1. Looking for challenges, frustrations, problems or improvements
Souces of information could come from looking into yourself, seeking opinions from others (friends, colleagues, families, customers, bosses, etc.), or notice others people’s problems.
Also, since our brain normally operates in automatic mode, that is, it tends to reject new ideas that are not go along with personal believe or bias. Therefore, it’s better to swith our brain to creative mode by start thinking some easy quetions in creative way first. Then, we can focus on our objective.
On the other hand, when discussing with many people, there surely will be many negative view from others. The key point is not to get discouraged, but consider them in rational way and, if it’s valid, try to convert it to positive.
2. Organize and Collect Ideas
There are 9 categories of good ideas as follows:
- Increase Value
- Increase Mass Market
- New Application
- Customization
- Increase Reach
- Manage Supply Chain
- Convergence of Change
- Process Innovation
- Increase Scale of Firm
Also, sometime, good ideas just pop up and gone in a few minutes. We must find the way to capture it while it still fresh and not letting it go away with the wind.
3. Selling an opportunity – 60 seconds pitch
Most of the time, funders, who are normally very busy person, have very limited time, or, accidentally, stuck in an elevator with you. So, how do you spend your time wisely to get their attention to your opportunity and agree to fund the project, which, in turn, reducing your risk.
You need to prepare 60 seconds pitch. The key points are to:
- Quick
- Get to the point
- Know your audience
