How a product idea gets found

Select a stage to open it

1. 01MeasureHow badly a want is answered compared with similar wants, never how often it is searched. A small want the catalogue answers badly outranks a large one it already answers well.
2. 02ProposeThirteen questions turn a measurement into a product. Ten are put to the search and order data; three are put to the product catalogue, and those three find a different kind of idea entirely.
3. 03CheckFour separate checks, run before anyone sees the idea: is it obvious, does the brand already do it, does our own group already run it, is somebody already selling it.Removed eight ideas.
4. 04ChallengeA six-person review panel argues about whether they would actually use it. Their disagreements are kept rather than resolved, and on one card two of them refused the brief outright.Removed two ideas.
5. 05CorrectWhen the panels attacked a number, we tested it instead of defending it. Three cards were re-graded on the result.

Thirteen ways to find an idea

Each question below finds a different kind of product, so what you get back depends on which one you ask. The first pass came back with ten reports, because the questions in play were the ones reports answer. The three newest read the product catalogue rather than the search logs, and they find looks and pairings instead of missing columns.

How an idea is described

4/4 proven

Four tags on every idea. These describe a proposal once it exists; they do not find one.

What the idea isKind · Has produced ideas that survivedMoreWhat actually leaves the building?

Who paysBeneficiary · Has produced ideas that survivedMoreWhose problem does this solve, and would they pay for it?

What it stands onEvidence · Has produced ideas that survivedMoreHow many separate readings agree?

How it reaches the marketRoute · Has produced ideas that survivedMoreCan this be a brand, a sub-brand, or a brief?

How an idea is found

7/16 proven

Thirteen questions put to the data, each of which has produced or could produce an idea. The coverage map is drawn on these.

Colour gapMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhat colour is a category asked for in, and what colour does its catalogue actually come in?

Carried but never chosenMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhich categories are sold as an enormous range while the demand collapses into a handful of items?

Shown and ignoredMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhich searches put a full page of results in front of someone who then touches none of them?

Opened and droppedMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhich searches get a result opened and then no sample asked for?

What gets specified alongside whatMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhat is this specified alongside, and does the catalogue hold a good answer for the other half?

Looks nobody sellsMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhich looks does the catalogue actually hold, and which does it only appear to?

Unanswered wantHas produced ideas that survivedMoreWhat are people asking for that the catalogue answers badly?

Absent supplierHas produced ideas that survivedMoreWho is being typed by name and returning nothing?

Led by the wrong houseHas produced ideas that survivedMoreIs this square led by a brand built for somewhere else?

Leaders by defaultHas produced ideas that survivedMoreIs this leader chosen, or just the last one standing?

Format gapHas produced ideas that survivedMoreDoes the material exist, and the specification route exist, but not the thing between them?

One brand holds itHas produced ideas that survivedMoreWhere does a single brand hold a category served by only a few?

Geographic asymmetryMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreDoes catalogue depth track demand, or just track itself?

Who lost, and to whomMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhat does the record capture that nobody reports?

Punching above their sizeMeasured, not yet put through the checksMoreWhich small brands reach far more of the profession than their size would suggest?

Crowded and still missingHas produced ideas that survivedMoreWhere is the catalogue full and the want still badly answered, so what is missing is a figure rather than a product?