2 points for each of these things you’ve heard before: 

• “It would be over budget” 
• “We’ve tried that before” 
• “Upper management won’t buy in” 
• “It’s not differentiated enough” 
• “That’s gonna take too long” 
• “Not enough margin” 
• “Too similar to competition” 
• “Not compelling enough” 

Got some points on the board? A bit disheartening, isn’t it? It’s really easy for us to get swept up in the “why it won’t work” and to poke holes in ideas before they’ve been given room to grow.  

 So instead of passing judgment, we have an approach that helps push concepts, ideation and suggestions forward. The next time you’re brainstorming or providing input on strategy, creative, new product opportunities or concepts, use these three tricks to take things to the next level. The best part? It’s super simple. 

1) What if 

2) How to 

3) Wish for 

Let’s show how this might work. Here’s an example bad idea:  

Change your brand’s website navigation daily 

Let’s use our tricks to make this a far less bad, and maybe even good, idea.  

What if? Asking “What if” takes the team down a path of opportunity and drives a shift in perspective. 

“What if we changed one element of the navigation daily to see how that impacted site visitor behavior?” 

How to? Rather than a negative approach of shooting holes in the idea of changing navigation, “how to” tees up challenges that the team can then work on overcoming. 

“How to make it like a fun experimental experience for site visitors?” 

Wish for. Again, flipping the script on the nay-saying, “wish for” zeros in on optimization. 

“Wish for a way that site visitors can choose between trying a new navigation or using the original navigation.” 

That’s a wrap. Told ya it was simple!