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Level of refinement

1 : THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING STRONG IDEAS
defined and is not necessarily the best. For this first step, we highlight
how specific creativity techniques help you to explore and challenge
your initial underlying assumptions about the business opportunity.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Business
plan

Evaluating & Planning for
selecting implementation
ideas
Seeking & Generating
shaping new ideas

opportunities

Note: whole-brain thinking
required for every step

Time

Figure 1.1 The idea development process and whole-brain thinking

As is the recurrent pattern within the total idea development process,
these intuitive and divergent techniques are accompanied by more
rational and convergent thinking, such as rough-cut estimates of market
size and identification of major trends. Analytical and intuitive
techniques used for this first step include ‘boundary hopping’ to escape
from the conventional dimensions of a given market, the journalism-
inspired ‘5 Ws plus H’ to break opportunities down into their
constituent parts, and observing at first hand the core users of products
and services to reveal unexpected market opportunities.

The result of this first step is a much greater insight into the market
which you are investigating, together with a sharper definition, or quite
possibly redefinition, of the opportunity which you wish to seize. Key
to this step is an awareness that those who currently serve the market
have left gaps which could represent potential opportunities.

The case study on Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, illustrates best
practice in relation to this step, while the case study on Iridium
demonstrates the dangers of an elegant solution to an apparent market
opportunity based on incorrect assumptions.