Idea Screening

The second stage in product development is idea screening. Idea screening is done to eliminate unsound concepts early prior to devoting resources to them (Calantone, Benedetto & Schmidt, 1999). If done properly, this stage can be the difference between success and failure as it is vital to select the best possible idea in order to reduce the risk of wasting time and committing resources to an idea set out to fail. Constructing idea portfolios, using a decision matrix and performing a SWOT analysis are all tools that can be used in the idea screening process. Developing a set of criteria to evaluate your ideas against is primordial when screening ideas. Marketing, production, development and financial factors must all be assessed (Earl & Earl, 1999). The assessment of market opportunities for an idea in particular is important when deciding whether or not to pursue its development (Thomas, 1993). Analyzing market trends, segmenting the market and estimating market potential and penetration are all key steps in evaluating an idea’s promise. Idea screening must be done in the most objective way possible to select the idea that has the most potential without personal preference affecting the process.

            The American aviation company Boeing, for example, construct product portfolios when deciding which ones to pursue or not (Lacontora and Matthews, 2009). The company distinguishes two phases within the idea screening process: the learning phase in which risk and opportunity are evaluated and the discovery phase where the business value of the idea is assessed and investment sources are targeted. These portfolios help screen ideas for strategy alignment and enable the company to identify ‘mature ideas’. Ideas become ‘mature’ once they have gone through the phases and been evaluated against certain criteria. In an industry where constant innovation is needed to stay ahead of the competition, the idea screening process is a decisive step in product development as investing in fruitless ideas can prove to be a major setback for Boeing and their market share.

            I used the decision matrix as the basis of my idea screening process, evaluating 3 new sport format ideas against a set of criteria: attractiveness, cost, accessibility and differentiation. Each criterion I piped my ideas against was carefully selected in order to determine which sport format had the most potential to attract interest and break into the sport market. The criteria were also weighted according to their importance. The attractiveness level of each sport was weighted as the most essential because ultimately the goal is finding out which sport will attract the most people. Cost was the second criterion in order of importance, this includes the cost of participating in the physical activity and the cost of setting it up. The third was accessibility, determining which sport was theoretically available to the largest audience. And finally differentiation, deciding which format was the most unique from its competition. After marking each sporting idea against each criterion in an objective fashion, the variation and combination of hurling and tennis seemingly had the most potential. 

Decision Matrix
Created by	Kilian Collins									Date		November 16th
Summary of Decision	Idea Screening for a new sport.
	CRITERIA										Results
Weights–	3	2	1.4	1
	Attractiveness	Cost	Accessibility	Differentiation							RAW SCORE	WEIGHTED SCORE	RANK
OPTIONS	Rank	1	2	3	4	0	0	0	0	0	RAW SCORE	WEIGHTED SCORE	RANK
Tennis/Hurling	7	7	4	7							25	47.6	1
Football/volleyball	5	7	7	5							24	43.8	2
Trampoline football	7	4	4	9							24	43.6	3

References:

Calantone, R.J., Benedetto, A.D. & Schmidt, J.B. (1999) ‘Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process in New Product Screening’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 16(1), pp. 65-76.

Earle, M. and Earle, R. (1999) Creating New Foods, The Product Developer’s Guide. Oxford: Chandos Publishing.

Thomas, R. (1993) New Product Development. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Lacontora, J. and Matthews, S. (2009) ‘Ideas to Innovation: Idea Portfolio Management’, Portfolio Management for New Products & Services Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 25 Febuary. Available at: http://www.ppmexecution.com/wp-content/uploads/Ideas%20to%20Innovation%20-%20Idea%20Portfolio%20Management%20--%20PDMA%20Portfolio%20Conference%202009.ppt. (Accessed: 17 November).