1. What makes a
good idea?
Julie Dodd, Creative Director at
December 2014

2. YOU!
WHY DO YOUR IDEAS MATTER?
Digital teams are in charge of the future of organisations

3. THE RISE OF GLOBAL COMPUTING POWER
The growth in CPU
power over the
next 15 years will
make the last 15
look like we’ve
been asleep

4. 50%
50%
GETTING THE
IDEA RIGHT
GETTING THE
IDEA OUT
THERE
THIS PRESENTATION

5. SOME GOOD IDEAS
Online Field Trips
Farm to Fork
Join us live on

6. SOME GOOD IDEAS
Charity: water’s birthday donation campaign

7. SOME GOOD IDEAS
Getty’s Lean In Collection – beautiful free images of empowered women
to help break stereotypes

8. SOME GOOD IDEAS
FutureLearn: Education as it should be

9. #Icebucketchallenge – social campaigns are hit and miss, but when they work…
SOME GOOD IDEAS

10. LIGHTBULB MOMENTS
How can you create them?

11. 4 THINGS THAT CAN HELP
MAKE A GREAT IDEA
BAD IDEAS
SLEEPING ON IT
CRITERIA
INVOLVING YOUR AUDIENCE

12. SET SOME CRITERIA
Without setting yourself a
framework for judging ideas
it’s just one person’s
opinion over another, and
you’ll make slow progress

13. True to
your brand
IS IT
AUTHENTIC?
Time, money,
staff, kit…
IS IT
AUDIENCE
-LED?
IS IT
ACHIEVABLE?
HOW TO SET CRITERIA:

14. YOUR
BRAND
AUTHENTICALLY
YOU
A TRUTH ABOUT
YOUR AUDIENCE
The good stuff
happens here

15. BRAND AUDIENCE
People hate
missing
Eastenders

16. BRAND AUDIENCE
People don’t
get round to
giving
donations they
intend to

17. BRAND AUDIENCE
People like
how slick
Apple
products are
FAIL

18. Barclay’s have no authenticity in fashion, so this might not work

19. Colgate really didn’t understand their audience when they tried
to introduce Colgate entrees!

20. If you don’t know
what your
audience wants
- spend some time
with them

21. True to
your brand
IS IT
AUTHENTIC?
Time, money,
staff, kit…
IS IT
AUDIENCE
-LED?
IS IT
ACHIEVABLE?
HOW TO SET CRITERIA:

22. BADS IDEAS ARE IMPORTANT
If you don’t let the
bad ideas out, you
may never get to
the good ones

23. The post-it note
was invented by
accident during an
R&D process to try
and make a really
sticky glue!

24. SLEEP ON IT

25. INVOLVE YOUR AUDIENCE

26. INVOLVE YOUR AUDIENCE
IDEO take early
ideas and publish
them online to
gather feedback
before going into
full development

27. They’ll make your idea better
Diabetes Uk involved
their Facebook
audience in making
their tracker app and
got > 20k downloads
in the first few
months

28. MAKING IT HAPPEN
What gets an idea noticed?

29. If an idea happens in a forest but
there’s no-one there to see it…

30. 4 THINGS THAT CAN HELP
GET A GREAT IDEA OUT THERE
EMOTIONAL BEFORE RATIONAL
MAKING IT FEEL REAL
SIMPLICITY
START THE PITCH BEFORE THE PITCH

31. SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE

32. Can you explain
it in less than 30
seconds?
SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE

33. Or in 4 words
SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE

34. EMOTIONAL BEFORE RATIONAL
People don’t always
remember what you say or
even what you do, but they
always remember how you
made them feel.
“
”
Maya
Angelou

35. MAKE IT FEEL REAL
Verbally
explaining
ideas hardly
ever makes
them fly

36. MAKE IT FEEL REAL
If you don’t know this
reference watch the
Hudsucker Proxy

37. MAKE IT FEEL REAL
This is an iPad
prototype from
2001

38. MAKE IT FEEL REAL
And one from
1983!

39. Amazing things like
Raspberry Pis,
Arduinos, Little bits
kits – give you the
power to make tech
ideas real at low cost
in short timeframes

40. MAKE IT FEEL REAL
Prototypes don’t
have to be ‘real’
they just need to
feel real

41. START THE PITCH BEFORE THE PITCH
Going in cold
rarely gets you
an immediate
“yes”.

42. 50%
50%
GETTING THE
IDEA RIGHT
GETTING THE
IDEA OUT
THERE
REMEMBER

43. Conclusion slide
JulieDodd
julie@digitalforgood.co.uk@