5 Serious Techniques for Start-up Ideation

Ideation or creating an idea is a skill as well as related to human understanding of ideas, observation and power of clarity in thoughts. Idea generation can be done through various methods. Sometimes sitting under a tree makes you think of a solution or sometimes when you are in a lot of pain or argument with somebody you get an idea. All it needs is your seriousness and thought process. I have experienced it many times.

SCAMPER name is an acronym which can be elaborated as S for Substitute, C for compare, A for Adapt, M for modify, P for putting to other use, E for eliminate, and R for reverse.

Focus group discussion is a great technique for ideation. IN FGD a total of 5-8 people with similar knowledge and mindset are brought into a place. Acertain problem is discussed with them and asked to relate to the problem.

It is nowhere in the list but I believe for introverts this is a favourite technique. The process is easy and it is like watching tv for many hours. Sometimes we have a human resource problem where inputs are needed to declare somebody as fast or slow, good or bad, reliable or non-reliable, punctual or not.

As I already discussed brainstorming is a powerful technique. Even newton used this technique to understand the gravity problem through a falling apple. Brainstorming is a powerful technique for individuals and groups. Brainstorming can help you imagine what is beyond or what you never thought. For example, I recently conducted one session with students and asked them to tell me what are the different uses of a whiteboard marker, when it stops writing. The results were awesome you can list down few here as well.

Another vibrant way to create ideas for business or solving a problem. In free association members are given statement without explanation and then a certain word or noun is chosen like OCEAN, MOUNTAIN, HORSE, HOUSE. These words are names but all of them have certain characteristics which distinguish them from other.

It is well-celebrated technique for ideation and it also removes many problems faced in brainstorming or focus group discussions. The facilitator distributes members with notebooks and there is an explained problem written or posted to the notebook. The facilitator may discuss the problem and provide a timeline and then take followups from the participants.

Here it ends, but you can learn more about these techniques by pushing the link for the article above.