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Ideation is the process of generating new ideas, which can be accomplished through of ideation techniques. Ideation helps CEO determine the right solution for your problems. “Ideation” is the third phase of the design thinking process. The ideation phase is critical for the outcome of the innovation process and business development. These techniques used to be collectives as they can involve all the stakeholders. Some of these techniques are brainstorming, brainwriting, drawnstorming, SCAMPER, mind maps, among others. Ideation techniques are not only effective in creating a business but also in entrepreneurship within established companies. Through these methods, collaborative processes are created that stimulate creativity and develop ideas adapted to any kind of situation.
The case Ericsson “Idea boxes”
Ericsson is a company of technology, business innovation in communications, digital computing, mobile systems, and services. They began implementing a collaborative idea management system called “Idea Boxes” in 2008. Idea Boxes is a system Idea boxes is a system based on virtual “boxes” where employees deposit their innovative ideas for specific problems. The aim was to achieve collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas and to reduce the number of different and incompatible systems. The company was interested in getting these ideas from the employees as they are the ones who can identify problems most quickly. In this way, the company obtains its own bank of ideas, which can be accessed by the different employees and used to solve any problems that may arise.
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Who knows a company better than someone who works for it?
Employees are your allies. One of the best stakeholders in the ideation process are the employees of a company. The people who face the company’s problems on a daily basis are the ones who will have the best feedback, as their knowledge on the subject will be greater. It is therefore important to build ideation groups within the company. This encourages internal participation and the organisation of ideas by department or topic. The more informal the ideation techniques are, the more participation you will have.
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Ideation it’s a good idea
As we have seen, there are several techniques that can be implemented in the ideation process, some of which may be established or some of which may be adapted to each company. Many companies face daily challenges by looking for external solutions when they can be found within themselves through these processes. Create an ideation phase that gives companies different approaches at all levels, from production to management, and they can give much more value to their company by boosting its development. Moreover, these techniques can be applied more easily and at a lower cost thanks to new technologies. Such as the ease of brainstorming via video call or a mind map in the cloud that can be lost or in a more anonymous way encouraging participation. As we have seen in the Ericsson case, companies that implement ideation techniques have better results in the market as well as a better capacity to respond to problems.
Björk, J.. (2012). Knowledge Domain Spanners in Ideation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 21(1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8691.2012.00627.x
Beretta, M., Björk, J., & Magnusson, M.. (2018). Moderating Ideation in Web‐Enabled Ideation Systems. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 35(3), 389–409. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12413