Evaluate Ideas easier with Ideanote

Creative and engaged employees generate lots of good ideas. Our idea management platform makes it easy to share all of your thoughts no matter where you are.

On the go or at the office, login and create a simple post that lets your co-workers know what you’re thinking about.

Now they have the chance to help you improve the idea and collectively rate it. If the team decides this concept could work, designate who are the people that should act on it and bring it to life. You’re done – but remember to keep an eye on the impact that the implemented idea had and share it with your colleagues.

Sounds good? Keep scrolling to find out how Ideanote can help you evaluate ideas more efficiently!

Switch between analytical and creative thinking to maximize your potential

Your team is facing challenges. Perhaps time management, coming up with novel ways to improve your product or a new strategy for customer acquisition? Most companies can recognize these issues.

But wait! Before you start brainstorming on how to solve them, it’s important to remember some essential facts about how our brain works.

Here’s what you need to know:

There are two types of thinking. When we suspend judgment and assumptions, we get a long list of ideas. A good amount of them happen to be silly and unreasonable. The reason why that happens is simple – divergent thinking.

Other times, the creative process doesn’t produce that many results. Your ideas seem logic, accurate and most of the time culminate in one ‘best’ answer. That means there’s not much space for ambiguity. Such a critical and analytical mindset is called convergent thinking.

In an ideal situation, you are able to switch between the two at the right time.

How does that work?

Divergent thinking helps you generate lots of original ideas for a given topic. It’s spontaneous and free-flowing. You are adventurous and ready to take risks.

By contrast, convergent thinking is suitable for situations that require finding one solution to the problem. You use existing knowledge and decision-making techniques to discover the right conclusion.

Therefore, associate divergent thinking with ideas and convergent thinking with the process. A common mistake is mixing them together. What happens is that many ideas with potential are eliminated too quickly. That’s why you should avoid applying convergent thinking in the early brainstorming phase.

Great things will happen if:

You think divergent and start out with lots of concepts. Write them down in the ‘create’ phase of our idea management platform. Then switch to convergent thinking to evaluate ideas in the ‘rate’ phase.

Use relevant criteria to better evaluate ideas

You’ve created your first Space on Ideanote and are now getting amazing ideas from your colleagues. Congratulations! People react to these insights and move them to the ‘grow’ stage.

What does this mean?

Your team has to work together and improve on the most liked ideas. Put your focus on the weaknesses and threats that these concepts might face.

Take into consideration evaluation criteria such as the budget, time-frames, viability or the fit with the company.

For example, you might wonder:

What resources will be required for bringing the idea to life? Find a way of getting this idea out in the marketplace as a minimally viable product. You’ll cut costs and know sooner how effective your solution really is.

Is it possible to implement this idea gradually? Figure out how to gradually add small improvements to the things you’re already doing. See if your co-workers can adapt to the new way things go. Is it a good fit for your work environment? Or do your customers like the new changes in your product? No matter the case, if the answer is ‘no’, the time and effort invested are small and you have the chance to pivot to a new idea.

Fortunately, many weaknesses can be easily improved. With minor changes, an idea that would be expensive to apply can become a reality at a lower cost.

On another note, you should also make sure that the ideas proposed are aligned with the company’s mission and core values. These beliefs must be a central part of your innovation efforts. All team members have to adopt a common approach to solving the company’s challenges.

If you come up with some great solutions for improving concepts, comment on your co-workers’ posts and let them know.

Want to know the best part?

The criteria mentioned above will also help you in the ‘rate’ phase. Our idea management platform features a simple question to help you: ‘How actionable is this idea?’ You can choose between 4 emojis that best communicate your opinion.

Before you do this, bear in mind that creative ideas tend to be risky. It is understandable that costly failures should be avoided, but don’t get too hung up on what might go wrong. It’s all a balancing act.

Tailor your audience and get relevant insights from your co-workers

An idea management platform is not just about solving problems, but also knowing what questions to ask. In Ideanote, these questions are called Missions, and everybody can create one.

But here’s where it gets good:

Ideanote helps you ensure that the right people are listening to your questions. You can hand-pick a targeted audience for each Mission. For instance, let’s say you need help with a highly specialized problem. Then it would make sense to only invite the people with the necessary expertise, as they obviously know the do’s and don’ts better than anyone else.

Other times, getting varied opinions might be a better choice. For example, you might be trying to figure out how to improve a product. In that case, invite people from different departments to contribute and evaluate ideas. Besides the engineers, developers and designers that have all the know-how, include some of the marketing team or a representative of the customer expected to buy that product. This will provide a clear overview of the users’ needs and also the technical challenges.

Sum up

To keep up with the competition, you must always strive to innovate. To do so, you must become good at figuring out what ideas to pursue. Encourage your team to think freely in the ideation phase. Make the most out of your imagination.

When it comes to choosing what ideas to pursue be mindful and analytical. Take the consequences of adopting a certain decision into consideration. Remember that most of the times simple solutions work best.

Up to the challenge? Start sharing thoughts with your co-workers. Evaluate ideas early on and create company value with our idea management platform. Claim your free trial today!