Ideation and evaluation: Many options, the right choice

We develop the best solution idea, not the first one that comes along.

Most companies do not lack ideas. The problem: Without a clear focus, almost any idea fits the problem space – and in case of doubt, the idea of the highest-ranking person in the room wins. Done well, ideation turns insights about your target groups into many different options within a clear mandate AND a well-founded selection of the few that are worth testing. We help you with both. Hands-on, pragmatic and in days, not weeks.

Typical problems we see

  • The solution was fixed before the workshop. The problem is framed so that an existing idea magically ends up as the winner. Ideation becomes reverse engineering.
  • The challenge is too broad. „Improve the customer experience” – with such a task, every idea is somehow right, and endless discussions follow out of fear of missing the „best” solution.
  • Brainstorming without structure. The loudest voices dominate, quieter team members hold back, and a long list of sticky notes remains that no one ever looks at again.
  • Voting on gut feeling. Dot voting decides – and safe, familiar ideas beat bold ones, because they seem easier to agree on.
  • Only the user is considered. The idea delights users but fails with the buyer, the admin, the partner or the compliance department.

Why ideation matters more than ever

With AI, ideas have become a commodity. Any team can generate a hundred solution ideas in minutes. In practice, this multiplies the old problem: The mountain of options grows faster than any team can evaluate it – while the costs of a wrong decision have not changed. AI makes generating ideas cheap. Without the relevant context, it does not make choosing the right one any easier. That is exactly what good ideation is for.

Of course, we use AI in ideation ourselves – to generate more options at the start, as an additional participant in Design Studio who brings in directions the team has not thought of, to cluster ideas, to turn sketches into clickable prototypes within hours and to pre-evaluate ideas against the criteria from the mandate. At the same time, we are honest about the limits: AI produces plenty of ideas very fast. It hardly knows your target groups or your strategy. The scarce resources remain focus, judgment and a team that stands behind the decision.

How we support you

We help product teams to develop solution ideas that are desirable for all relevant target groups, technically feasible, economically viable and strategically aligned – and to choose the right ones quickly. No fixed framework, but exactly the tools that fit your situation:

  • Focused challenges: We translate mandate and research insights into a clear challenge – problem, goals, target groups, needs, constraints – or a sharp „How might we” question. „How might we enable users to solve task X with one click instead of ten?” generates different concepts than „simplify the flow”.
  • Making pet ideas transparent: We make explicit which ideas and biases are already on the table – and exclude them from the first rounds.
  • Collaboration: Everyone sketches individually, presents, receives structured feedback – and then steals, combines and refines the ideas of others. In two to three hours, the team explores far more ideas and converges on concepts concrete enough to be prototyped.
  • The right generation method: Depending on goal, team dynamics and problem, we add Crazy 8s, brainwriting, SCAMPER, a morphological box or role play.
  • All relevant target groups: Users, buyers, admins, partners and internal stakeholders – an idea that works for only one of them does not work.
  • Pragmatic evaluation: The criteria come from the mandate. ICE scoring or an impact/effort matrix help – team voting too, with care, because groups tend to favor safe ideas over bold ones. A vote is one criterion among several, never the final decision.
  • Critical hypotheses: We derive what has to be true for the selected ideas to work – and which of these assumptions need to be tested first.

How we work with you

  • Ideation workshops and Design Studios: We prepare and facilitate them on-site or remote – from a focused challenge to selected, testable options, usually within a few days.
  • Embedded in your discovery team: We work as part of your team through ideation and evaluation – and make sure that the selected ideas go into validation quickly.
  • Coaching for product managers and designers: We accompany your people until they can formulate challenges and facilitate Design Studio and other ideation formats on their own.
  • Interim product leadership: We take over as product manager, head of product or CPO until the right person is on board – and make sure that ideas are chosen by criteria, not by title.

Also available as in-house training

Want your team to build these skills itself? Our „Ideation and evaluation” deep dive – derived from the Product Discovery Masterclass – is tailored to your team and works with your real challenges. Possible contents: formulating focused challenges and „How might we” questions, background and facilitation of Design Studio, further ideation methods such as Crazy 8s, brainwriting and SCAMPER, evaluation and prioritization methods and their pitfalls, deriving critical hypotheses and the use of AI in ideation. In English or German, on-site at your company – e.g. in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Vienna or Zurich – or remote.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Design Studio method?

Design Studio is a collaborative, time-boxed ideation method in which participants individually sketch solution ideas for a clearly defined challenge, present them to the group, receive feedback and then refine, combine and „steal” each other’s ideas over several rounds. Within two to three hours, an interdisciplinary team generates many different ideas and converges on one or a few concepts that are concrete enough to be prototyped and tested.

Who should take part in an ideation workshop?

First and foremost, the discovery team – because it shares the understanding of mandate and insights. Participants who do not know the target groups easily produce ideas that do not fit, and in combination with quick voting, personal preferences win over insights. And never underestimate hierarchy: Even if the boss says that bold ideas are welcome, their presence alone changes the room.

Can AI replace an ideation workshop?

No. AI can generate more ideas than any team – but ideas were never the bottleneck. What a workshop creates is a shared understanding of the challenge, a well-founded selection AND a team that stands behind it. We use AI to make workshops faster and broader, not to skip them.

How do we choose the right idea?

Not by the most senior title and not by gut feeling alone. The criteria come from the mandate: Does the idea contribute to the goal, does it work for all relevant target groups, is it feasible and viable? Then keep the evaluation pragmatic – no idea is successful straight away, and the real decision is made in validation. In case of doubt, test two ideas instead of discussing one for weeks.

The other areas of product discovery

Ideation and evaluation is one of four areas every product discovery has to cover. They are closely connected – insights from one area regularly change the others:

All four areas at a glance: What we do · All four areas in one training: Product Discovery Masterclass

Get in touch

Do you want better ideas – and a faster, clearer choice between them?

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