What to do with potentially good ideas...

Since this is the business brainstorm

What do you do when you have a brainstorming session and you get the initial list of ideas of things that you could do: whether they be new marketing ideas, or perhaps ways to increase sales of a product and so forth.

In other words, what is the process that whittles down to the really good ideas and scrutinises in more detail whether to go with each idea. How do you recognise a good idea and whether it is worth pursuing, one to keep for later, or one to discard completely.

Is there some sort of checklist of questions out there to sanity check such ideas against or is it just a matter of what feels right to you and the experienced people within your business?

Re : What to do with potentially good ideas

It's called the Idea Funnel and it is available as part of the Guerrilla MBA software at http://www.clickok.org

There is a distinct process of creativity (problem identification and idea generation) and a distinct process of innovation (idea selection, development and commercialization).

The software contains an "Innovation Roadmap" whereby the process of innovation (idea selection, development and commercialization) is detailed. Essentially it is a balance between giving ideas enough resources to come to fruition and balancing those resources amongst many ideas, of which only a few will come to fruition.

The software is also good for other business models and processes.

Good Luck.

Re : What to do with potentially good ideas

Discuss your good ideas with those you are closest to, patent them if you can, then make a fortune developing them

Re : What to do with potentially good ideas

Haha, well said Sasha!

On a serious point, I think it is very hard to KNOW FOR SURE something is a great idea. But you can help to work out what is NOT a good idea more easily: you will get negative feedback on it straight away from those whose opinions you trust around you.

With the ideas that most people struggle to criticise, I guess that's an indication you could be onto a winner.

If I knew what to do from there, I might be better off than I am

Re : What to do with potentially good ideas

Implement them.

Coming up with good ideas is easy. Execution is difficult - yuo don't actually know if they're good or not until they've been successfully executed.

Re : What to do with potentially good ideas

And even if you can't implement them now - keep brief notes on every thought, develop it with time and never, ever abandon it.
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