Page 102 - The Design Thinking Playbook

EXPERT TIP

Select ideas that aim
at a great vision

We all know the phenomenon of criteria being developed in large organizations to select potential ideas.
These criteria enable a large number of teams to develop innovations in a more targeted way. Often, the
criteria act as a kind of guardrail or specify certain financial goals. In general, such criteria are inhibiting,
but because they do exist in reality, we should discuss them. If the criteria are not known within the frame-
work of a well-defined strategy and vision, it is useful to ask some key questions:

• What might the vision be?
• What are the personal preferences at management level?
• What is our enterprise’s culture, its values, and and sense of morals?
• Which growth areas have already been defined as part of a strategy discussion?
• What is the financial contribution an idea must yield as a minimum?
• What are the customer needs and trends on the market?

When defining criteria, it is important to be aware of reality. The potential market opportunity can be as
great as it may be, but if the decision makers (e.g., top management) don’t cotton to it, the idea will fail. At
the least, when financial resources are allocated, we will be confronted with this situation. As illustrated,
a selection via the dual matrix with the dimensions of speed of dissemination and implementability can be
useful.
The values a company stands for are equally important. If it goes against the moral grain of a company to
use customer data from digital channels for other business models or to sell it profitably, such ideas will
have little success. Defining of these and other criteria at an early stage has at least the advantage that
the waste of resources is reduced and effectiveness is boosted.

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