As product managers, we’re the Grand Central stations of ideas: We don’t necessarily originate all the ideas for the product, but all ideas should route through us on the way to their final destination. Some ideas go to production, some to the backlog, some back to the drawing board, and others to shallow graves.

Unfortunately, killing off bad ideas isn’t always an easy thing…

Are You A Natural Born Bad Idea Killer?

Are you one of the rare breed who can spot a bad idea from 100 yards away and shoot it dead without nicking the person waving its banner? Then–please–share your insights below! For most people, rejecting ideas isn’t so easy.

People feel protective of their ideas, and often invest some of their own self-worth into those ideas. If you’re not careful, you may end up accepting a bad idea because you’re afraid of hurting their feelings–or, on the flip side, bruising their egos by too callously discarding their ideas. Neither is a good option if you want to go far as a PM.

The Tightrope

As a product manager, I often find myself walking the tightrope of encouraging idea generation while simultaneously evaluating, prioritizing, and eliminating ideas.

Whirlpool’s process for evaluating and testing product ideas is sensible. Key criteria? The product must meet a consumer need in a fresh way; have the breadth to become a platform for related products; and lift earnings. If the idea doesn’t fit, it logically should be rejected.

Purist Product Management offers a three-gate process for idea review and elimination. A key element to their process is quick feedback to the idea originator on why the idea is being rejected or pushed forward for further evaluation.

Stick to the facts, explain the rejection, and move on. Sounds simple.

But What If The Bad Idea Belongs To The CEO?

Then you’re screwed! Ha ha! Just kidding.

William Ury, author of The Power of a Positive No offers this insight for delivering an effective “no”:

Yes without No destroys one’s own satisfaction, whereas No without Yes destroys one’s relationship with others. We need both Yes and No together. For Yes is the key word of community, No the key word of individuality. [...] The great art is to learn to integrate the two–to marry Yes and No. That is the secret to standing up for yourself and what you need without destroying valuable agreements and precious relationships.

Will this tactic work with your CEO? Depends on the CEO, your relationship with them, and how well you can construct your argument.

Bottom Line

It’s not always easy to say “no”. That said, we are paid to think strategically and to make the right things happen at the right times for the right audience.

Every time you say “yes” to something middling or routine, you’re saying “no” to something strategic. Find the right way to strike that balance or someone will be answering “no” to the question, “Should we keep that PM on our payroll?”

Yikes

That ended in a dark place… Let’s try to brighten things up: What have your experiences been like saying “no” to bad ideas, or to good ideas that don’t fit for X, Y, or Z criteria? How do you handle having your own ideas rejected?

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Michael Ray Hopkin wrote recently about the importance of capturing ideas:

Ideas are the fuel for great products. [...] The more ideas you capture the more likely you are to get the perfect new product or feature. Many times ideas will seem silly or absolutely unobtainable; write them down anyway. Over time circumstances change, technology improves and opportunities appear that you do not expect.

The conversation only lightly touched on the mechanics of capturing ideas, and knowingly avoided the sometimes difficult and awkward process of sorting ideas, so I thought we’d talk about the former today and the latter next time.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

Everywhere! Trusted customers. Not-so-trusted customers. Sales. Customer service. Your own head. The competition.

There’s potential to trip over good ideas all day long. Sometimes from unexpected people in the most unexpected of places.

How Do You Capture Those Ideas?

Some people do it the old fashioned way with a notebook and pen. Some prefer online services like EverNote or Google Docs.

My old system involved Post-It Notes. Actually, my old system was Post-It Notes. It worked for awhile, but wasn’t very efficient (“Where did that note go?!?!”). Eventually I started to look and feel like Leonard from Memento, and knew something needed to change.

My Personal Approach

I’ve developed two different methods for how I capture ideas these days, one for work and one for home.

At work, I take a single notebook with me everywhere to jot things down. Product ideas, regardless of source or my personal snap judgment, I transfer over to our idea Wiki and sort them into categories (new game ideas, billing, networking, etc.).

In real life, I have notebooks everywhere–one next to my bed, one in my backpack, one in my car–so I can jot down ideas as they strike me. I’ll then transfer the more pressing ideas to Stickies on my iMac, and pick them off one at a time. (Apparently, at a smaller scale, my Memento-style approach still works.)

I’m an amateur screenwriter in my spare time, and I’ve started using Voice Memo in my iPhone to specifically capture ideas for scenes I’m writing or in the process of re-writing.

Why Two Different Approaches?

I didn’t develop two approaches purposefully; they evolved naturally. I think some of it has to do with scale–there are simply more ideas for work than for some of the personal matters I work on.

Speed and turnaround time are also a factor: In real life, the ideas I have can usually get knocked out pretty quickly, much faster than the time it takes for ideas at work to move through the validation process and (if merited) into production. As a result, my desktop stickies are much more manageable.

A big factor, maybe the biggest factor, is the ability to share ideas. What I like best about the Wiki at work is that it’s viewable to everyone on the team and everyone in the company. There’s a level of transparency there that encourages people to keep contributing ideas and encourages new ideas, riffing off some of the ideas we’ve already captured.

How About You?

What’s your process like for capturing ideas? Do you leave voicemail messages for yourself at work? Tattoo your body with product ideas you need to remember? What works, what doesn’t?

New Around Here?

Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going!