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Learn the essential pre-work that drives better results.
Before diving into solution development, it’s crucial to take a step back and fully understand the problem you’re trying to solve. In many companies, there’s a tendency to jump straight into “solution mode” without proper problem exploration. Teams start ideating without truly grasping the user’s pain points or the context of the issue at hand.
This bias toward solutions often leads to misguided innovation efforts. Without a deep understanding of the problem space, the solutions developed might miss the mark entirely.
Why Problem Exploration is Critical
Ideation and solution development can only reach their full potential when you’ve clearly defined a problem worth solving. Skipping this foundational phase could result in creating solutions that don’t resonate with customers or address their real needs. So, before you start brainstorming ideas in an ideation workshop, there are several key steps that need to happen first.
What Needs to Happen Before an Ideation Workshop?
1. Market Research and Data Collection
First, conduct thorough research — whether qualitative or quantitative — to gather insights into the problem space. This could include user interviews, surveys, market trends, or industry reports. These data points help you ground the ideation process in real user needs and business opportunities.
2. Define the User Problem/Need
It’s essential to identify the specific problem your users are facing. This includes understanding the user’s functional, social, emotional, and financial needs. A well-crafted problem statement clarifies what challenges the user is encountering and what goals they want to achieve.
3. Opportunity Identification
Once the problem is defined, identify the potential business opportunity. This involves understanding how solving this problem can lead to growth for your organization, whether through new product development, service improvements, or business process enhancements.
4. Leverage Existing Insights and Research
Review any pre-existing research or data that will help fuel your ideation session. What information or insights have you already collected that can provide valuable context? This ensures that your team isn’t starting from scratch but building on an existing foundation of knowledge.
5. Understand Business Requirements and Constraints
Clearly define the business requirements, boundaries, and constraints. This ensures the ideas generated during the workshop are aligned with your organization’s capabilities and strategic goals.
6. Define the Target Audience
Know who your solution is aimed at. Defining the specific target audience allows you to tailor your ideation efforts to the needs and preferences of the users most likely to benefit from your solution.
7. Establish Success Metrics
Before you start ideating, it’s critical to define what success looks like. Set clear KPIs and success metrics that will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of the ideas generated during the workshop.
8. Analyze the Competitive Landscape
Understand the competitive landscape to see what solutions currently exist and identify gaps in the market. This helps your team generate ideas that are not only innovative but also provide a unique value proposition.
9. Secure Stakeholder Alignment
Align all key stakeholders before the workshop begins. This ensures that the project team, decision-makers, and leadership are on the same page and can proceed with clarity and focus.
10. Opportunity Framing
Finally, frame the opportunity in a way that sets the stage for a productive ideation workshop. This involves defining the problem and business needs in a clear and structured manner, so the team can hit the ground running without ambiguity.
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Why Is This Pre-Workshop Work Important?
The steps you take before an ideation workshop are critical for setting up the project for success. Proper opportunity framing and alignment ensure that everyone involved has a clear understanding of the problem, the user, and the business goals. This pre-work enables the project team to focus on generating ideas that are both innovative and actionable, with the confidence that they are addressing the right problem.
By setting the foundation correctly, you maximize the impact of your ideation workshop and avoid the risk of generating solutions that are misaligned with user needs or business objectives.
More on Ideation
This post is part of our ideation series. If you’re looking to dive deeper into what ideation is, its key benefits, when to use it, and how to set up your sessions for success, be sure to check out the three previous posts where we covered the essentials of ideation, preparation steps, and planning strategies 👇🏼
- From Ideas to Impact: What Is Ideation? Unlock the Power of Creative Thinking.
- How to Plan a Successful Ideation Workshop
- How to Run a Successful Ideation Session.
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If this article sparked some thoughts and you’re:
- Concerned that your current business model is becoming vulnerable,
- Seeking to balance stability today with inventing the future of your business,
- Looking to adopt an agile approach to experimentation and adapt quickly to market changes,
- Ready to reorganize and future-proof your business,
I can help you navigate this journey. Let’s work together to shape the future of your business. Get in touch with me here.
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About Me
Hi, my name is Fabian Roschig.
With a background that blends entrepreneurial experience and corporate innovation, I’ve had the opportunity to found and lead two startups, manage a corporate incubator, and support innovation initiatives across both SMEs and Fortune 500 companies.
I’m not a traditional consultant — I’m an entrepreneur and operator, 100% focused on execution. I bring a startup mindset to every project, ensuring that we’re not just talking about ideas but actually making them happen, often stepping in as interim project leader to guide teams directly.
My goal is to build lasting capabilities within your team, not dependencies. While I’m committed to being a long-term partner, I also aim to empower your teams to innovate independently.
I’m now focused on combining my business experience with advanced AI strategies to help businesses innovate more efficiently and stay ahead of the curve. Together, we’ll turn your ideas into practical, market-ready solutions that drive real business impact.
I’m excited to learn about your challenges and explore how I can support you — whether through workshops, consulting, interim leadership, or serving as a sounding board for your growth initiatives. I’d love to connect and get to know you better!
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Originally published at http://fabianroschig.com
The Secret to Ideation Success: It Starts Before the Workshop was originally published in Fabian Roschig — Innovation Advisory on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.