How to test a good idea

The innovation blog

How to test a good idea

It’s a common problem: someone in your company has a new idea, but because it’s new you have no idea if it will work. Scott Anthony, managing director of a company called Innosight Ventures, has helpfully blogged on this very challenge for the Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/2011/03/60_minutes_to_a_more_innovativ.html) and lists nine ways to test out innovative ideas – from watching customers, to making a simple calculation using just three or four variables on the back of an envelope. One especially thoughtful proposal was to conduct what he calls a “past pattern” exercise, where you sit down for an hour and review past successes and failures seeking to tease out the patterns that typify success and failure.