Use of methods to improve the ideation stage in innovation processes
Innovation is a vital process for our society, bringing benefits and advances to our lives. The economist Joseph Schumpeter (1911) defined it as a fundamental basis for economic growth, being an economic and social phenomenon. The author argues that innovations transform society by bringing more adapted technologies and processes, thus causing an increase in the population's standard of living and economic growth. Also as described by Stevens (1997), "improvements in the standard of living depend to a notable degree on the success of industrial innovations". Since innovation is so important, how is it possible to define it? Still: is it possible to learn and teach it through pedagogical didactic methodologies (new or already known)? How to improve the process of innovating and have better results from human creativity? According to Kotler (2000), the innovation process can be divided into stages, such as ideation, selection, development, testing and launch. In this project, the initial phase of the innovation process will be explored, exactly the creative phase, called ideation. The main ideation methods described in the literature will be analyzed, including methodology, expected efficiency and examples of organizations that adopt them. These methods will be tested to understand whether it is possible to raise the quality of ideation through them. Finally, it will be defined which practices of conducting reasoning for ideation had the best performance in the tests.