Once you’ve generated an abundance of great ideas, how do you select the best ones to further explore? Picking the wrong ideas can waste time and money. Let’s explore the top 10 ways to choose the best ideas:
1. Mach 10 Innovation – Let your customers decide. Develop ideas only as far as necessary before bringing them to clients. Rather than a fully developed software application, for example, create a 1-page spec sheet. This is the equivalent of an architect creating a book of 200 home plans and letting the customer select instead of building 200 houses.
2. The Poker Chip Method – Give each person on your team 10 poker chips (pennies will do) and let them “vote” their chips however they want. A person could put all 10 on one idea they feel especially passionate about, or spread their chips across their favorite three ideas. This technique will give you a quick read of where the passion of your team lies.
3. Prototyping – Anything you can do to make your idea real will help you evaluate it. Even a crude prototype made of Play-Dough can help you assess the value of your idea. Is the idea a service? Role-play it out and see if your excitement increases or shrinks.
4. The Values Test – Benchmark your idea against your values. For example, the game maker Cranium only develops products if they are “CHIFF”. This is a word invented at the company that stands for Clever, High-quality, Innovated, Family-friendly, and Fun. This benchmark helps them sort out the best ideas.
5. The Idea Swap – Have everyone select their favorite idea, and then debate the merits of their idea… but from the opposite side. In other words, if you love idea #1, you “swap” that idea with a colleague. Your colleague has to debate why idea #1 is great, and your job is to passionately argue why it stinks. As the dialog gets heated, you’ll discover which ideas stand up to this intense scrutiny.
6. The Report Card – Make a list of the attributes that are most important to you. For example: Risk, Investment, Payback time, Upside, and Brand fit. Next, give each idea you are considering a “report card” based on these characteristics. Use a 1-10 scale for each attribute, and see which ideas make the honor roll and which should be in detention.
7. The Double-Win – Simply put, do any of your ideas give you the double win of both helping you and hurting your competition? If so, give these ideas special attention and consider them carefully.
8. The Blue Sky Test – As you compare various ideas, sort the ones that are truly forging new ground. Which ones can create a sustainable competitive advantage vs. the ones that merely create a small, incremental improvement. While big ideas can be riskier, these are the ones that make a difference for both your company and your career.