Exploring Ideas

Explore Lots of Ideas

Why Coming Up with Lots of Ideas is Important

To understand the value of generating many ideas, let’s ideate solutions for this problem: Olivia is a parent who needs a way to ride her bike with her two-year-old, Luca, because he can’t ride his own bike.

Example: Bike Solutions for Olivia and Luca

There are lots of solutions to this problem that exist already, but let’s imagine it’s a new product. To solve for this problem you could design:

A seat behind the adult rider
A seat in front of the adult rider
A bicycle built for two, requiring the child to pedal with the adult
A mini bike attachment for the child to ride behind the adult
A basket on the handlebars for the child to sit in
A sidecar, like you might find on a motorcycle
A seat that attaches to the adult’s helmet
A covered trailer to pull behind the bike

Are some of these ideas ridiculous? Absolutely. But when you’re ideating, you want to push past the obvious ideas to get to the innovative ones.

Key Principle

Remember: Ideation is focused on coming up with a lot of ideas.

Three Key Reasons for Generating Many Ideas

1. Constraints Will Narrow Your List

The list of your ideas will be narrowed down when you have to think about constraints, like budget and timelines. Your biggest idea might not be possible because of your team’s budget constraints. You want to start with a long list of potential ideas, so that when constraints are introduced, you still have solutions that could work.

2. Equity in Design

We need to come up with ideas that are equitable. The first idea you come up with might be perfect for you as a user, but when we’re designing with equity in mind, we want to make sure that the design works for everyone who will use the product.

3. User Testing Will Determine the Best Solution

Keep in mind that you might not be the one to decide which idea is the best solution. Instead, let users test a bunch of your ideas and they might find the right answer. Users often reveal insights about solutions that designers didn’t anticipate.

The Innovation Principle

When generating ideas, you should use your creative powers to their full potential. Don’t settle for your first solution - the first few solutions you suggest are often the least creative because they’re the most obvious.

Push Past the Obvious

Question common assumptions about how things should work
Challenge traditional approaches to solving problems
Explore unconventional solutions that might seem strange at first
Build on “ridiculous” ideas - they often contain kernels of innovation

Practical Benefits of Idea Generation

Risk Mitigation

Having many ideas provides backup options when primary solutions face obstacles or prove unfeasible during development.

Creative Confidence

The more you practice coming up with lots of ideas, the more natural and confident the process becomes.

Team Alignment

Multiple ideas give teams more options to discuss, evaluate, and rally around, leading to better buy-in.

User-Centered Solutions

A broad range of ideas increases the likelihood of finding solutions that truly meet diverse user needs.

From Ideas to Implementation

While the ideation phase focuses on quantity over quality, this abundance of ideas serves as the foundation for the more focused work that follows. The goal is to create a rich pool of possibilities that can be:

Filtered through feasibility, desirability, and viability criteria
Combined to create hybrid solutions that capture the best elements of multiple ideas
Refined based on user feedback and testing
Prioritized according to impact and effort required

The investment in generating lots of ideas pays dividends throughout the entire design and development process, leading to more innovative, effective, and user-friendly solutions.