Four lines are drawn above the statement and four lines
are drawn below the statement. The team first goes up
the ladder of abstraction redefining the problem statement to make it
more specific on
each line above
the problem statement. It then goes
down the line
below the problem statement, to
make the problem
statement broader
than the original statement. After 9 levels of problem
statements have been defined, the group can determine
the level at which they need to ideate based on appropriateness, specificity and level of control/influence.
Second Phase: Diverging/Generating Ideas
There are three major kinds of exercises for eliciting
ideas: creative, analytic and experiential. Within each of
these types of exercises there are hundreds of proven techniques for stimulating ideas.
Creative exercises force connections between irrelevant
thinking or metaphors and the ideation problem statement.
The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development relates the
story of a Hershey’s team that was asked to go on an imaginary vacation. One team went on a ski vacation in the Alps
and brought back a travel poster. Asked to describe it to the
rest of the participants, they imagined it with snow covered
mountains and “shoosh” marks curving down the mountainside. Someone suggested a white kiss with a chocolate
stripe curving down the side. This idea later became
Hershey’s Hugs.
Analytic exercises build morphologies between variables
that impact the problem statement, e.g., top customer
needs and key technologies. In the matrix exercise, a list of
sub-variables is made from these two variables and one set
of sub-variables is placed on the X axis and the other group
of sub-variables is set on the Y axis to form a matrix. The interior of the matrix is formed by pairing sets of sub-variables, which are then brainstormed. Another analytic
exercise is SCAMPER: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify,
Put to other uses, Eliminate and Reverse. Applying SCAMPER to ideas can yield surprising results.
Experiential exercises are like creativity exercises except
instead of imaging going on a ski trip, you actually go! The
team notes aspects of their experience and relates it back to
the problem statement. The PDMA Handbook notes that
British Airways modeled its Business First service based on
principles observed in Bentley automobiles.
