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Most new ideas don’t lead to new successful products or services. Six out of seven new concepts never reach the market. Lack of support at top management is an important explanation. In my professional practice I made – and saw a lot of mistakes being made in the way innovators present their ideas.

As I love to make you a better innovator, I present in chapter seven of my new book ‘The Innovation Expedition’ which you can download at the top of this article, lots of ways to present a new idea.

  1. In one word.
  2. With an image.
  3. In a report.
  4. As a mood board.
  5. Do a dance.
  6. Make a drawing.
  7. Do a Prezi.
  8. Make a painting.
  9. Make an advertising bill board.
  10. Make a magazine.
  11. Make a mindmap.
  12. Draw a story-board.
  13. Make a statue.
  14. Draw a cartoon.
  15. Make a website.
  16. Write one huge post-it.
  17. Make a movie.
  18. Make an app.
  19. Sing a song.
  20. Produce an advertising commercial.
  21. Make a newspaper.
  22. Do a flash mob on it.
  23. Do a game.
  24. Write a theater play.
  25. Make it into a toy.
  26. Present it in the form of a book.
  27. Put it on a hot air balloon.
  28. Put a prototype on the shelves of a regular store.
  29. Make a mini new business case.

These are all wonderful presentation ideas. Most of them are very creative and outside the box. Your senior management will praise you for your creativity. But, will they buy the idea and give you the resources to develop it in the next stage? That’s the question! They will evaluate your idea from at least three perspectives:

  1. The Customer: will they like it?
  2. The Business model: will it be profitable?
  3. The Technology: will it be feasible?

That’s why I am a big fan of presentation idea number 30: the mini new business case. It’s a clear, strategic, commercial, professional and financial plan for a new initiative. At this stage it is more of a ‘preview’ of the full business case. It isn’t as detailed yet and it has more uncertainties than its ‘big brother’ later on in your stage-gate innovation process. By making a mini new business case you strengthen the persuasiveness of your ideas by highlighting the attractiveness of the strategic, commercial, and professional aspects of the innovative product or service.

Remember,“Nobody buys from a clown.”

Please share this article with colleagues and business relations helping them to avoid important pitfalls. You can download the format for a mini new business case here and chapter seven of my new book for free at the bottom of this article.

Interested in the previous chapters? Please click here

By Gijs van Wulfen

About the author

Gijs van Wulfen (The Netherlands, 1960) helps organizations to start innovation effectively as author, speaker and facilitator. He is the founder of the FORTH innovation method. With FORTH he create attractive innovative products and services with great internal support with a multidisciplinary team. In his latest book ‘The Innovation Expedition’ he makes innovation very accessible by telling the story in a visual way. His clients are international companies in industry and services, as well as non-profit organizations. Gijs also trains and certifies facilitators in his method. Gijs is a keynote speaker at international innovation conferences and was chosen by LinkedIn as one of their 150 Thought Leaders.

Photo: businessman pointing at a board from shutterstock.com