Improving the Idea Selection Process in Creative Workshops Through Contextualisation

Creativity workshops (i.e. brainstorming, creativity contests and design jams) are increasingly being used by organisations to explore new design spaces and find original ideas for new products or services. The selection of ideas resulting from these creative processes is a key activity for a firm, as it serves as a foundation for time management and decisions on further investments. Moreover, the selection of promising ideas has a more significant impact than the creative process itself as it colours the overall innovation process. We argue that this type of decision is strongly context dependent. That is, the selection process is conditioned by several factors such as the firm's technological and organisational capabilities and its strategy. This implies that a relevant idea for a particular company is not necessarily relevant for another. This paper proposes a context formalisation approach, supported by multi-criteria decision-making analysis tools to evaluate ideas resulting from a creative workshop. This evaluation process seeks to assist the decision-making by requiring success criteria to take into account the firm's context and priorities and give decision-makers the keys to establish a coherent evaluation. Implementation of this approach during a creative workshop validates the appeal of this type of contextualised evaluation. It contributes to the field of practical application of ideas in productive environments. The proposed methodology is illustrated through a case study on the new eco-tourism services for the city of Leticia in the Amazonian region of Colombia with a view to sustainable development.