different ways to obtain profit from a product or service, such as a new product offering. Network, which allows companies to categorize different connections they make, inside and outside of their organization, to add value to products and services. For example, utilizing a new supplier that can produce less expensive products, may add value for customers on a budget. Structure, which focuses on the interconnected elements of an organization or department. Making changes in this area can help companies be more agile and leverage the talent they have. Process, which focuses on the operations within an organization or department. Ideas for change in this area can help make companies more efficient. Product performance, which looks at distinguishing features or functions that make a company's product or service ultra competitive. Product system, which considers complementary products that a company can offer in addition to existing products and services. For example, if a company sells tile and installation services, then they can also offer materials for DIY consumers to install themselves. Service, which focuses on support and enhancements that a company can make to improve customer service efforts. Channel, which focuses on how products and services can be delivered to customers most efficiently. Brand, which considers how a company can make changes to their branding or promotional strategy to harness additional brand equity and customers. And customer engagement, which looks at what ideas a company can implement to help involve and excite customers. Now that you have a method to categorize your ideas, you are ready to facilitate your own ideation session.

Beginner Provider : Laura Portolese 3 Lessons · 14m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese

Course Description

In these lessons, you’ll learn how to run an effective ideation session. You’ll also learn about best practices, such as setting an agenda and goals, and how to manage the actual ideation session. Finally, you’ll gain knowledge of how to categorize your ideas, prioritize them, and act on the best ones.

What You'll Learn

Explain the product or service development stages and apply them to ideation
Run an effective ideation session using best practices such as setting an agenda and goals
Manage the ideation session itself from start to finish
Categorize and prioritize the ideas generated in a session
Evaluate, implement, and act on the best ideas from your ideation session

Key Takeaways

Effective ideation sessions benefit from best practices such as setting an agenda and clear goals.
Understanding the product or service development stages helps you apply them to the ideation process.
Ideas from a session should be categorized, prioritized, and acted upon to turn them into reality.
Managing the actual ideation session is a key skill in producing usable ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to run an effective ideation session, including best practices such as setting an agenda and goals, how to manage the session, and how to categorize, prioritize, and act on the best ideas.

What lessons does this course include?

The course includes three lessons: Building the Development Stages, Running an Ideation Workshop, and Turning Ideas into Reality.

What skills does this course help develop?

It supports skills including Critical Thinking, Team Building, Creative Strategies, and Health Promotion.

How are ideas handled after an ideation session?

The course covers how to categorize your ideas, prioritize them, and act on the best ones, along with how to evaluate and implement the ideas from your session.