Essay On Idea Generation Techniques

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Why do businesses and people aspiring to start a business need to generate ideas? Is it not just a simple case of noticing a niche in the market and going out and providing that product or service?
It is not always as simple as “build it and they will come”. Most products and services always have room to improve, and before a business taps into one of these markets they should first try to establish how it can be improved. Ways of carrying out such tasks are through idea generation techniques. The same goes for existing products and services which need to be improved.
There are many ways of generating ideas, which include;
• Questioning Assumptions
• Triggered Brainwalking
• Opportunity redefinition
• Creative Problem Solving
• Brainwriting https://www.innovationmanagement.se/2013/05/30/the-7-all-time-greatest-ideation-techniques/ Four Main Techniques
There are many more among these but in this study we will only be looking at four of the main idea generation techniques
Focus Groups
Focus groups are one of the most common types of idea generation techniques used worldwide. The main point of hosing a focus group session is that a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.
Questions are asked in an interactive group setting where participants are free to talk with other group members. Everyone’s opinion is valued and there are no wrong answers.
The first ever focus group was held in Ernest Dichter's house in a room he built above his garage. They have come a long way since then.
Advantages to holding focus groups include the following;
• The Ability Of The Participants To Interact With Each Other
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The outcome of using this type of idea generation can be advantageous to the business as it can highlight a problem with a certain type of product, giving the business an opportunity to expand into this market or improve an existing product or service that they already provide.
Reverse Brainstorming
Reverse Brainstorming is very similar to the original brainstorming activity except that criticism is allowed. The focus is on the negative aspect of a product or service which means that extra care must be taken to ensure group morale is preserved.
The way the process is generally run is the identification of everything wrong with an idea and then having a discussion about ways to overcome the problems.
It is overall a very interesting technique and it can be very useful in remedying a recurrent problem to which it is difficult to find a solution.

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