Given that stars to road has grown quite a bit it is time to give a quick overview over the toolbox we described so far (or wanted to but did not yet). This list is meant to grow, once we add more tools into the toolbox.
Maturity Levels
Innovations mature from stars to road. While a story matures, our focus changes.
Start page
How mature are you’re ideas
grok – negotiate – build up
Aspects of Maturity
Innovations mature along three aspects: business, technology and commitment. Don’t forget the third!
Maturity Rating
A simple tool to assess the maturity of an innovation from stars to road. You can use a work sheet like this to rate the maturity in a workshop.
UCD Cycle
The flywheel of the innovation: Fast cycles with users, customers and other stakeholders. Lean Startup uses the similar build – measure – learn cylce (not described yet).
Solution Levels
Creating solutions needs work on three levels: story, concept and details.
Powerful Stories
The story decides the fate of an innovation. Make it powerful. To have powerful stories NABC (Ourspeak), Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas are great helpers.
Idea Sheets
A place where stories get visible. Use e.g. a simple A4 sheet, an NABC, a Business Model Canvas, an Inception Deck.
Fields of Expertise
A great innovation combines the best from business, market, UX, domain, technology and corporate abilities into one great package.
Lean Agile Procurement
A strategy of how you involve your partners into your work so you do not loose ages to evaluate the best suppliers.
User Story Mapping
The tool from clouds to road and beyond to strategically build your releases.
Inception Deck
A great way to frame a coming development. Best done in a speed creation workshop with the whole team. It shows the essence of all relevant aspects. Hang it on the wall in your team room!
Landing Zone
The goals you set based on some metrics and levels to continue, to kill or to cure.
Innovation Field
Gain an overview over the many items in your innovation pipeline.
Some more tools we put in our toolbox:
- Process Maps (User centred business analysis): A rich visualisation of process know how including structure, detailed steps, pains, and opportunities.
- User Journeys (not described yet): A visualisation of the work, the life and the dreams of the potential users.
- Story Telling (not described yet): The many ways of creating an experience of the users’ world tomorrow, when an innovation will be on the market.
- Speed Creation (Increase productivity with a speed creation session): a three days workshop format to nail the vision for an up-coming development.
- Design thinking (not yet described and we probably won’t): a framework running many UCD cycles to get from stars to clouds.
- Creativity Techniques (not described yet, and we probably won’t): Ways too milk the brains for more and better ideas in a workshop setting.
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