Innovation Generator
The Innovation Generator is a structured ideation method designed to help teams identify and address customer needs by leveraging existing or potential inventions. By exploring the intersection of customer problems and company innovations, teams can develop targeted solutions that drive business growth.
How to run it
- 1
Distribute post-its and markers to all participants.
- 2
Draw three columns on a whiteboard labeled: 'Customers’ Problems', 'Invention/Value', and 'Innovation'.
- 3
Have participants brainstorm customer problems and write them on sticky notes to place in the first column.
- 4
As a group, select about five inventions or potential inventions from your company, jot these on different colored sticky notes, and place them in the second column.
- 5
Discuss and note down the additional values of these inventions that could address the customer problems.
- 6
Collaborate to create new innovations by combining the values and inventions to solve the identified problems.
Tips
Encourage participants to think beyond the obvious solutions and explore unconventional uses of existing inventions.
Make sure the focus remains on solving real customer problems to ensure relevance and impact.
Variations
For larger groups, divide participants into smaller teams and have each team focus on different customer segments or product lines to generate diverse ideas.
Where it fits
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from Gamestorming.