Ideation
Ideation is a method - a process - for exploring ideas and concepts, for the purpose of fully-understanding existing ideas, identifying widened or deeper views of such ideas, and fostering related or alternative ideas. Many times ideation is a beginning point for product or project concepting, and in such cases may be used to generate an array of initial ideas.
We believe it is a process that benefits from creativity, but must be managed with pragmatism. What the inventor Thomas Edison said about genius, we believe applies to the ideation - it is indeed part inspiration but driven by perspiration. We might substitute in our case the word creativity.
In some creative circles, ideation is sometimes used along with the phrase "blue sky" exploration. Research and development efforts many times start with a blue-sky phase, meaning a phase of initial work without pressure for particular result. Blue sky efforts often allow all possible alternatives to be placed as possibilities for further examination.
Ideation differs from "blue sky" efforts primarily in that "blue sky" thinking is a means of kick-off for a creativity process, while ideation is a process of managing towards final-form ideas.
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