The most important part of the planning process is reaching deep to find the best ideas. You may already have a process that works, but if you are looking for inspiration, consider the following five-step process adapted from the book Jump Start Your Brain.

Last year we presented a five-step process (see sidebar below) for developing your online plan for the coming year (OBR 8/97). Following is an update of step one, immersion. For more information on steps two through five, please refer to the Oct. 97 issue (available on our Web).

Five Steps to the Big Idea

1. Immersion: Study the situation, visit competitors, read new research, talk to customers, interview employees, attend a conference, or poll your customer base.

2. Environment: Clear away any constraints to thinking, go off site, stockpile the food and coffee, play music…whatever it takes to let your brains run free.

3. Stimulus: Do “thinking exercises” to loosen the brain before tackling your specific problem (see Jump Start Your Brain for 37 exercises).

4. Idea Generation (free form): Think of every possible crazy solution to the problem, write them down as you go, but make no judgments or justifications at this time.

5. Plan Development: Put each idea on a 3x5 card and arrange into bigger concepts and brilliant ideas.

Source: Adapted from Jump Start Your Brain by consultant Dave Hall, Warner Books, 1995.
 

Immersion

To see potential opportunities in a new light, look beyond your normal circle of peers, subordinates, and other industry sources.

1. Launch a Personal Fact-Finding Mission to find out how consumers use online financial services and how they could be improved:

•  interview vendors
•  hire a consultant for a brainstorm session
•  arrange for a classroom of MBA students to debate the pros and cons of online financial services
•  attend a traditional customer focus group on Internet financial services
•  sponsor focus groups of branch and call center staff to discuss serving/selling customers online
•  arrange online focus groups (users meet online in a moderated chat environment)
•  post a quick questionnaire on your Web and have each answer forwarded to your email address

2. Go to a Conference: Away from the daily grind and surrounded by the latest technology and thinking; a perfect prescription for break through thinking. Try leaving the cell phone in the hotel room at least for one day.

3. Read a Research Report Cover-to-Cover. We know this is going to hurt, but plunk down a couple grand for the latest online banking research, clear a half-day on your calendar and really read the whole report, not just the executive summary. Even if you don’t believe any of the conclusions, think about the implications for your company were they to come true. It might help you see things in a new light.

4. Conduct your Own Research: There isn’t an abundance of new research available so far this year, so consider commissioning your own study. It doesn’t have to be expensive. You can put a short survey on your Web for next to nothing and have results tomorrow. The data won’t be projectable to your entire customer base, or even your entire Web base, but it might provide a number of good ideas and insights.