Idea Napkin
We use the Idea Napkin (page 164 in the book) early stage in an innovation journey to help people progress in a structured manner. A simple, quick template that captures the core of an idea, including its name, target audience, pain points, features, benefits, and a visual representation, to enable fast comparison and brainstorming.
How to fill it out?
To complete an Idea Napkin you need to:
- Fill in the boxes in the order that you find easiest.
- Fill out all the boxes even if the information is imperfect or incomplete.
- If you are not great at sketching, hire a sketch artist or get an AI to help you (such as DAL-E or Midjourney).
- Try to already make your idea name into a catchy brand with the right associations.
What is the benefit?
Capturing ideas in this napkin format has several benefits, including:
- Make it easier for innovation talent to generate and mature innovations.
- Ensure that innovation teams address all relevant aspects of an idea, for the stage of development it is in.
- Provide a consistent style to ensure uniformity and allow senior stakeholders to easily compare across innovations, levelling the playing field across innovation cases.
Download the Idea Napkin template