Innovation and Ontologies

50 Roadmap for the Fuzzy Front End
figure 18 Process of ideation (based on Herstatt & Luethje, 2005) 64
Initiative to innovate, the first step of the Ideation process, can be motivated twofold:
• Related to occasion: Search for information is triggered by an explicit initiative, typically
induced by deviation of targets and reality (Hauschildt & Salomo, 2007)
• Continuous: Search for information is designed as continuous task (Herstatt & Luethje, 2005).
Information gathering 65 , the second phase of Ideation, can relate to two kinds of information:
• Related to purpose (limited search): Ideas which are able to fulfill unsatisfied needs and
requirements, to open new markets and to serve new target groups (Herstatt & Luethje, 2005)
• Related to means (open search): Ideas encompassing new principles, product architectures or
materials, enabled primarily by technological developments (Herstatt & Luethje, 2005).
The third step of Ideation is the actual idea generation, when, by means of analysis and synthesis, a
novel combination of purpose and means is generated from the pool of ideas.
The subsequent table attributes the suggested methods to the elements of Ideation. After a note
on environment and knowledge base, the next sections will describe the different methods 66 .
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Wahren (2004) proposed a more elaborated phase model of idea generation with three pools of ideas: the first is dedicated to completely new
ideas which get consequently elaborated to enter pool two (for mature ideas). These mature ideas are evaluated; the discarded ideas enter idea
pool three. As this proceeding appears overly fine-tuned and cannot be found elsewhere in such detail, the phase of Ideation as well as the
concept of the Pool of Potential are kept more stringent in this contribution.
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This activity has been illustrated by the very illustrative metaphor of ‘aspirate and create a sensation’ (Kirsch, 1997).
Anne Gerhards suggests in her doctoral dissertation to divide the idea acquisition into idea finding and structuring (Gerhards, 2002). Idea finding
consists of three components: collection and use of existing ideas, their commercial acquisition and the generation of ideas. Structuring
corresponds to the idea generation of Herstatt & Luethje (2005).
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Note that all methods in this part are broad approaches that can accommodate a lot of company specific modification and adaptation by
organizational actors, not ‘do it yourself’ kits.