2.01 Identify methods/techniques to generate a venture/product idea

Key Terms

Attribute Listing-focuses on an attribute or an object in order to determine how the attribute can be improved. Ex. Cell phone features.

Lateral Thinking-Solving problems through an indirect or creative approach. Ex. Thinking outside of the box.

Analogies- Similarity of like features of two things. Ex. Comparing

Associations-A mental connection or relation between thoughts, feelings, ideas or sensations.

Brainstorming-is a creative-thinking technique involving the identification of as many different ideas as possible during a certain time frame.

Key Terms

Synectics-bringing different things together to create a unified connection.

Sketching and doodling-Letting your subconscious do the drawing.

Forced questioning-Force people to choose between two choices when neither of the choices could be the answer or needs further explanation. Ex. Is this yellow or green?

Morphological Analysis-Systematically structuring and investigating many possible relationships of complex problems. Ex. Used to create a new product.

Entrepreneurial Discovery

The process of systematically scanning for technological, political, and regulatory, social, and demographic changes to discover opportunities to produce new goods and services.

Contributions of Entrepreneurial Discovery to Society

Entrepreneurs are the mechanism by which our economy turns demand into supply.

They recognize consumer wants and see the economic opportunities in satisfying them.

They are a principle source of venture capital.

Through their process of planning and setting up a new business, entrepreneurs gather resources to use or fund their business – money is the most important resource.

Contributions of Entrepreneurial Discovery to Society

Entrepreneurs usually start with their own funds and then seek out contributions from public and private investors.

Entrepreneurs provide jobs.

Successful entrepreneurs change society Steve Jobs and Steve Woznak set out to create the Apple

computer in their garage. Within 5 years they started and industry.

Henry Ford was able to mass produce the automobile to be purchased by anyone and revolutionized the manufacturing industry.

The role of criticism in idea creation

Criticism can be difficult to hear.

Don’t take it personal

Some of your most important lessons can come from complaints and criticism.

Discussion points: As a business owner, how would you address these criticisms?

The package is too hard to open

The cake doesn’t taste fresh

Your services are too expensive

His store is very difficult to find

Changes that encourage entrepreneurial discovery

Technological

Political

Legal

Regulatory

Social

Demographic

Entrepreneurs vs. Non-Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs seem to demonstrate the following characteristics. Remember that non-entrepreneurs may also have some of these characteristics. Commitment and determination

Leadership

Opportunity obsession

Tolerance for risk and ambiguity

Creativity, self-reliance, and ability to adapt

Motivation to excel

Social nature

Entrepreneurs Capitalize on the following:

Life experiences

Person’s position in a social network

Nature of the search process a person uses

Ability to focus on the opportunities

Intelligence

Entrepreneurs tend to be more alert to opportunities

Areas of Entrepreneurial Discovery

The introduction of a new good or a new quality of a good

The introduction of new method of production

The opening of a new market

The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or components

The reorganization of any industry

Strategies for Entrepreneurial Discovery

Types of brainstorming techniques

Define the problem

Share ideas without criticism

Build on others ideas Pose an initial question

Use word association

Identify a challenge

Why learn about techniques for idea generation?

Someone somewhere at sometime came up with the idea for every item that you see around

So that you can invent the next great product

Product ideas come from different places—existing products made better or brand new products

Ideation is the process of generating and developing new ideas

One of the primary purposes in business is to generate ideas for new goods and services

Businesses need product ideas because. . .

Markets change constantly

They need to stay ahead of the competition

Product life cycles are becoming shorter

Where do businesses look for inspiration for need products?

Trends—the general direction in which people or events are moving (fashion, TV, music, etc) by studying trends, business get a sense of what customers need—examples: health and fitness, baby boomers needs, communication needs.

Customers—observe and notice when problems exist of people seem to have an unfulfilled need—talk with them (surveys, focus groups, satisfaction cards, one-on-one conversations)—talk to the people who deal with the customers (salespeople)

Existing products—find the limitation and make them better—look to develop complimentary products (they “go with” another product)—look to develop substitute products (takes the place of another product)—examples: blu-ray to replace DD and digital books to replace hard/paperback books

Methods of creative thinking used to generate new product ideas

1. Lateral thinking methods—involve approaching an issue from new illogical directions and using illogical methods to develop new ideas Brainstorming includes relay, round robin, brain drawing, free

association, forced questioning, synectics, forced analogies, starbursting, mind mapping

Relay—teams responding to teammates ideas in a certain order

Round robin—no teams—participants respond in order

Brain drawing—members add to drawings to try to develop a product

Free association—state the first thing that comes to mind

Methods, continued

Forced questioning—used to answer a specific question

Synectics—making connections through forced relations (two items that seem unrelated to find a new practical combination)—more time consuming than brainstorming but it is good when other creative methods have failed)

Forced analogies—using metaphors and similes to create connections where non exist (i.e., waiting on the bus on a cold day-- think of other times you wait, like a doctors’ office to help you come up with a solution)

Starbursting—draw a 6 pointed star and write the product opportunity in the middle—write the following words at the tip of the star (who, what, why, when, where and how)—answer each question based on the recognized product opportunity

Methods, continued

Mind mapping—in the center of the paper write the main problem, which the market opportunity that you identified—from the starting point, draw a line to other words and phrases that are related to the main idea—from each of the these words, draw other lines that relate to the particular word and so on—this helps to expand thinking and get lots of different ideas down on paper

Methods, continued

2. Programmed thinking methods—organized, logical, and analytical thinking techniques

Attribute listing—list the products characteristics that make it unique from other goods then find ways to improve those attributes

Morphological analysis—list a products characteristics then combine some or all of those to create a new product

Making it pay

New product ideas are essential for long term business success

No two businesses use the same exact method to develop products