overview > inception > ideate > improve > investigate > iterate > infiltrate

Raw ideas can have great potential but they are not yet ready for testing with potential users. First they must grow stronger and more refined. Level 3 gives you powerful tools for improving ideas.

7

Get Clarity

Capture your ideas in a product statement and evaluate with the scorecard. (page 1 on the right)

How to make a Zen statement?

Example: Disneyland.

Keep digging to produce higher level Zen statements

Accurate, but low level Zen statement for Disneyland:
An amusement park for families that provides fun rides and food enabling engaging entertainment unlike parks or beaches.
Higher level Zen statement for Disneyland:
An entertainment experience for children of all ages that brings families and friends closer together enabling the creation of memories that last a lifetime unlike other vacation destinations.

How to test your Zen statement?

Share your Zen statement with the person around you (an “innovation buddy”) and give and get feedback.
- The job of partner is to assess clarity of the statement, not the idea itself
- Redraft or modify your Zen statement. Refine and polish until it shines.

The Scorecard

Rate the idea on different axes.

Note: Nothing can be high across the board because things high in one will be low in others.
Complete a scorecard for your idea.
Ask a person around you to complete a scorecard for your idea, and do the same for them. Ask enough questions to fill out the card for their idea. Do this without letting them see how you scored your own idea.

The Innovation Kit Scorecard (printable): Download the scorecard

When both complete, compare your scores and your partner’s for both ideas and note any item that is 2 or more different. Discuss why with your partner. This can be lower OR higher – they may see an opportunity you don’t see!
This is the key scorecard value. The card is not objective and the scores themselves don’t matter. It is only useful to prompt discussion and show where your idea is not clear or your assumptions are not shared. You can throw away the scorecard as you leave the discussion.
Use your Zen statement and scorecard to illicit real discussion and feedback with others in your organization. Make their feedback concrete, and allow you to dig in on unclear areas where score is different by 2+

Which idea do I pick? How do you choose which idea is worth investigating?
- It’s that you keep thinking about it. It keeps popping up in your mental cycles.
  - Plus, when you’re thinking about it, it makes you happy. This can be small, but if you feel happy thinking about the world that will exist after it’s created. If it’s just numbers it’s hard to sustain passion for most people.
- Qualitative and quantitative validation; how they’re different but both are critical:
  - Quantitative tells you yes/no
  - Qualitative tells you WHY
- Quantitative validation. How do we do it?
  - “I’m not an engineer! I can’t build a validation website.” “Yes you can. Here’s how. The secret is staying fast and easy using templates.”
  - Drive traffic to your site with ads.
    - Create your first Google AdWords ad. You have three minutes. The format is three lines: 25, 35 and 35 characters.
    - Share your ad with a person close to you and get feedback on focus, clarity and abstraction. Provide feedback to them.
    - Select three keywords for your ad.
  - Analytics: measure response.

8

Disect your idea

Complete the business model canvas and review it with a mentor or a colleague.

The Business Model Canvas

Business Model Canvas (printable): Download the business model canvas

If sustainability is important for you and your company (which it should be), consider using the sustainable Business Model Canvas. You can download it here:

www.case-ka.eu

What is it and how does it work?

Modified lean canvas, originally developed by Maurya based on the Business Model Canvas by Alex Osterwalder.
Goal: look at all areas of a business to see if it could be viable
- Most innovators concentrate on the elegant, awesome solution. But few products or businesses fail because we can’t figure out how to build the product! Innovators must have a broader view.
Unfair Advantage: you likely don’t have. Can’t be replicated for any amount of time for any amount of money.
- Read: https://blog.asmartbear.com/not-competitive-advantage.html
- “Wow!” factor: what’s the wow moment when using your solution? That’s the hook that will make customers excited. from the start can be very useful to figure out what is important and what is and what is not important about your innovation.
- Thinking about this from the start can be very useful to figure out what is important about your innovation.
Complete the first draft of your canvas.