The IDEAS Process starts by helping you identify the idea in your head, put it into words, and understand why it matters. Learn how your experience, knowledge, skills, and interests can become the starting point for something worth exploring.
Quick Summary
- Get the idea out of your head and put it into words.
- Do not judge the idea too quickly.
- Look at your experience, interests, problems you notice, and things you want to explore.
- Write three to five ideas if you have several competing for your attention.
- Choose one idea to explore first.
- Create a simple Idea Statement.
- Your first goal is clarity, not perfection.
Table of Contents
Every Idea Has to Start Somewhere
Most ideas don't arrive as complete plans.
They often begin as a simple thought:
"I wonder if..."
"I've always wanted to..."
"Someone should..."
"There has to be a better way to..."
The first step in the IDEAS Process isn't building anything. It isn't spending money. It isn't creating a business plan.
The first step is identifying what the idea really is.
Maybe you've thought about it for a few days.
Maybe it has been sitting in your head for twenty years.
Either way, before you research it, build it, promote it, or spend money on it, get the idea out of your head and put it somewhere you can see it.
The complete IDEAS Process provides a five-step approach for moving an idea from thought toward action.
Where Do Ideas Come From?
You don't have to force yourself to invent something new. Many useful ideas grow out of things already happening in your life.
1. A Problem You Keep Noticing
Maybe something takes too long, costs too much, causes confusion, or doesn't work as well as you think it should.
2. Something You Already Know How to Do
Years of work, hobbies, military service, caregiving, teaching, repairing, cooking, organizing, managing, or creating might give you knowledge worth using or sharing.
3. Something You've Always Wanted to Try
Maybe you've wanted to write, travel, garden, learn photography, make videos, build furniture, teach a class, start a business, or work on a community project.
4. Something You Wish Existed
Sometimes an idea begins with, "I wish somebody made..." or "Why isn't there an easier way to..."
5. Something People Keep Asking You About
Pay attention when family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, or former colleagues keep asking you for the same kind of help.
Repeated questions might point toward knowledge or experience you can teach, share, organize, or build into something larger.
Don't Kill the Idea Too Early
One of the easiest things to do is talk yourself out of an idea before you've examined it.
- "Someone has already done it."
- "I'm too old."
- "I don't know enough."
- "Nobody would be interested."
- "I wouldn't know where to begin."
Those might become legitimate questions later.
Right now, they are not answers.
Your job in this first step is not to prove the idea will work. Your job is to identify what you want to explore.
Learn From Reliable Sources and Experienced People
You don't have to figure everything out alone.
If your idea involves entrepreneurship or a small business, SCORE offers mentoring and educational resources for people exploring business ideas.
The U.S. Small Business Administration also provides information about researching, planning, and evaluating a business before making major investments.
Your idea doesn't have to become a business. The larger lesson is simple. Learn from people and organizations with relevant experience.
Create Your Idea Statement
Put your idea into one simple sentence.
Don't try to make it perfect. The purpose is to explain the idea clearly enough for someone else to understand it.
Idea Statement Examples
Share What You Know
My idea is to create short gardening videos for beginning gardeners because many people want to grow vegetables but don't know where to start.
Preserve Something Important
My idea is to write down stories about our family for my children and grandchildren because I don't want those memories to disappear.
Mentor Someone
My idea is to help younger people entering my former profession because I have decades of experience they might benefit from.
Test a Small Business Idea
My idea is to start a small online shop for handmade items because I enjoy making them and want to see whether other people are interested.
Solve a Problem
My idea is to create a simple guide for older adults who struggle with smartphones because I keep seeing people frustrated by the same basic problems.
Try an Idea Inventory
Some people don't have trouble coming up with ideas. Their problem is having too many.
Write down three to five ideas you've thought about recently or over the years.
Don't rank them. Don't calculate how much money they'll make. Don't decide whether they're practical yet. Capture them first.
Now Choose One Idea
If you have five ideas, choosing one does not mean abandoning the other four.
You're deciding which idea gets your attention first.
Ask Yourself
- Which idea keeps returning to my mind?
- Which one am I most curious about?
- Which one would I enjoy learning more about?
- Which one feels realistic enough to explore right now?
- Which one would I regret never investigating?
Pick one.
You're not signing a contract with it. You're giving it permission to move to the next step.
Your Experience Is a Good Place to Look
Seniors and retirees sometimes believe their best ideas should have happened earlier in life.
What do you know today that you didn't know twenty, thirty, or forty years ago?
Your career taught you things.
Military service might have taught you things.
Raising a family taught you things.
Running a household, caring for relatives, repairing things, managing people, solving problems, pursuing hobbies, and living life have all added to what you know.
Your next idea might begin with knowledge you already possess.
Or it might begin with something completely new you've finally got time to explore. Both count.
Your Five-Minute IDEAS Challenge
Before you leave this page, take five minutes.
- Get a sheet of paper, notebook, phone, tablet, or computer.
- Write down at least three ideas.
- Choose one.
- Complete the Idea Statement below.
That's enough for this step.
You took something that existed only inside your head and put it into words. That's your first action.
Continue With The IDEAS Process
Identify Your Idea is only the first step.
Visit the permanent IDEAS hub to see all five steps and follow the series as new articles and videos are added.
Explore The IDEAS ProcessDevelop Your Curiosity
Once you've identified your idea, the next step is learning how to ask better questions about it.
Why does it interest you? Who might benefit? What already exists? What don't you know?
That's where curiosity begins turning an idea into something worth exploring.
You don't need to know where your idea will lead.
You need to know what idea you're willing to explore.
The IDEAS Process
No comments:
Post a Comment