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The Ideation Process

IDEATION The ideation process can take several forms. Here we outline a general approach
to producing innovative business model options:

1. team composition 4. criteria selection
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Key question: Is our team suffi ciently diverse to generate fresh Key question: What are the most important criteria for prioritizing
business model ideas? our business model ideas?
DESIGN Assembling the right team is essential to generating effective new business model After expanding the range of possible solutions, the team should defi ne criteria for

ideas. Members should be diverse in terms of seniority, age, experience level, business reducing the number of ideas to a manageable few. The criteria will be specifi c to the
unit represented, customer knowledge, and professional expertise. context of your business, but could include things such as estimated implementa-
tion time, revenue potential, possible customer resistance, and impact on competitive
2. immersion advantage.
Key question: Which elements must we study before generating
business model ideas?
5. “prototyping”
Ideally the team should go through an immersion phase. which could include general
Key question: What does the complete business model for each
research, studying customers or prospects, scrutinizing new technologies, or assessing shortlisted idea look like?
existing business models. Immersion could last several weeks or could be as short as a With criteria defi ned, the team should be able to reduce the number of ideas to a
couple of workshop exercises (e.g. the Empathy Map). prioritized shortlist of three to fi ve potential business model innovations. Use the
Business Model Canvas to sketch out and discuss each idea as a business model
3. expanding prototype (see p. 160).
Key question: What innovations can we imagine for each business
model building block?
During this phase the team expands the range of possible solutions, aiming to generate
as many ideas as possible. Each of the nine business model building blocks can serve as
a starting point. The goal of this phase is quantity, not quality. Enforcing brainstorming
rules will keep people focused on generating ideas rather than on critiquing too early in
the process (see p. 144).

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