A crucial part of the planning process is reaching deeply to find the best ideas. Many companies already have a process in place, but if you are looking for inspiration, consider the following six-step approach.

Six Steps to the Big Idea

1.       Do Your Homework (Immersion): Study the situation, visit competitors, read new research, talk to customers, interview employees, attend a conference, poll your customer base, and so on.

2.       Optimize the Environment: Clear away constraints to thinking, go off site, stockpile the food and coffee, play music; do whatever it takes to let your thoughts flow freely.

3.       Rattle the Brain: Perform “thinking exercises” to limber up the brain before tackling your specific problem (see our ideas, left, or Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall for 37 more).

4.       Generate Idea Nuggets (free form): Think of every possible solution to the problem, regardless of how crazy; write them down without judgments or justifications.

5.       Assemble Idea Nuggets Into Strategies and Tactics: Transcribe each nugget on a
3x5 card and arrange the cards into bigger concepts and ideas.

6.       Be Bold: Don’t immediately dismiss strategies that seem too big for your budget; winners
could be shopped to strategic investors or other financial institutions for additional funding.

Source: Adapted from Jump Start Your Brain by Doug Hall, Warner Books, 1995. A new version, Jump Start Your Business Brain was published in Sept. 2001. Both are available in paperback from Amazon for about $12 each.

Do Your Homework

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

Observe First-Hand: Find out how consumers really use online financial services and observe how the services could be improved. For example:

•               Enter into a far-reaching conversation with an important vendor, preferably in person
•                Arrange for a classroom of MBA students to debate the pros and cons of online services
•                Attend a focus group on online financial services
•                Hire a consultant for a brainstorm session
•                Sponsor focus groups for branch and call center staff to discuss serving/selling customers online
•                Post a short questionnaire on your website; have a copy of each response forwarded directly to you (no staff filters)
•                Issue an RFP (request for proposal) for the development of a “next-generation” service

Attend an industry conference: Away from the daily grind, surrounded by the latest technology and bombarded by new ideas: a perfect prescription for breakthrough thinking. The two biggest U.S. online banking conferences take place in the fall, the American Banker’s just-completed Financial Services Technology Forum and BAI’s Retail Delivery which will be held next month in Las Vegas.

Dive in to third-party research: Grab a few research reports, head to a quiet table in your favorite coffee shop, and turn off your Blackberry. Now, really read the whole report, skipping the executive summary until the very end. Take notes and highlight pertinent pages. At the end of the day, create your own executive summary with a list of possible action ideas and questions to share with your team.

Commission your own research: Research culled from your own customers and in-market prospects is infinitely more believable than national studies. If research budgets are nil, you can still post a short survey on your Web for next to nothing and have results tomorrow. The data won’t be applicable to your entire customer base, but it might provide a number of good ideas and insights.

Or if you’d prefer to take a quick reading of consumer sentiment without tipping your hand to the competition, consider tapping into the preassembled panels of Web research companies. At InsightExpress  http://www.insightexpress.com/  it’s possible to ask 200 consumers what they think of your idea for an out-of-pocket expense of about $1,500. Questionnaires are easily composed using online templates, and you’ll have results back within hours. All results are stored online where you can run your own reports and cross tabs.