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The BOGI is a lean and uncomplicated way to collect, discuss and qualify ideas.
Teriell (Sebastian) brought this in as tool, but he also makes use of it in other purposes. Via (bogi.work)[http://bogi.work] more infos are shared on a general level, maintained by Teriell.
In the GRID, the BOGI is represented through a Trello board. Right now, we do not make use of it in a very disciplined fashion, which so far worked out well.
The BOGI is a technique, which can be hacked, enhanced, reduced, fine-tuned. In the GRID we started with the BOGI-board to collect ideas as such. Each subgrid of course is free to set up an own version of the BOGI or to make use of some aspects of it, if helpful.
There is no binding ruleset for who should use the BOGI.
But having a common methodology in place when it comes to collection, discussion and qualification of ideas helps gridsters to contribute. If all groups and subgrids do everything extremely different, then barriers are higher for new people to join in. So, the BOGI is only an offer, but the establishing of common practices helps to get into action and to overcome practical barriers.
In the following you will find a more general description of what the BOGI is all about ...
NOTE: The description below is not specially adapted to the GRID!
- Generation and selection of ideas connected to innovation practices
- Screening and pre-qualification of product ideas
- Assessment of customer or community generated ideas
- Collection of ideas for your content strategy
- Strengthening the teamwork and collaboration based on contribution
- Preparation of a hackathon or comparable event
- Regular practice of early business case evaluation
The BOGI provides a lean set of tools and practices to collect, introduce, select and assess ideas. Ideas are important for a broad range of real life application, so that the BOGI is not reduced to one use case.
In many environments and teams, the wisdom and creative potential of the group is not used systematically to generate ideas on a regular basis. But the openness towards new ideas and the increase of attention towards good ideas are key ingredients for continuous progress and adaption. That's why the BOGI shall solve some issues connected to the innovation and ideation progress by providing a slim toolset to start with. The focus is led on the group's internal capabilities which needs to be unleashed.
With the help of the BOGI, teams or companies shall be empowered to start working with and on ideas in a very practical way. The BOGI provides a toolset, which furthermore can be hacked or adapted to the needs of a team / company. So there's no dogmatic view on the world behind the BOGI.
The BOGI covers the following aspects:
- Proposal of new ideas by individuals
- Collection of convincing ideas
- Qualification of candidates to follow-up upon
- Moving candidates through a mini-innovation funnel
- Selection of hot candidates for prototyping
- Hackathon - practical assessment of candidates
- Sandbox promo on prototypes
- Lean documentation of the outcome
The BOGI is trying to provide a minimalistic set of tools and practices for ideation and innovation. It is not solving organizational issues, not trying to pretend to be a holistic innovation theory. The BOGI is a practical framwork with the focus on the selection of a few ideas out of many to follow up upon.
That is why the BOGI is not comparable to Design Thinking, for instance.
The BOGI is a pragmatic approach to collaborative innovation. It is easily possible to give it a try and cancel it in case it does not work out. The costs and efforts connected to the battle of glorious ideas are low and easy to track. You don't have to hire experts and do not need consultants to give it a try. There is no need to invest into trainings, certificates and costly pre-requisites, before you start off.
The most important, implicit benefit is, that creative capabilities and internal experience is brought into collaboration. With the BOGI your team is invited to share ideas, intensify cross-department collaboration and think as collective. This invite is a strong message and mandate.
The BOGI can become an important instrument to activate the team's superpower and focus it towards a can do attitude. In addition, the BOGI intensifies the discussion on feasibility, relevance and value of ideas within the team. This creates a shared idea of what makes a good idea. This common sense can become a healthy foundation for shared routines.
The BOGI can be fun. And there is nothing about it. The presentation of your hot idea, the discussion and of course the realization of a cool idea within the team generates an environment in which participation, exchange of arguments, contribution and skill-sharing become the new status quo. So BOGI is a team sport for which all individual capabilites count.
The outcome of the BOGI typically is a long list of ideas. Ideas which made it through the BOGI (survivers) are typically relevant ideas for your scenario, e.g. product delighters or relevant improvements. By also attaching the prototyping and review phase to the BOGI-flow, ideas can easily be tested within a broader audience. This allows the involvement of clients or stakeholders to the journey and is way more precise than theoretical drafts on board or a sheet of paper.
The explicit benefit of the BOGI is the sum of ideas generated.
A real return on invest calculation cannot be done here, since it is up to you on how you implement a BOGI-routine and in which area you follow-up on your ideas. But in abstract terms, we could say something about it: The time and material you invest can be measured precisely. The explicit benefits (idea based outcome) can be measured on a quantitative and qualitative scale. If some of these ideas will affect your business positively, then it could be measured as a financial impact, of course.
So in other words, invests and return on invests can be measured within your scenario.
- The BOGI is no practice to optimize your product development routines, sales or marketing practices. But, you can achieve implicit benefits which have positive impact on team related challenges.
- The BOGI is no framework to focus on Product-Market-Fit, to improve Customer Experience, to generate a Product Backlog or a Marketing plan.
- The BOGI is no framework to control your costs over the entire Product Lifecycle or in Development.
- It is not necessarily an AGILE or a LEAN methodology, but there is no conflict with AGILE and a BOGI.
- The BOGI is no guarantee for success. But a toolset to start working on ideas with a minimal invest.
Practically, you don't have to buy anything or need to take huge invests.
Besides this, it is recommended to prepare the BOGI based on the following aspects:
- Any kind of innovation or ideation initiative works best if it is clearly backed up by a sponsorship of management. The work on ideas will of course require a certain amount of time and it might be that even some materials have to be bought. This budget should be named and approved. Teams should feel invited and enabled to start a BOGI.
- For all regular BOGI sessions a guideline or rule-of-thumb should be discussed in advance, which articulates when one is free to join or when higher-priority tasks should be done instead. E.g. you don't want to see your helpdesk empty, because all team members join a BOGI session. There are different ways to handle the attendance or availability for other todos in advance, so that it will not lead to conflicts.
- It is recommended to also think about a person acting as moderator to maintain the sesions effectiveness. It can be a person nominated or a role which is taken by one of the attendees of a sessions. But since it is a battle of ideas, it makes sense to have some moderator skills on board here.
- For realization tasks (e.g. during a hackathon) it should be clarified in advance, which skillsets would be required for contribution. For example, if you have a technology driven offering and the ideas on the shortlist would be connected to highly technical tasks, then the barriers would be high. Not everyone would have the background to implement a solution prototype here, for instance. But, if you connect this properly, you can add the ambition to make a first marketing-concept, to work on a value proposition or a sales strategy connected to the candidate you work on. So, scope and fit to available skillsets should be discussed with the group, so that you can make the most out of the BOGI.
- It is recommended to discuss some criterias and mission objectives for your BOGI. Becasue ideas should be connected to something relevant, it is important to say something about the targets or the corridor you want to focus on at least. The BOGI can also work out in a decentral way, in which the targets are broken down into smaller problem areas. So it is valuable to articulate the mission behind the ideation and to discuss underlying ambitions.
- A hard requirement would be: BE OPEN FOR IDEAS. Out of 100 ideas, perhaps you will see only 5 brilliant ideas, perhaps only 1. But you need to take 100 ideas to identify the one great idea. So be patient, be open for thoughts which might not reflect your opinion, be open for experimentation. Good ideas grow best in environments where many ideas can be discussed. Therefore, it is highly recommended, that a broad range of thoughts is allowed and respected.
- Use the BOGI not only as a platform for interdisciplinary collaboration. Use it also to break up hierachy thinking. The discussion of ideas is super insightsful, if in the moment of discussion arguments count, not hierarchy levels. In addition to that, for any organization it can become a very healthy practice, if top managers join the discussion and ideation as any other employee. Therefore, the BOGI can become a vital platform for exchange of thoughts between teams, disciplines and hierarchy levels.