The Two Dimensions of Relevant Knowledge

When brainstorming around new products, your ultimate goal is to solve the points of pain faced by your customers. But to do so, your team first needs insights that spark their thinking, such as competitive analysis or customer research. As put together the relevant knowledge you need to solve a problem, it’s helpful to think about it along the two dimensions of the problem/solution continuum, as shown in the graphic below.

In the first domain, there are many types of knowledge that can help teams understand “the problem” customers face. Customer pain maps can tell us where and why the pain is occurring, while market analysis can tell us whom we need to compete with. Then, you also have the specific set of resources that’s available for actually building the solutions you ideate. For example, you might only have a certain amount of time, a certain budget, or a certain technology to work with. Everyone participating in ideation should be clear on both of these types of knowledge from the beginning, so make sure to immerse your team in it before you really get going.

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