Everyone knows about employee burnout. A decent amount of people know about consumer burnout. However, not many people know about business burnout. It’s very, very rare, but it does happen. Businesses run out of ideas, they stop innovating and they don’t know which direction to go. At first, it will feel as if it’s only a phase and that eventually, you will think of a great new product in your boardroom. Then days go by, still nothing. You decide to take a holiday to get away from the office, but upon your return, nothing has mentally changed. This is when fear starts to set in. but don’t worry, here are a few ways of thinking about ideas for new products.
Ideas on the backburner
As with all businesses, you have most likely shelved smaller less well-thought-out ideas. You were too focused on a particular product or service and you thought better of exploring an idea that you thought sounded good at the time. Hopefully, you wrote it down or made a note of it to your C-suite. Check your records or perhaps talk with your executive team about the smaller ideas that you never decided to follow up. Chances are, you will have a ton of ideas that you have put on the backburner. Many businesses of all sizes have ideas that were deemed too niche, too expensive or made sense but the timing wasn’t right. It’s advisable to keep a notebook purely to write down ideas that you want to develop. Having a serious meeting with your executive team about putting the most likely to succeed idea into full-scale production could get you out of a dry spell.
Just ask them
There are too many egos in the world of business as it is, you don’t need to add to it. A strong confident leader doesn’t need to be afraid of asking for help. Just asking your employees to come up with ideas that they believe would fit the brand, make sense in your product line and or expertise, is a fantastically cost-effective solution. Using nps software, you can ask your employees one simple question and they will give you a score. The number will indicate interest in an idea you present forward but you can also read the comments left by those who participated. The exact same should be done for some of your most loyal customers. In a promotional email, offer customers a small discount for participating in the question and comment. Present your idea and gauge the interest in their responses.
Designers running wild
Social media is a great tool to gauge public opinion on new products. Sports like Formula One, often release concept art, depicting potential ideas to see how fans react. This is something you should emulate, by allowing your designers’ imaginations to run wild. Let them come up with futuristic products that align with your brand.
It’s never easy to admit you’re fresh out of ideas. But the first step is to ask for help. Ask your employees what they think about your possible ideas and allow your designers to create concept art to see if consumers react positively to wild ideas.
- This post has been written by an outside source – See Disclosure Policy
