Ideastorming: 8 Questions to Ask When Evaluating an Idea You Think You Want to Pursue

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”? - Oscar Wilde

We use a process called “Ideastorming” to generate visionary ideas for evaluating what’s the next best move for our company.?

The key to a productive Ideastorm is having creative license to list as many ideas as possible (quantity) paired with a healthy time constraint to help you go faster and get to the right problem (quality).

I recommend a time constraint to do these questions, so that you stay in the space of vision, instead of strategy or mobilization. A standard pomodoro timer of 25 minutes is a good start. If you don’t finish within the 25 minutes, just set another. But, I recommend you try to get through the 8 questions in one session.?

You can also do this with team members, if you have them. Again, the key is to do it within a time box for the first time, and you can iterate from there later.?

Now, the questions.

1. Where do we want the business to be in the future? Alternatively: where do we want society/the human race/the world to be?
2. What is one idea that can take us to a new and better future??
3. What problem does this idea solve?
4. Is this THE problem that we want to focus on?
5. What are some alternative ideas?
6. Circling back to the first idea: is this idea big enough, or are we playing too small?
7. Flip it around: if we wanted to create the problem, instead of solve it, what would we do? How could we make the problem bigger, worse or more pervasive? (this is a thought experiment that may reveal an even better idea)
8. Given everything in #1-7 above, is the first idea still our favorite to pursue?

A few other notes as you Ideastorm.

You have full permission to be silly, wild, outrageous or controversial. This is not a “how” exercise. Nor is it a “judgment” exercise. You’ll work on those when you do the Strategize and Mobilize steps once you’ve done your Ideastorm.

In my book, Unicorn Team: The Nine Leadership Types You Need to Launch Your Big Ideas with Speed and Success, I go into more details on how to use Ideastorming as a visionary tool.?

SUMMARY

Set a pomodoro timer and do an Ideastorm for some of the ideas that are rumbling around in your head so you can get them in front of you.?

In my next article, I’ll continue sharing the Unicorn Innovation Model and how to move into the “What” and “How” so you can feel confident you have a vetted idea worth implementing.

What was your biggest takeaway from this article? And if it helped in any way, please share it with a colleague or friend. You can read more at TheJenKem.com.