Managing Failed Ideas

PDMA Visions

I'm intrigued by this article about failed ideas. It said we need 25 ideas to come up with a polished perfected ones. However those 24 other rejected ideas should be stored in a "Recycle Bin" so that we can check back on them, maybe perfected them for a different audiences.

These are the criteria for the Recycle Bin.

Recycle Bin Information

The author urges companies to keep the following information
about each idea in its recycle bin:

• His or her understanding of the idea.
  
• Reasons/assumptions for which it was not considered.
  
• Circumstances under which it could have been considered.
  
• Relevance to the current project plan (1-10 rating).
  
• Would it be applicable to a different product?
  
• Did we overemphasize the core competency aspect?
  
• Whether or not the preliminary marketing survey was relevant
  to the said idea.
  
• Whether enough market behavior information was available.
  
• Whether or not it was a well-quantified finance issue.
  
• A gut feeling that “it would be too expensive to pursue the
  said idea.”
  
• Did the team see no connection between the company’s strategic
  plan and the said idea?

I like the ideas that Proton is doing its own product development. Many other Malaysian companies should do the same.