Play 1

Ideate Solutions That Meet the Needs of Business

We must begin digital projects by developing solutions for the people who will use them. Users are often, but not always, employees of the Ministry. Staff who interact with users on a regular basis are an untapped source of information. Creating an environment that promotes participation will strengthen the business unit mandate and contribute to its future success. The ideation process is less about what the product will look like, and more about who it is for, how it works, and why.

Step 1: Promote Innovation from Within

• Understand Your Business Mandate
  • Focus on business challenges
  • Invite your staff to contribute ideas
  • Formulate problem statements to guide conversations
  • Be specific, in order to create a sense of urgency
• Understand Your User’s Needs
  • Regularly review your product portfolio with users
  • Update your feature roadmaps to reflect their needs
  • Invite suggestions on what would enhance the way they work
  • Can end users interact with the existing system using multiple channels? What is their experience?
• Park Bias
  • Negativity eats ideation for breakfast. Be open minded. Don’t prejudge what others say
• Encourage Creativity
  • A diverse workplace brings with it a wide range of experience. Engage an external facilitator to surface discussions
  • Amplify soft voices. They will bring unique insights that often get overlooked. Failing to do so may lead to a disengaged workforce
• Collaborate
  • Time box activities. Circulate proposals. Encourage additions
  • Require a short submission that describes objectives and benefits. Estimate effort to develop and implement. Include a risk assessment
• Visualize
  • A diagram helps to communicate ideas
  • Develop from the end user’s perspective
• The More the Better
  • Develop as many ideas as possible around a theme
  • Elements of any one idea may be incorporated into another idea thereby promoting more discussion
• Submit for Peer Review
  • Your colleagues bring a diverse lens based on their unique insight

Step 2: Engage Your Stakeholders

• Develop & test prototypes
  • Describe the user’s journey and interaction with the solution
  • Develop wireframes
  • Solicit feedback. Document attributes (goals, needs, behaviours, preferences)
• Evolve scenarios and user stories that speak to a set of defined personas
  • Invite stakeholders to review and prioritize
  • Avoid over-solutioning how to accomplish the idea
  • Do your research. Are your assumptions complete?

Step 3: Present Your Proposal

• Do your homework. What would be required to go from ideation to project inception?
• Develop the product roadmap
• Seek approval to proceed
• Become a business priority

Resources

Thoughtworks.com provides valuable insight into organizational future proofing in an era of constant change by promoting the concept of validated learning.

Interaction-design.org identifies strategies towards reducing potential barriers of innovation.

The BC Government Service Design Playbook provides resources, methods, and templates to guide new service development. Ideo.org and Sourcemaking.com both provide additional toolkits and sources of useful information.

The Canadian and US federal governments detail a series of digital plays in their playbooks. Both the Government of Canada Digital Playbook “design with users” section, and plays 1, 2, and 3 from the US Digital Service provide useful questions to ask during ideation.

Guidance to Consider

• Research
  • Develop a fulsome understanding of the problem and the intended audience. Understand the solution context and dependencies
  • Follow the BC Design Research Guide
• Engagement
  • Solicit responses via surveys and workshops in order to provide data to guide the ideation process

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