How-Now-Wow Matrix
Time Frame
30-60 min
Group size
10-40
Facilitation lvl
beginner
Comfort zone
safe
The How-Now-Wow matrix is an idea selection tool that breaks the creadox by forcing people to weigh each idea on 2 parameters.
Materials
Markers and/or voting dots (multi color)
Step 1
Preparation
Draw a 2-by-2 matrix as illustrated.
The X-axis denotes the originality of the idea and the Y-axis shows the ease of implementation.
Label the quadrants as:
Now/Blue Ideas – Normal ideas, easy to implement.
These are typically low-hanging fruit and solutions to fill existing gaps in processes. These normally result in incremental benefits.
How/Yellow Ideas – Original ideas, impossible to implement.
These are breakthrough ideas in terms of impact, but absolutely impossible to implement right now given current technology/budget constraints.
Wow/Green Ideas – Original ideas, easy to implement.
‘Wow’ ideas are those with potential for orbit-shifting change and possible to implement within current reality.
Step 2
Flow
List down the ideas that emerge from the creative ideation phase on large charts of paper stuck around the room.
Give each player 3 sticky dots of each colour – that is, 3 blue, 3 yellow, 3 green. 9 dots per person is typical, but go ahead and reduce/increase that number based on the time at hand and number of ideas generated.
Ask each player to step forward and vote for 3 best ideas in each category. They need to do this by sticking a coloured dot in front of each idea they choose.
In the end, count the number of dots under each idea to categorize it. The highest number of dots of a certain colour categorizes the idea under that colour.
In case of a tie:
If blue dots = green dots, the idea is blue
If yellow dots = green dots, the idea is green
You now have a bucket of Now/Green ideas to work on further.
Make sure you also collect the low-hanging blue ideas for immediate implementation and the yellow ideas to keep an eye on for the future.