2.01 Identify
methods/techniques
to generate a
venture/product idea
Key Terms
 Attribute Listing-focuses on an attribute or an object in order to
determine how the attribute can be improved. Ex. Cell phone
features.
 Lateral Thinking-Solving problems through an indirect or creative
approach. Ex. Thinking outside of the box.
 Analogies- Similarity of like features of two things. Ex. Comparing
 Associations-A mental connection or relation between thoughts,
feelings, ideas or sensations.
 Brainstorming-is a creative-thinking technique involving the
identification of as many different ideas as possible during a
certain time frame.
Key Terms
 Synectics-bringing different things together to create a unified
connection.
 Sketching and doodling-Letting your subconscious do the
drawing.
 Forced questioning-Force people to choose between two
choices when neither of the choices could be the answer or
needs further explanation. Ex. Is this yellow or green?
 Morphological Analysis-Systematically structuring and
investigating many possible relationships of complex problems.
Ex. Used to create a new product.
Entrepreneurial Discovery
 The process of systematically scanning for technological,
political, and regulatory, social, and demographic changes to
discover opportunities to produce new goods and services.
Contributions of Entrepreneurial
Discovery to Society
 Entrepreneurs are the mechanism by which our economy
turns demand into supply.
 They recognize consumer wants and see the economic
opportunities in satisfying them.
 They are a principle source of venture capital.
 Through their process of planning and setting up a new
business, entrepreneurs gather resources to use or fund their
business – money is the most important resource.
Contributions of Entrepreneurial
Discovery to Society
 Entrepreneurs usually start with their own funds and then seek
out contributions from public and private investors.
 Entrepreneurs provide jobs.
 Successful entrepreneurs change society
 Steve Jobs and Steve Woznak set out to create the Apple
computer in their garage. Within 5 years they started and industry.
 Henry Ford was able to mass produce the automobile to be
purchased by anyone and revolutionized the manufacturing
industry.
The role of criticism in idea
creation
 Criticism can be difficult to hear.
 Don’t take it personal
 Some of your most important lessons can come from
complaints and criticism.
 Discussion points:
 As a business owner, how would you address these criticisms?
 The package is too hard to open
 The cake doesn’t taste fresh
 Your services are too expensive
 His store is very difficult to find
Changes that encourage
entrepreneurial discovery
 Technological
 Political
 Legal
 Regulatory
 Social
 Demographic
Entrepreneurs vs. NonEntrepreneurs
 Entrepreneurs seem to demonstrate the following
characteristics. Remember that non-entrepreneurs may also
have some of these characteristics.
 Commitment and determination
 Leadership
 Opportunity obsession
 Tolerance for risk and ambiguity
 Creativity, self-reliance, and ability to adapt
 Motivation to excel
 Social nature
Entrepreneurs Capitalize on the
following:
 Life experiences
 Person’s position in a social network
 Nature of the search process a person uses
 Ability to focus on the opportunities
 Intelligence
 Entrepreneurs tend to be more alert to opportunities
Areas of Entrepreneurial
Discovery
 The introduction of a new good or a new quality of a good
 The introduction of new method of production
 The opening of a new market
 The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or
components
 The reorganization of any industry
Strategies for Entrepreneurial
Discovery
Types of brainstorming
techniques
 Define the problem
 Share ideas without criticism
 Build on others ideas
 Pose an initial question
 Use word association
 Identify a challenge
Why learn about techniques for
idea generation?
 Someone somewhere at sometime came up with the idea for
every item that you see around
 So that you can invent the next great product
 Product ideas come from different places—existing products
made better or brand new products
 Ideation is the process of generating and developing new
ideas
 One of the primary purposes in business is to generate ideas for
new goods and services
Businesses need product ideas
because. . .
 Markets change constantly
 They need to stay ahead of the competition
 Product life cycles are becoming shorter
Where do businesses look for
inspiration for need products?
 Trends—the general direction in which people or events are moving
(fashion, TV, music, etc) by studying trends, business get a sense of
what customers need—examples: health and fitness, baby boomers
needs, communication needs.
 Customers—observe and notice when problems exist of people seem
to have an unfulfilled need—talk with them (surveys, focus groups,
satisfaction cards, one-on-one conversations)—talk to the people
who deal with the customers (salespeople)
 Existing products—find the limitation and make them better—look to
develop complimentary products (they “go with” another product)—
look to develop substitute products (takes the place of another
product)—examples: blu-ray to replace DD and digital books to
replace hard/paperback books
Methods of creative thinking
used to generate new product
ideas
1.
Lateral thinking methods—involve approaching an issue from
new illogical directions and using illogical methods to
develop new ideas
 Brainstorming includes relay, round robin, brain drawing, free
association, forced questioning, synectics, forced analogies,
starbursting, mind mapping
 Relay—teams responding to teammates ideas in a certain order
 Round robin—no teams—participants respond in order
 Brain drawing—members add to drawings to try to develop a
product
 Free association—state the first thing that comes to mind
Methods, continued
 Forced questioning—used to answer a specific question
 Synectics—making connections through forced relations (two items that
seem unrelated to find a new practical combination)—more time
consuming than brainstorming but it is good when other creative
methods have failed)
 Forced analogies—using metaphors and similes to create connections
where non exist (i.e., waiting on the bus on a cold day-- think of other
times you wait, like a doctors’ office to help you come up with a
solution)
 Starbursting—draw a 6 pointed star and write the product opportunity
in the middle—write the following words at the tip of the star (who,
what, why, when, where and how)—answer each question based on
the recognized product opportunity
Methods, continued
 Mind mapping—in the center of the paper write the main
problem, which the market opportunity that you identified—from
the starting point, draw a line to other words and phrases that are
related to the main idea—from each of the these words, draw
other lines that relate to the particular word and so on—this helps
to expand thinking and get lots of different ideas down on paper
Methods, continued
2. Programmed thinking methods—organized, logical, and
analytical thinking techniques
 Attribute listing—list the products characteristics that make it
unique from other goods then find ways to improve those
attributes
 Morphological analysis—list a products characteristics then
combine some or all of those to create a new product
Making it pay
 New product ideas are essential for long term business success
 No two businesses use the same exact method to develop
products