Page 126 - The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas

3 categories technique

When you have generated and analyzed a significant amount of ideas, you need to select the most
promising among them, and the most effective strategy to do so is to use the approach that judges use
during castings of the American TV show So You Think You Can Dance. If a person danced really
well, judges say, “You get a ticket to Las Vegas for the second stage of the selection process.” If
judges are on the fence, they say, “We invite you to the short test in the afternoon, to see how you can
pick up professional choreography.” If the dance was clearly bad, the judges say, “You are not ready
for this show.” This selection process allows judges to select the best dancers out of thousands of
candidates within a short period of time.

Imag ine that each idea o n yo ur list is a candidate and yo u ar e a judg e. Once yo u see that an idea is
clearly good, mark it with “great idea,” if the idea is clearly bad, mark it with “won’t fly,” and if you
are on the fence, mark it with “interesting.”

Use your gut feeling and common sense to decide in which category to put each idea. If, for example,
you want to introduce a new product to the market, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask,
“Would I buy it?” If you like the product yourself, chances are that many other people will like it, too.

Cross out ideas that “won’t fly.” Save “interesting ideas” for the future. After further examination and
modification you may decide to move them into the “great ideas” category. Move “great ideas” to the
next round of the selection process.