Backward ideation technique for generating new product ideas

Abstract

This paper reviews briefly new product idea generating techniques, and suggests another one, the backward ideation technique, that starts from existing successful or unsuccessful brands, and works its way backward, in looking for synergistic ideas andgaps that can offer new market opportunity for new brands and products.

This technique is illustrated using two consumer products, toothpaste and footwear, the first with a smaller set of competing brands, the second with a multitude of types and varieties. In both cases it is found that the backward ideation technique affords a comprehensive coverage of the attribute space of each product, and provides a shortcut for arriving at new product designs and brands via new synergistic gaps unearthed in the process of backward ideation.