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The impact of market research stimulus data on idea quality in radical innovation projects

This refereed conference paper was presented at the prestigious International Product Development Management Conference, which has established itself as a leading annual international event. It presents and discusses a novel generative conceptual framework (Goodman and Lawless, 1994) that focuses on: (i) the use of market research data as stimulus for generating radical innovation; (ii) addressing the limited focus on generative idea generation tools and process within radical innovation process (Trott, 2001); and (iii) how to breakdown a lack of trust in traditional market research in breakthrough innovation (Leenders and Wierenga, 2002).

It contributes to new knowledge by addressing the problems in traditional brainstorming argued by Michalko (2004) of inconsistency and the inability of participants to reframe their thinking which impacts on idea quality. This is achieved by the development of a repeatable creative idea generation process driven by “third brain thinking” (Neumeier, 2008) and “T-shaped thinking” (Brown and Wyatt, 2010).

It differentiates itself from other work through its “build, create, deconstruct and reconstruct” strategy that addresses the importance of idea quality (Borjok and Magnusson, 2009) and provides a conceptual framework for using market research data as generative stimulus material. These claims are substantiated by providing the results of three controlled T-tests with a total of 24 multi-disciplinary participants that tested impact of no stimulus (T1), partial stimulus (T2) and full stimulus material on the quality of ideas generated, demonstrating that the use of market research data and a conceptual framework model can improve the quality of ideas generated by 18%, adopting the “average quality” metrics of Reing et al. (2007).

The impact of the conceptual framework has been considerable. It has received considerable funding and has been used on several major projects by BSkyB (UK) £122,500, Braun (Germany) £20,000 and Nokia (UK) £15,000 over the last 18 months (2011-13).