What is it, and who is it for?

Division I worked with had about 120 people in it. They ran a proper idea collection exercise, gathered everything their people proposed, and then sat down to decide what to move forward with.

After a gruelling two weeks they reached an impasse. Half of what was on the table was so thin that the selection team struggled to understand the proposals.

The reason turned out to be simple. Those were not ideas. They were thoughts, written down and left unfinished.

An idea says two things at the very minimum: what it is about, and who it is for. A thought is the kernel; a starting point. It has to be refined into an idea. A though should be reverted back to the proposer; an idea can be considered for investment.

That is the whole test. What is it, and who is it for.

In a large company this matters more than anywhere else, because there are far more proposals than attention. Every unfinished thought that gets past the initial strategic filter eats somebody's month, or worse. The person suggesting is the person best suited for refining their own thoughts into an idea.

This is a type of "shadow work" I have seen innovators do again and again. They end up with an "idea" and then have to spend weeks, sometimes months, figuring what it is about at all. That is all work, before the actual work of innovation had begun in earnest at all.

It is a waste of everyone's time, as well as organisational resources. So, at the very least, remember to ask: who is it for, and what is it about.