There are, of course, many ways to describe an idea. The Idea Frame is a neat way of defining an idea to summarise it quickly and concisely. It’s important to be able to do this as it will help us recall our idea, communicate it better to others and make decisions about the idea.
“Research turns money into ideas;
innovation turns ideas into money”.
Anon
- Give our brilliant idea a catchy title. An idea with a catchy title seems to develop a life of its own within organisations whereas a poorly named idea often gets forgotten or overlooked.
- What is our idea in a nutshell? Write one short sentence that describes our idea in a nutshell and contains a real benefit to the user.
- What unmet need is our idea satisfying? What is the real and specific user need that this idea is meeting? (Use Unmet Need to explore this more fully).
- Make a sketch of our idea here. Take a moment to attach a sketch of the idea to help it come to life. If it’s a service we could append a cartoon strip of what would happen, or use Storyboard Template.
HOW THIS TOOL FITS IN WITH OTHERS
Use in conjunction with PPP Filter to rate how productive, practical and pioneering our idea is compared to others.
Elaborate on your idea using Sketch Templates.
Use Unmet Need to understand our users better.
