Apr 11, 2019

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Turning Flashes Of Thoughts And Hunches Into Great Ideas

In our last article, we discussed the importance of knowing how to mine our spot thoughts for gems of ideas. In this article, we will discuss polishing those gems in the truly beautiful and meaningful ideas that can really start you on solving real needs in your community. 

Once we are sure we have a great idea, we should move to the next step of turning our idea into a working problem solver. It can be very exciting to explore our ideas in the early stages of having them as mere hunches and spot thoughts. However, It is throughout the next steps in the process of turning your idea into problem solvers, that we sometimes feel the most rewarded. 

Let us take a look at the next step and turning your idea into a problem solver.

Validating your idea:

By working and going through an iterative process of validating the idea you can learn firsthand more things about the idea itself, and see the potential of its being able to solve a particular need. Here are some tips on how to validate your ideas.

Discuss the idea with trusted people: Discussing the idea with others with similar interests can lead to tremendous insights, as these people might have been thinking about the same problem for some time and have themselves have come up with some idea of how this problem could be solved. By sharing your ideas with these persons you get to really explore how others have been thinking about the problem and to see how well your ideas confuse or merge with other’s ideas to help make the solving of the problem more assured. 

Get some help: Getting help from others or forming a small team that can help you to explore the idea further. Getting others to help you may seem more difficult than it actually is. In the world today with the many challenges and problems around, there are many people thinking about the same problem as you are, and in many cases you merely need to cross paths with those persons and share our ideas with them as to what you’re trying to do, and they would be more than willing to join us in the adventure of solving the problem. Another thing to note is, not everyone who is willing to work with you on solving a problem needs some sort of pay. There are many people out there willing to work to solve a problem for the mere reward of getting the problem solved. Think about the alternative of not having a team or getting help from somewhere. You will have to work on your own without any help, and while for some people, this may be the reward in itself, tackling a big problem all on its own. I suggest that the former explanation is a much better and efficient way of tackling the problem.

Clearly identify the problem group/s: In this step it is very important that you clearly identify the problem group-that is, the group to which needs the problem to be solved. Again, this can be any sort of problem. They could be political, social, business, or entrepreneurial. Whatever the situation may be, it is important that we positively identify the group/s for whom the problem needs to be solved. By positively identifying the problem group/s you are able to confirm not only that there is a problem but that there is a group/s that needs a solution for this problem.

Talk with the identified group/s: By talking one on one with members of the group/s of the problem, you gain tremendous insight into how they see the problem. The challenge for many problems solvers an idea generators is that we first see the problem from our own perspective. However, the most important thing in bringing a solution to a problem with our ideas is to ensure that we see the problem from the perspective of the groups or individuals that the solution idea is aiming to help. The process of actually interacting with the group/s that the idea is aiming to help will also strengthen the validity of the idea itself.

Create a representation of your idea: From the insights gained from talking with your problem group/s, create some sort of representation of the solution idea that can be interacted with and present this to your problem group/s. 

The representation could be some sort of prototype, online presentation or just you doing the actual problem-solving activities yourself, this is known as a “concierge service”.

Deliver your presentation to your problem group/s: Go back to the group/s that you have already discussed the idea with and let them experience in a real way the idea you have created in some sort of “prototype” - the quotes here signifies that the prototype need not be tangible. During the presentation, You must allow the individual or individuals to interact freely with your presentation and you should be keen to look for the following:

1. Look for responses from your participants be those responses verbal or nonverbal. Tremendous insights can come from respondents through the things they do not say. For example, a respondent is interacting with your presentation, said nothing but pause for an unusually Long period of time, this is a clear sign of uncertainty, and if there is uncertainty that means there was a bug in the way the idea try to solve the problem. Here is where you should step in and ask Something of the sort, “are you finding anything particularly interesting in that part of the presentation you’re looking at or interacting with?”
2. During the presentation try to ask as little questions as possible. Remember, you’re really trying to have the respondent interact with your presentation naturally as they would if they were by themselves trying to use your idea or solution to solve their problem.
3. Expect the respondents to be forthright and very honest. Though you might have worked on this idea for some time they may say things that outright trample on your work. Be mindful that any feedback given is not to be taking personally and is only in a bid to understand where the respondents are coming from and how best your idea can solve their needs. This might mean evolving the idea some more or even going back to the drawing board.

The process of going through the iterative cycle of coming up with your idea, talking with others, gaining help, talking with the problem group/s, building a sort of “prototype“ that the group/s can interact with, is a proven way to validate your idea. It is worth saying again that it is important that you remember that your idea does not have to be for a commercial product for sale, it could very well be a nonprofit or a community outreach project to help people within a  particular problem situation.

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Orlando O. Spencer  - Startup Helper at Orlando O Spencer I, Inc.

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©Orlando O Spencer I, Inc.

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