Cycles | Build Ideas (Mechanical Creativity) Template

—

Streamline Your Innovation Process with a Structured Approach

Introduction

This template provides a structured approach to generating, clustering, and selecting the best ideas for an innovation challenge. Whether you're working with a team or an organization, it ensures that ideation is efficient, collaborative, and data-driven.

Key Features / Benefits

Three Approaches to Ideation: Free brainstorming, embedded AI prompts, and AI-powered idea generation.
Efficient Idea Shortlisting: Clustering similar ideas to improve readability and decision-making.
Simplified Decision Process: Dot voting on clusters rather than individual ideas to save time.
Merging and Refining Ideas: Combine ideas and incorporate feedback for a well-rounded final concept.
Fully Collaborative Workflow: Works seamlessly in Miro, allowing team participation in real-time.

Target Audience

Innovation Teams looking for a structured way to evaluate new ideas.
Startups and Enterprises running internal or external innovation challenges.
Facilitators and Consultants who guide organizations in decision-making.
Design Thinking and Strategy Teams optimizing brainstorming sessions.

What Makes It Different?

✓ AI-Enhanced Ideation: Leverage AI to generate 1500+ ideas and shortlist top ones.

✓ Time-Saving Selection Process: Work at the cluster level, reducing decision fatigue.

✓ Scalable and Flexible: Supports both small teams and large enterprise-wide challenges.

✓ Built for Collaboration: Ensures seamless participation across teams in a structured format.

How to Use

Ideation – Generate ideas using one of three approaches: free brainstorming, embedded AI prompts, or importing AI-generated ideas from the AI4Innovation toolkit.
Clustering – Group similar ideas to improve clarity and remove unnecessary ones.
Dot Voting – Vote on the best idea clusters rather than individual ideas for efficiency.
Idea Refinement – Read and analyze the top-voted clusters and perform detailed voting.
Final Selection – Choose a single final idea based on votes, discussions, and refinement.
(Optional) Merging—If multiple strong ideas exist, merge them with user opinions to enhance the final concept.

This process can be entirely manual, AI-assisted, or a mix of both, allowing teams to work efficiently while leveraging AI to speed up ideation, selection, and refinement.

Tips and Best Practices

Encourage Diverse Thinking: Use a mix of human ideation and AI-generated ideas.
Set a Time Limit: Keep ideation structured by allocating time for each step.
Ensure Everyone Participates: Assign a facilitator to guide the process.
Use AI to Speed Up Decisions: AI can filter, refine, and merge ideas effortlessly.
Keep Iterating: If the final idea isn't perfect, refine and merge additional insights.

This template is designed to maximize creativity, improve decision-making, and streamline innovation challenges while ensuring a smooth and collaborative workflow. 🚀