Ideation

Believe it or not, Ideation is a real word!

It basically means ‘idea generation to come up with something new, to answer your brief or problem, considering the information discovered from researching’. At this stage, it’s all about blue sky thinking, where no idea is a bad idea and constraints of reality are left behind to come into play a little later.

The ideation stage can be overwhelming at first. We sometimes doubt our ability to be creative, even those of us in the creative industries, but we are all in fact naturally creative thinkers. Anything that we do to solve a problem is inherently creative and the ability to think of something that doesn’t yet exist is pure creativity. The most important thing to remember when ideating is that the problem always holds its own solution, and by having defined and explored the problem you will have a solid foundation for coming up with ideas that help solve it.

Ideating is something everyone can do. It doesn’t require complex spreadsheets or the ability to draw perfectly, it requires the ability for you to allow yourself the freedom to think.

Now, let’s look at the way we can generate ideas.