The big idea: Ideation has two halves that must not happen at the same time. First you widen — many genuinely different approaches, with judgement suspended. Then you narrow against the specification.
Judging while generating is why most idea pages contain one idea drawn six times.
The diamond, five techniques, and the test that separates a distinct idea from a variant.
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| Technique | How it is run | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Brainstorming | A group, a fixed time, no judging until the time is up | Volume, and odd ideas nobody would write down alone |
| Mind mapping | The problem in the centre, branches for every aspect of it | Coverage — it shows the parts of the problem you have not touched |
| Thumbnail sketching | Twenty small annotated sketches, about a minute each | Ideas that are visual and comparable rather than described |
| Morphological analysis | List each function, list ways to do it, combine across rows | Systematic combinations you would not have thought of |
| Analogy and nature | Ask what else solves this problem, in any field | A principle borrowed from where the problem is already solved |
Morphological analysis on the ward table: Functions down the side: support the load, move it, bring it to the patient.
Ways across: pillar / four legs / wall bracket · castors / slide rail / carried · swing arm / sliding top / whole table moves.
Nine cells, dozens of combinations, and three of them are ideas nobody would have sketched.
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One idea, six times
- Six tables with different edge profiles
- All fail and succeed for the same reasons
- The comparison at the end cannot tell you anything
- Looks like a full page of work and is not
Genuinely distinct ideas
- A cantilever that swings over the bed from a fixed pillar
- A height-adjustable trolley wheeled into place
- A wall-mounted arm with no floor contact at all
- Each fails for a different reason — so comparing them teaches you something
Modelling, at this stage only
Model to compare, not to finish
At ideation a model exists to make an idea judgeable. Card, foam and a quick CAD massing are enough; anything more is time spent on ideas you are about to reject.
Model at the same fidelity
If one idea is a rendered CAD model and the others are sketches, the comparison is about presentation rather than about the ideas.
Model the risky part
For a cantilever that is the joint and the base; for the wall arm it is the fixing. Model whatever would kill the idea if it did not work.
Keep the rejected ones
A rejected idea with a reason attached is evidence of a decision. Deleting it leaves you looking as though you only ever had one idea.
How this is tested — applying ideation techniques to produce diverse ideas that address a problem statement. It comes up two ways:
Paper 1 — multiple choice
- Identify which ideation technique is described.
- Pick the set of ideas that is genuinely distinct.
Paper 2 — analysing a product
- Apply two ideation techniques to a named problem.
- Explain what makes a range of ideas diverse rather than repetitive.
The trap: Producing variants and calling them a range. If two ideas fail for the same reason, they are one idea, and the comparison that follows can teach you nothing.
Apply two ideation techniques to the problem of bed-bound patients reaching food and drink, and explain how they produce distinct ideas.
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