DCI-11 Harvest & Design – Module Overview

A look at the convergent thinking aspects of the Deliberate Creativity & Innovation model, with a focus on Idea Harvesting, potential solution Design & some basics of Implementation.

In this eModule we don’t attempt to cover all aspects of the design of ideas into solutions, primarily because there are so many variations and most participants and their organisations will already have reasonably well defined processes.  For possible new products or services, design often involves the modelling of emerging offerings, testing and trialling both technical aspects and customer acceptance criteria.  If the focus is a new business strategy rather than a product or service, there may be some review process to ensure fit with other strategies and the corporate vision.

Design will almost always involve some for of recommendation, review and approval process ranging from presenting to the CEO or guiding an idea through a Stage-Gate process of some sort. The key to success if to identify and understand the process your developing design will go through and then use the Design stage to guide it through to implementation.

In this module we look at Harvesting or how to manage the many ideas that will come from the Ideation stage, then we’ll look at how you can use SCAMMPERR and IPPCO to make your idea stronger, and lastly we will touch on some simple decision making techniques we’ve seen in action.

Design involves much more than what we present here, but this module will help get you started

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Learning Outcomes

  • Learn to manage hundreds of ideas into Affinities and categories for further development
  • Once harvested ideas need more design work before assessment. SCAMMPERR, IPPCO and DATT as well as Technical design may be needed
  • As solutions/designs emerge implementation usually follows standard company protocol.
  • Decision Making and Channelling ideas into reality still needs work

Content

  • 3 videos totalling 50 mins
  • Idea categorisation and harvesting
  • Designing Potential Solutions
  • Implementation

Mind Maps

Mind Map overview of this module on idea harvesting and concept design.

Worksheets

Notes and templates for use in the lesson.

Links

Link to Business.com that provides lots of info on new inventions. Worth a look.

Exercises for harvesting and strengthening ideas

To embed the lessons from this module, try this activity.  Select a focus area where you want to generate lots of ideas (aim for 50-100) or where you have already generated this number of ideas.  Generate the ideas using brainstorming, random word and/or concept extraction, or retrieve your existing ideas.  This will be easier if each idea is on a separate Post-It Note.  Then work through the ideas using convergent thinking:

  • Start by grouping them into like categories or affinities.
  • When you have done this, select a group with about 20 ideas and is of interest to you to do more work on.
  • Separate this group out from the other ideas – you aren’t rejecting the others, just focusing on an area of interest and potential.
  • Now work through the smaller group of ideas – harvest them as Ripe, Unripe or Concept – put a R, U, or C on the post-it. Don’t be too strict with this, there is often trouble seeing if something is Unripe or a Concept. Do your best.
  • If you find that your smaller group has a few Concepts emerging, regroup Ripe and Unripe ideas with these to create sub-groups.  This is giving you even more focus on emerging potential outcomes.
  • Now focus on a couple of the emerging concept areas and ripen any Unripe Ideas, develop some more ideas to build it further, and if you like do a concept extraction exercise on a couple of Ripe ideas.
  • The aim is to really let the emerging solution/outcome take greater shape.
  • Start now to bring your design into clarity – what is emerging?  Remember your initial focus. How is what is emerging addressing your focus/purpose?

When you have a potential solution/outcome/design/decision starting to develop, try using SCAMMPERR or IPPCO to develop it further, and then consider the next stages for possible implementation.

This activity will not likely be done quickly, so take your time, particularly if it is something you really want to work on.  Good Luck.