Companies spend 99% of their time on ideas, strategies, solutions and new technology. That's what the people are paid for. And so, it is quite natural that when exploring search fields for innovation and growth, people jump to technology and solutions.

However, it creates a problem. We call this problem “The ocean of ideas”. Too many ideas, no data to select those dead that generate most value to future customers.

In innovation and growth design, therefore, the challenge is to select the right ideas. To decide which ideas are meaningful for the customer. The lack of criteria to select ideas opens the door for biases. It leads to situations where teams tend to pursue ideas they like or they find easy to implement. However, what engineers, sales or management likes is not necessarily what customers like.

Let's make some examples from our practice:

A leading contemporary Art Fair - bringing together sellers and buyers of artworks in a physical place - defined a strategic search field for innovation: How can we use digital technologies in general and blockchain particular to support art collectors and galleries? Many ideas were collected. Prototypes were developed and minimal viable products (MVPs) launched. However, market traction was slow. The success was clearly below expectation and the CFO had to put a stop and called for a CFI-type approach.

Another example: A MedTech company for teeth implantation solutions came to us with the question: How can we integrate bluetooth technology and smart features into our implants, in order to generate data that can be marketed. "Data is the new gold", they said. The search field was smart data (a technology), many use cases are thinkable, but it was unclear what the value would be for dentists or patients. Management was not prepared to take the risk to commit further resources beyond idea stage and initiated a CFI project.

A third example: A team of a national railway company was working on a new mobility app, to connect different mobility services (think e-scooters, shared cars, Uber, trains, buses, etc.). After a year of development and launch of the beta version, they ended up with 400+ possible feature ideas to implement in the next releases. Where to start? How to prioritize them? By what criteria? A typical case for CFI.

The customer view must play a key role in selecting the best ideas. The river of constantly changing needs of people flow into the ocean of ideas. An equation with two variables: The solution is not yet developed and the needs are constantly changing and difficult to grasp.

CFI and Jobs-to-be-done helps to solve the equation: By measuring needs and spinning ideas towards those opportunities.