What is generation and screening of project ideas?

Answer 1

New product ideas are seldom revolutionary, they are mostly evolutionary. Many develop from the products of the past, making improvements in quality; convenience, cost or variety. The truly innovative product starts a new sequence of these evolutionary products.

For example, quick frozen peas were an innovative product which started a sequence of quick frozen vegetable products. Most often in the past, a new method of preservation - freezing, canning, drying - was the revolutionary innovation in the food industry which led to many new evolutionary products.

Idea generation is knowledgeable, creative and systematic. It develops from knowledge of the consumer, the market, the technology and the general environment, and it creates newness in product, production and marketing. It systematically develops product ideas to satisfy the aim of the project and therefore the business strategy.

Idea generation in industry is strategic and not left to chance. Ideas can come from 'blue skies' research or from inventions, but in product development these are systematically developed into innovations in the company and the marketplace. Idea generation occurs not only at the initial stages in developing product concepts but throughout the project - in the design of the product, package and process, and in developing the marketing strategy.

In idea generation, the field is kept wide so that no possible innovations are ignored, but it is focused within the aim of the project. This is a dichotomy that can cause problems.

In screening, the many ideas are reduced to smaller numbers and eventually to the one product concept, prototype product, processing method and advertising plan. The screening begins qualitatively and gradually develops, as more information is obtained, to a quantitative evaluation of the predicted outcomes for the product, production, market and finance.