When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them.

This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’, and the How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on two parameters. It naturally follows the creative idea generation phase and helps players select ideas to develop further.

Instructions

1. Draw a 2x2 matrix, where the x-axis denotes the originality of an idea, and the y-axis for its ease of implementation.

2. Label the quadrants as NOW/Blue Ideas – normal ideas, easy to implement; these are typically low-hanging fruit and solutions to fill existing gaps in processes, and they normally result in incremental benefits.

3. HOW/Yellow Ideas – original ideas, but impossible to implement; these are breakthrough ideas in terms of impact, but absolutely impossible to implement right now given current technology/budget constraints.

4. WOW/Green Ideas – original ideas, and easy to implement; ‘wow’ ideas are those with potential for orbit-shifting change and possible to implement within current reality.

5. To get started, list down the ideas that emerge from the creative ideation phase on large charts of paper stuck around the room.

6. Give each player 3 sticky dots of each color – 3 blue, 3 yellow, 3 green.

7. Nine dots per person is typical, but go ahead and reduce/increase that number based on the time at hand and number of ideas generated.

8. Ask each player to step forward and vote for 3 best ideas in each category; they do this by sticking a colored dot in front of each idea they choose.

9. Count the number of dots under each idea to categorize it.

10. The highest number of dots of a certain colour categorizes the idea under that color.

11. In case of a tie, follow this rule: if blue dots = green dots, the idea is blue; if yellow dots = green dots, the idea is green

12. You now have a bucket of Now/Green ideas to work on further.

13. Make sure you also collect the low-hanging blue ideas for immediate implementation and the yellow ideas to keep an eye on for the future.

The How Now Wow matrix is straightforward and easy to use for uncovering the best ideas and when to implement them. The technique encourages the team to let their thoughts flow, and the group dynamic builds on that creativity to encourage groundbreaking innovation.

Any organization or team wanting to stimulate new ideas can use this versatile tool. You can use it to solve problems, develop new services and products, or improve the way things are done.

The How-Wow-Now Matrix is adapted from work done by The Center for Development of Creative Thinking (COCD). Information about the COCD Matrix was published in the book, “Creativity Today” authored by Ramon Vullings, Igor Byttebier and Godelieve Spaas.