This chapter outlines what you need to do before you begin ideating. It introduces a metaphor of the ideation process, in which the spark is the group’s goal, the fuel is the knowledge they have, and oxygen is the empowerment, a feeling of freedom to innovate. Understanding this model is key to conducting an effective pre-ideation process. The steps to take pre-ideation are the first 3 steps of Design Thinking. First, you must consider business outcomes and achieve clarity on the ultimate measure of victory for the product. What defines success for it? Is it a certain level of sales? A certain impact on customer satisfaction?

Then, you must empathize and define. This means understanding the customer and the specific customer problems that need to be solved to achieve the business outcomes. This requires thinking back to your future state journey map and the specific behaviors you want to target in customer.

The third step is to understand the market, which entails gaining inspiration from competitors and getting clear on the alternatives that your product will be evaluated against by potential customers. In this step, it’s important to look at the 4 tiers of competitors and who’s in each. Once you are clear on the business objectives of your product, have gathered the relevant customer insights, defined the problem statements, and taken a look at the competitive market, you are ready to begin the actual ideation, which will be explained in Chapter 15.