Product Overview

This exercise teaches participants how to generate ideas and brainstorm and helps to remove the perception that idea generation is a process that only “super-creative people” can do well. It not only shows participants how to generate valuable ideas, but also highlights barriers to doing so. Suitable for students in either full-time or executive MBA programs as well as executive education programs, this exercise can also be used in any setting aimed at exposing students to the benefits of idea generation by providing some structure for the process. Most commonly, this exercise is used in classes aimed at teaching product development, design thinking, and innovation processes. It has been used in classes focusing on entrepreneurship as well as those focused on innovation within large organizations.

Learning Objectives

Recognize the relationship between the number of ideas generated and novelty of those ideas. Recognize that value is not necessarily created by increasing an idea’s novelty; value as determined by an idea’s novelty depends on a user’s current experiences. Appreciate the benefits of both individual and group idea generation. Understand how to decompose experiences into functions and attributes. Recognize the need to identify all stakeholders associated with a user’s experience. Recognize that steps or functions can be shifted, removed, and/or reallocated.