How-Now-Wow Matrix

schedule

Time Frame

30-60 min

groups

Group size

10-40

emoji_people

Facilitation lvl

beginner

window

Comfort zone

safe

This game naturally follows the creative idea generation phase and helps players select ideas to develop further. When people want to develop new ideas, they most often think out of the box in the brainstorming or divergent phase. However, when it comes to convergence, people often end up picking ideas that are most familiar to them. This is called a ‘creative paradox’ or a ‘creadox’.
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

Flip charts
Markers and/or voting dots (multi color)

Step 1

Preparation
Draw a 2-by-2 matrix as illustrated.

howwownow1
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.

Facilitator notes:

Check your yellow dots in advance to ensure that they can be seen from a distance (tip use orange or gold). If not, go ahead and replace them. FYI, in the original matrix, WOW ideas are red.

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