7 steps to generate business ideas

December 18, 2020December 18, 2020 corpseedservices business ideas

Sometimes we get innovative business ideas unintentionally and other times, no matter how hard we shake our heads, we can’t get a single one out. From our experience we know that generating ideas from scratch is complicated, so we are going to dedicate this post to offering a process that can help us discover sources to generate innovative ideas to build profitable businesses .

Of course, creativity is a fundamental tool, and there are many techniques to generate ideas, so we are not going to deal with creativity techniques, but other types of processes, which based on creativity will activate our mind as if it were a source to generate ideas. innovative to develop business .

If we start to think cold, it is difficult for them to arise, so in order to start something, at Abdul Rimaaz we propose these 7 steps with dynamics to generate ideas:

1.-Identify an attractive customer segment related to our innovative business ideas

Think of a target customer segment , a customer with whom we want to work, meet, and empathize . Sometimes it happens that we think of clients whose profile differs so much from our tastes, hobbies, behaviors or ideals, that it is very difficult for us to identify with them. Therefore, the first step is to find a customer segment that is attractive to us and specify it as much as possible, in order to be clear about who that customer is and empathize with them.

Thinking about the target customer is how the business ideas most likely to be successful are generated.

Empathize with the client, entrepreneurship and innovation, innovative business ideas

Example: Couples between 30 and 40 years old, with small children between 3 and 10 years old, who work and do not have time to play sports. It is a specific enough customer segment to be able to work with.

2.-Find out what problems our customer segment has

In this phase, what we want is to find problems in our customer segment, which are the starting point of many methodologies, such as lean startups . It is time to start generating innovative ideas. But the first step to know ” how business ideas are generated ” is not to focus on solutions, what we are looking for in this phase are problems. What problems do we think our customer segment has and for this, we will use some techniques, such as the game storming technique .

3.-Generate a lot of problems with Game storming

The Game storming technique, discussed in depth in a previous post , helps us to generate innovative ideas by following the same creative process that our brain follows. In addition, Game storming techniques allow us to put into practice games to generate ideas.

Here we show you the phases to generate them.

In the first phase, starting from a creative challenge, we are generating ideas in a divergent process. It is the warm-up phase of our brain, as if it were an athlete who must perform a competition. For the warm-up, some creative games are proposed.

In the second phase, what is done is to explore, generate more ideas , the more the better, order them, classify them, establish relationships,

In the third phase, what we do is a convergent process, to select the ideas and finally keep the best ones.

In each of the phases different creativity techniques are used, which allows us to open ourselves to divergent thinking, generating a business idea, a process of exploration and finally filtering them. The techniques for each of the phases can be seen in the following link .

4.-Canvas of Value Proposition and Early Adopter

With the value proposition canvas and Early Adopter , what we do is empathize with customers, find out what behaviors they have, what goals they want to achieve, what actions they take and what problems those actions cause them.

Generally, the problems are those that we have generated in the previous phase, but sometimes new ones are generated, simply by the fact of giving name and surname to the target customers. It is a process worth doing. (You can download the Value Proposition and Early Adopter canvas on our resources page )

The Value Proposition Canvas focuses on two fundamental boxes of the Osterwalder Business Model Canvas . The customer boxes and value proposition. At the beginning of any idea, they are the fundamental parts of the business model, because without customers or without a value proposition , there is no business.

5.-Propose solutions to the problems detected

Once we have target customers and problems to solve, what we do is find solutions that satisfy those customers. The process of generating solutions (which will lead to innovative ideas for companies) can be based again on the Game storming technique , and of course the star tool in any creativity process is Posits .

Let’s not forget that the solutions devised will be based on problems that we have thought exist, but that does not mean that they really exist. To check this, we must pass point 7.

6.-Identify benefits and select the most appropriate solution

Identifying benefits is important to make a selection of all the ideas that we have had to solve the problems. We will choose the solution or solutions that provide the most benefits or that solve the most pressing problems of our clients. The selection process is best done with team members, because it is better to have different perspectives to choose the best option.

7.-Go out and talk to customers ( get out of the building )

Going out to talk with clients is the fundamental step to verify if everything that we have devised is actually fulfilled. Most processes fail because entrepreneurs with a good business idea are left without this step, without checking if their ideas are based on real needs. It is necessary to check the starting hypotheses, before starting to build a prototype, invest time, money and enthusiasm in a project that may not be worth it.

Therefore, as we usually advise, the market study should be done yourself . You are the one who should talk to customers. You are the one who should do the problem interview .

And of course, as the last step, it is essential to know how to present a business idea, as a key step to obtain financing, investors and especially clients.