How to Nurture New Ideas

Institutionalize Idea Generation

GOAL: Develop a regular process to solicit and record new ideas.

Few managers would admit that they're hostile to new ideas, but on the other hand, how many times have you heard (or said), "That would be nice, but we don't have enough [time, money, people]"? Or, "Great idea, but we did something like that once before, and it didn't pan out"? Companies that innovate well don't do so by accident; they make idea generation a priority for everyone — from the CEO to entry-level employees — and they have a process in place to solicit and collect new ideas so that suggestions don't get lost in the day-to-day shuffle.

"The point is having some systematic way that allows anybody in the organization to have a voice," says Tom Kelley, general manager of Ideo, a San Francisco company that helps corporate clients like Pepsi and Gillette foster new products and ideas. "That's opposed to a model that says, 'The smart people in the paneled office in the top floor have all the ideas, and everyone else is an implementer.'"

Take the example of Google executive Marissa Mayer, who regularly holds office hours, like a college professor, for employees who want to pitch ideas. One such casual meeting in 2003 led Mayer to the pet project of an Australian employee, who was developing a search engine for his own computer. Mayer helped assemble a team to work with him, and the group developed Google Desktop in just two months.

Of course, successfully nurturing good ideas doesn't mean that nobody ever says "no" — rigorous analysis and trial are crucial steps further down the road. But the beginning of the process should be open and encouraging, because there's nothing more disheartening than being told at the outset that your idea stinks. Indeed, negative feedback at the beginning of the process can be humiliating to the person on receiving end. Worse, it's toxic to successful idea generation over time, and it affects everyone in the office — not just the person with the idea.

As a practical matter, this means that managers have to work hard to identify the potential that may lie hidden within an imperfectly articulated idea suggestion. Kelley calls this "learning to squint." "When you squint," he says, "you ignore all the surface details of a prototype or idea, and you say, 'Hey, just looking at the shape of this idea, I think we might have something here.'"

Caterina Fake — cofounder of Flickr, the popular photo-sharing site now owned by Yahoo — agrees. "A lot of the time, you can't really see the shape of a product in the beginning," she says. "The first version of Flickr was an instant-messaging client where you could drag and drop photos into an IM conversation." The IM client was popular, she explains, but it wasn't a complete product in and of itself: "We had to keep iterating and iterating until we came up with the successful product, which was Flickr as you see it today."

Identify the Problems that Need Clever Solutions

Goal: Focus the idea-generation process where it can help the most.

Idea-friendly companies don't wait for employees to dazzle them with brilliant suggestions; they actively seek out new ideas, and looking for solutions to existing problems is often the best place to start.

At Texas Instruments, new product advances in electronics are the fuel that runs the company, so managers meet regularly to envision new products — by finding and agreeing on how to meet market needs. "We have brainstorming sessions around questions like, 'What is the problem or need we think we can address? How would we apply our technologies? How long is it going to take? What is the business potential?'" says Mark Denissen, who leads TI's strategic marketing sector. A few years ago the company made a major advance by asking why touch-screen technology had never worked very well. The resulting product — a new type of interface circuit — greatly improved PDAs, smart phones, monitors, point-of-sale terminals, PC tablets, and pagers. "Now you can touch those screens with your finger, scroll in and out, do all kinds of different movement," Denissen says. "It's helped the market for such devices explode."

Anthropological research — observing customers in the field — is another effective way to identify market needs. For Gillette's Oral-B brand, Ideo watched kids brushing their teeth and determined that most of them hold the brush in their fist, not in their fingertips like adults. "The result of that insight was the first kids' toothbrush with a fat, squishy handle," says Kelley of Ideo. "Every toothbrush company seems to make such a product now, but the Squish-Grip was the best-selling kid's toothbrush in the world for a year after its release."

Filter and Prioritize

Goal: Gather a team to decide which ideas are worth pursuing.

Regardless of how many ideas you start out with, you only want to fund, prototype, and test those that have real potential to succeed. That means a significant amount of attention must be devoted to hearing each idea, deciding which ones to decline and which to support, and negotiating political battles or other potential project killers.

This work requires multiple points of view, which is why many companies form an institutionalized group devoted to idea management. In many cases, such groups consist of people from a variety of disciplines within the company who have collectively volunteered to look at new ideas on a regular basis.

At Black & Decker, for example, a product idea goes to the Advanced Engineering department, where it's evaluated against criteria like whether it fits within the company's core competencies, whether it's unique, and whether there's a strong need for it. "Meanwhile, my department defines and gathers consumer insights through market research," says Sharianne James, director of strategic marketing for Black & Decker's appliance division. "Our two groups meet on a regular basis and collate the top-tier ideas." Those move along to an Innovation Board of executives representing most major departments. "If it passes the Innovation Board screen," James says, "it makes it to end-user testing, which we do with a market-research firm."

The selection process should be rigorous. Here's what you'll need to do to get started:

• Form a team: You need an assortment of players with different sets of skills — both those who can view the big picture (how this idea fits within the company's business model and the market) and those who know the nitty-gritty details (experts whose work relates directly to the proposals). Any department that will be affected should be included.


• Assign tasks: Some ideas may require a lot of research and analysis between team meetings. Assign each team member an aspect of the prioritization and analysis process. Tasks could include reading and grading proposals and gathering necessary support from other important parties in or out of the company.


• Communicate: Don't waste meeting time learning what the ideas are. Give team members the chance to read and comment on proposals in advance.


• Establish criteria: Ideas should meet strict standards before they receive funding. Questions might include: Does it solve a problem?; Is it within our company's core competency?; Does it fit in with our long-term business strategy and goals?; and What is the return on investment?


• Set a schedule: You can't just throw money at a project and expect it to succeed: milestones and deadlines create a structure for progress — as well as opportunities for support and guidance.

Field Test the Very Best

GOAL: Prototype the strongest ideas, and try them out in the real world.

Once you've decided that an idea is worth pursuing, it's time to put resources behind it, says Jim O'Connor, vice president of Motorola's Early Stage Accelerator Program, which funds the development of new ideas within the company. Rather than betting the farm on one or two ideas, the ESA spreads funding among 30 or so a year, knowing that many will fail. "You're asking questions like, 'What if we get that to market in a year?'" he says. "That might include early customer trials and other market research. You're taking it out of PowerPoint and making it real, which means a lot of testing. That's how you get it to graduation."

For Hollywood movie studios like Universal or 20th Century Fox, this means screening rough cuts of new pictures for test audiences. At a sneaker company like Nike or Reebok, it means working with athletes to test samples. For Motorola, it's bringing different groups into the lab to test prototypes and debate their merits. "We bring together researchers, designers, marketers, and customers to battle over a business model," O'Connor says. "They're constantly challenging each other with different perspectives. The point is to think beyond the confines of our organization and from the perspective of the marketplace." Only ideas that survive the battle and prove themselves move forward into production.

O'Connor emphasizes that fostering new ideas is an inherently disruptive process — but smart companies find a way to embrace the upheaval. "It's hard for an operating business to disrupt itself," he says. "That's why we started the Early Stage Accelerator Program."