What’s the key to great product development? Excellent product ideas. After all, most multi-million dollar companies start with a single great idea.
Best Way To Come Up With Product Ideas
But coming up with great product ideas is easier said than done, and inspiration can often be elusive. However, you can’t just sit around waiting for inspiration — you have to go after it. In the words of famous writer Jack London, “Don’t loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don’t get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.” Here’s how to go after the inspiration you need to develop better product ideas.
Make use of semantic intuition
Bryan Mattimore is a renowned brainstorming expert and the author of Idea Stormers: How To Lead And Inspire Creative Breakthroughs. Mattimore has helped over 300 companies come up with better product ideas, and swears that the secret to success is semantic intuition.
According to Mattimore, semantic intuition “prompts participants to create new ideas by having them combine several categories of keywords to create a name for a new idea—and this is before they have any concept of what this newly named idea is,” Mattimore explains. The trick is to develop three different categories of words. Then, randomly combine words from each category to develop a new idea. This trick will help participants in brainstorming sessions make new connections and associations, and in turn, help them churn out fresh ideas.
Make use of visuals
Mattimore also says visuals can be a powerful additive to any brainstorming session and help get creative juices flowing. He explains that visuals can be powerful ways of “bringing to the surface intuitions, emotions and feelings.” Mattimore suggests that leaders bring pre-selected visuals to brainstorming sessions, then prompt participants to throw out ideas inspired by the visuals. Because pictures so powerfully depict different emotions and experiences. they can inspire teams to come up with different ideas for a range of different scenarios.
Don’t be afraid of bad ideas
Bad ideas can actually be excellent springboards to good ideas. Believe it or not, a powerful brainstorming technique involves throwing out an extremely horrendous idea in a brainstorming session, then have participants dissect the idea and redevelop it into one or more better ideas. Remember, no idea is ever useless, and in some cases, the types of ideas considered completely out of the box can actually help us change our perspectives.
Pivot International is a product design, development, and manufacturing firm with strengths in software development, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and industrial design. If you are interested in engineering a new product or updating an existing product, contact us at 1-877-206-5001 or request your free consultation today.
