Design Thinking

This tool can help to evaluate ideas according to their feasibility and originality. The method can be used both for your own evaluation process as well as democratically in a team. It is helpful after the divergent idea-finding phase. When there is a large pool of ideas to be structured and preselected, this little 2X2 is your go-to!

• Draw a 2x2 matrix where the Y-axis refers to the originality, while the X-axis represents the feasibility.

• Mark the squares as Now, How and Wow.

• If the method is used by a team, vote democratically and assign the available ideas to the individual squares.

• Look at or discuss the result in the team. "Now" ideas should be implemented directly or kept as a reserve. "How" ideas should be further elaborated in order to find a way to implement them. "Wow" ideas should be tackled immediately and the necessary steps should be discussed. Ideas that do not fit into one of these three squares can be discarded = Bye Bye, Ciao!

An evaluation of feasibility and originality is never completely objective and it does not have to be. The specific conditions of the project should be taken into account.

A two-by-two matrix is a simple and effective way of presenting information. It provides a big picture, single-glance view of options that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.  This matrix is divided into four boxes, which indicate different strategic actions for each option. Single options are plotted into the matrix taking two key decision criteria into account. The chosen two dimensions are independent from each other. A good matrix takes thought to develop and is then simple to utilize!