How to have an abundance of ideas by Michael Allen of TalkFreely

HOW TO HAVE AN
ABUNDANCE OF IDEAS
Michael Allen
Ready my blog www.everythingbrilliant.co.uk
@Brillianttideas
Learn more about idea management software
www.TalkFreely.com
Copyright Michael Allen, EverythingBrilliant.co.uk 2014

About me…..
- Innovator
- Speak, blog about and help organisations innovate
- Partner in a idea management software business called TalkFreely
- I ‘walk the talk’ and share all my ideas online

IDEAS STICK

 Ideation tools
 How to make
ideas stick
 Getting beyond
‘just the idea’

My view of Intrapreneurship
• Another way for organisations to innovate
• Disrupts and is less disruptive than the
dominant approach
• Can address the ‘culture problem’ by focussing
on the already engaged
• Develops the most talented employees

Why I share my ideas
- Because all things are difficult before
they are easy
- While you can invent on your own, you
can’t innovate on your own
- The idea is the first and easiest step
- The more ideas you have, the more
ideas you have

First, the basics

What are ideas?

It’s as simple as that

MORE CONNECTIONS = MORE IDEAS

Go where smart people go

Be inquisitive

Go where ideas thrive

Figure out how things wor
Figure out how things work

Be a free thinker

Allow an idea to keep
you awake at night

Exercise your idea muscles

#IdeaHacksTake something and hack it by
changing or re-organising some of
the components to create new value
#12bricks
Thinking with your hands, 12 Lego bricks,
millions of ideas
#Differentiation
Stimulate ideas by broadcasting challenges to
discreet communities of users
#Challenges
#Reverse InnovationRather than ask for ideas, ask the opposite
then reverse them

#12bricksJust 12 LEGO™ bricks, millions of ideas
- It’s the simplest metaphor for innovation
- It’s thinking with your hands
- I need four volunteers please!

Take just 12 bricks

Children
Just play, they start putting bricks on bricks and see what they
can create

Adults
Try to visualise, to think of something to create first
If we can break that instinct, and get them to
experiment – to ‘think with their hands’,
eventually the ideas flow

But when we set a Challenge
“make something useful for your work desk”, we generally follow
a process; ideate, prototype, test, improve, build

What did the
volunteers make?
#2, make an animal
I think he said it was a
swan
#3, make a small
box, for instance, to
take a pill to work
This was great, exactly as I
specified. The door even has a
handle!
#4, make
something for your
desk
#1, make anything you
want, the first thing
that comes to mind
I think this was a
robot toy for the
maker’s Son

Use it…
- With people that aren’t used to structured ideation or
workshop activities
- As a way to ‘warm-up’ the idea muscles
- To describe what (and actually do some) innovation
- It demonstrates that anyone can do this
- To illustrate the paradox that creativity can be enhanced by
setting restrictions
- How did our volunteers get on
www.12bricks.co.uk
@just12bricks
facebook.com/12bricks

#Idea HackingTake something and ‘hack it’ by changing;
- or re-organising some of the components
- the utility (what it’s for and does)
- the value proposition (what it offers people)
- the configuration (the way it is sold or offered)
- the Customer experience (how people use and interact with it)

Let’s hack the Mars-bar
1. Its nougat, topped with caramel, and wrapped in chocolate. Hack the order
2. Hack the components and substitute the caramel with something else
3. It’s a high-calorie snack. Hack the utility, what else could it be?
4. It’s a low-cost snack. Let’s hack the pricing model and sell it for 10x the price. Describe it
5. It’s sold through retailers. Let’s hack the business model. What would it need to be to
be sold on subscription and delivered to someone’s door weekly?
6. Let’s hack the customer experience. Take its association with sport and re-think the fact
that we eat it, what else could it be that allows us to disrupt the customer experience
all together

#ChallengesStimulate Ideas by crafting specific challenges to discreet
communities of people;
- Normally a provocation in the form of a question
- Often requires a dialogue rather than just simply ideas
- May need facilitation or examples to start the creative process
- Diversity is key, but the more diverse, prepare to offer a
reward
- The more creative the challenge, generally, the more creative
the ideas

Provocations
can jolt us into
an emotional
state

Or inspire us

How can we secure time
for Innovation?
Or asks a question

What in this photograph of a
colleague’s desk will change in
the next 5 years?
Or ask us to think of the future

What would it take to get people
talking about us at a dinner party?

What processes or process steps do you
take that waste time or add no value?

What could you and your team do that
would push you out of your comfort zone?

What attitudes or pre-conceptions
are holding us back?

If we could create a new variation of our product
that the super-rich would want to buy, what
would it look like?
would it look like?

would it look like?
If we developed a Service offering,
what would it look like?

If we could create a new variation of
our product that the super-rich would
want to buy, what would it look like?
What could we do to make our
customers more successful?

If we could create a new variation of
our product that the super-rich would
want to buy, what would it look like?
What’s causing our customers pain
that we can solve?

Think of a company you
love and are loyal to and
then write 5 things they
do that we could adopt
Think of a company you
love and are loyal to and
then write 5 things they
do that we could adopt

#DifferentiationTake existing products and make it different by changing the;
- value proposition (what it offers people)
- the utility (how it works / what it does)
- the configuration (the way it is sold or offered)
- Customer experience (how people use and interact with it)

Let’s take the humble bin-liner, how can we add value through differentiation
1. Can we change the customer experience by addressing some of the known problems?
2. How can we change the utility?
• Apart from the kitchen, where else do we need rubbish bags?
• 90% of the bags we sell are black. Can we change the value proposition by simply
choosing different colours other than black and green?
3. Can we change our business model or disrupt our supply-chain?
4. What other properties do our bags have that are useful
5. If we could create a bin liner for x10 the price, what would it look like and do?
6. We know plastic bags are bad for the environment. Can we re-think the way we use
them that will reduce this impact?

Note on running ideation workshops
• “Let’s NOT brain-storm some ideas”. Brainstorming can
suffer from;
– Social loafing
– Production blocking
– Evaluation apprehension
• Brainstorming works well if the aim is to get a consensus
from a group, ideation can requires the opposite
(divergence)
• For that reason, I never force people into working in a
group. Many of us ideate better solo (and work poorly in
a group)
• We need to get the best from the introverts (that can’t
do ‘group-think) as well as the extroverts

Making ideas stick

Great ideas
don’t have
to be new
ideas

How do some
ideas stick
(and others
don’t)?

An idea for everyone
is an idea for no one

Who are your early
adopters?

Does your idea align to your
Sponsor’s;
- Strategy
- Commercial model
- Capabilities & Culture
- Customers
(and if not are they prepared to disrupt themselves)

Or if it is the end-User, does
your idea;
- Solve a problem recognised
by a discreet group?
- Do they care enough about
that problem to adopt or
invest in your idea?

Solve a problem people care about

“I can save
you money
on your
energy
bills”

“really innovative ideas are roughly
indistinguishable from really dumb
ideas” Jocelyn Goldfein

#IdeaCanvas
A 6 step model to
describe any idea

As you can see,
the Idea Canvas
is a small box
which opens out
into a cross
shape and
contains a pad of
post-it notes

#1. My idea is
..a product that
..a solution to
..a service for
Brilliant Idea #298 is an
app called Trading Places.
Think of an ebay auction,
in real-time, but for a seat
on a train or a place in a
queue

#2. My idea solves
the problem that
Brilliant Idea #298 is
an app called Trading
Places. It allows people to
trade, for example their
seat on a train or place
in a queue with someone
that is happy to pay for
their place
My idea solves the problem
that many of the things
we value are over-
subscribed and, if we
could, we’d happily pay
more to jump a queue or
have a seat

#3. The Problem affects
Who are your early
adopters likely to be?
Places. It allows people
to trade, for example
their seat on a train or
place in a queue with
someone that is happy
to pay for their place
My idea solves the
problem that many of
the things we value are
over-subscribed and, if
we could, we’d happily
pay more to jump a
queue or have a seat
The problem affects
gen x city dwellers
that use public
transport and eat
out a lot

#4. They care enough to adopt
my idea because
(this is the hardest one)
Places. It allows people
to trade, for example
their seat on a train or
place in a queue with
My idea solves the
pay more to jump a
My target users
care enough about
the problem because
they value their
time more than
their money
The problem affects
regular users of public
transport and
millennials that eat out
regularly

#5. My idea solves
the problem by
app called Trading
seat on a train or place in
a queue with someone
that is happy to pay for
their place
My idea solves the
pay more to jump a
The problem affects
transport and
regularly
My target users care
enough about the
problem because they
value their time more
than their money
My idea solves the
problem by
integrating with
other social tools to
link people ‘with’
and people ‘without’

#6. I can test my idea by
seat on a train or place
in a queue with
My idea solves the
pay more to jump a
The problem affects
transport and
regularly
My target users care
enough about the
problem because they
value their time more
than their money
My idea solves the
problem by integrating
with other social tools to
link people ‘with’ and
people ‘without’
I can test the app
by running social
media marketing
campaigns to test
whether people
sign-up

5 hacks to test an Idea
(to make sure you are building
the right ‘it’ before you build it)
Alberto Savoia - Pretotype

#1. The MVP
Build the minimum viable product to test
whether people want it

#2. The Concierge
You test whether people want it before
building anything by manually doing it out
of sight

#4 One day only
Get out there, create urgency, and see how
people respond to it

#5. The Pinocchio
Create a ‘wooden’ version and see how
people react to it

#6. Idea test hacks
#1. The MVP
Can you create a minimal viable product? Something that does just
enough to be viable for our key users?
#2. The Concierge
Before you build anything, can you create demand for it – even if you have
to manually create it out of sight?
#3. The mystery button
Can we describe it in a handful or words, broadcast it to our target users
and see if anyone clicks the mystery button?
#4. One day only
Get out there, create urgency, talk to people, watch how they respond to
it. Can we take an order for ‘it’? it
#5. The Pinocchio test
Can you create ‘it’ as a mock-up and watch how people use it?

#1. My idea is
Now re-visit step 1 and
try to get to the core of
the idea.
What will make your
idea stick?
app called Trading Places.
It makes modern life easier
by helping people trade, for
example their seat on a
train or place in a queue
with someone that is
happy to pay for their place

Quick plug
The Idea Canvases;
- Cost pennies, so you
can gift it to
everyone or
everyone that wants
to join in and
develop their idea
- They create a focal
point for discussion
and development.
- Contact me for prices

REALLY QUICK PLUG
Learn more about idea management software www.TalkFreely.com
We support a number of approaches to innovation
- Crowdsourcing ideas from staff, Customers and Partners
- Co-creation
- Employee Engagement
- Idea competitions and tournaments

“Innovation is like traversing a
mountain range, there’s lots of ups
and downs and you’ll frequently lose
sight of the summit”!

THANKYOU
Michael Allen
Ready my blog www.everythingbrilliant.co.uk
@Brillianttideas
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/michael-allen/0/360/b03/
Learn more about idea management software www.TalkFreely.com

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