When it comes to idea generation and problem solving there are no "silver bullets"! 

When fixing household problems, we don’t always grab a hammer, we try to select the most appropriate tool for the job; a screw driver to remove batteries from a toy, a wrench to tighten your daughter’s kick stand, silicone to repair a small leak, and yes, duct tape and a hammer for almost everything else.  

Most people have heard of Maslow’s “if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  Just as we should select the right household tool to get the job done well, we must do the same for Innovation and Idea generation tools.  For product and service development, there are hundreds of Innovation tools out there, we recommend; each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  Knowing this, the trick becomes twofold;

1)  Knowing which tool(s) are best for your specific “inventive situation”
2)  Learning how to use the tools properly that apply to your situation

Do you really need Innovation?  (The CAGE Model and the Innovation Sweet Spot)
Most teams understand that Innovation has two main beneficiaries; the internal and external customers for the product, service, or software being developed.  When you dig deep, you find these customers have many needs you must satisfy to earn their business.  Some of the needs are obvious and some hidden (blatant and latent).  To compound the issue, in every case we have seen, there are multiple customers with these needs. 

As an example, consider the development of a new medical instrument used for the treatment of cancer or heart disease.  Who are the customers?

A practical, lean, and efficient “front-end” development process is necessary for sustainable growth.  Introducing Systematic Innovation: When you combine your core competencies, people, talent, and skills with the distilled innovative habits and tactics of the most successful inventors (corporate and individual), innovation becomes much more robust and evolves into habits and therefore is sustainable.  We accomplish this by learning from the best innovators then we leverage their knowledge, creativity and innovative skills.  The result on your projects is simply efficient and effective.  There are numerous ways to integrate innovation best practices.  One of them offers a logical and practical process that incorporates these best practices into an 8-step process called Systematic Innovation.

Systematic Innovation: A structured process and set of practical tools to
create (or improve) products and services that deliver new value to your customers.