24 Concept Development Techniques

John Spacey, updated on May 19, 2023

Concept development is the creation of a foundational idea for a strategy, design or work product. This is the idea that gives your work its depth, meaning and value. Concepts are a starting point that may change along the path to implementation as a design is shaped by constraints and market realities such as competition and customers. The following are common concept development techniques.

Problem Statement State what you want to achieve. This can be open-ended and can change throughout the concept development process.	Brainstorming Generating ideas without constraint, validation or criticism.
Backward Invention Removing features and functions instead of adding them.	Business Experiments Designing tests to discover information or validate concepts.
Challenging Assumptions Identifying and challenging your assumptions.	Concept Testing Get concepts in front of stakeholders such as clients,end-customers or end-users.
Counterfactual Thinking Think about how the world might have been fundamentally different.	Creativity of Constraints Add constraints such as a budget or deadline to improve creativity.
Feasibility Study Determine if a concept is feasible.	First Principles Apply rules with broad explanatory power that you hold to be true.
Idea Generation Processes of generating untested brave ideas.	Analogical Thinking Using analogies to simplify the complex.
Integration Combine different things to develop new concepts.	Idea Screening Validating and prioritizing ideas.
Reverse Brainstorming Generating reasons that an idea will fail.	Multiple Perspectives Temporarily adopt a perspective such as a customer with a particular need, background or motivation.
Multiple Mindsets Adopt different mindsets such as optimism or pessimism.	Creative Control Cooperate and collaborate but make it clear who makes the creative decision. Prevents the process of social compromise that creates mediocrity.
Inventive Step The moment of insight that produces an idea that is non-obvious and valuable.	Lead Users Engaging the advanced and influential users of your products or services.
Customer Advocacy Using customer ideas and feedback to improve your design concept.	Throwaway Prototype Building an inexpensive and fast prototype to test out a concept.
Evolutionary Prototype Building an expensive version of a concept to advance, refine and sell it.	Design Charrette An intensive group working session that doesn’t end until you reach a result.