Involve a solution architect or a tech lead from the get-go. It’s not just strategists or designers who should be coming up with ideas. Our tech colleagues also have a creative spark, and they produce great ideas if you follow the steps outlined above.

The additional benefit of having a tech person involved from the beginning is that they can do a tech review of the idea. They can prevent the workshop team from chasing rainbows, and if the prototype is validated by the users, they can create an outline of the tech architecture.

This document is foundational for the last stage of the innovation process – planning the solution.