Ex 9. Graph it and pick one

Now for the fun part. Take a piece of paper and draw a graph with a Y axis labelled User value and an X axis labelled Skillset relevance. Have the values range from 0 to 10 on both axis as below:

Ideation decision graph axis

Now, using their user value and skillset relevance numbers, add your 5 ideas to the graph i.e. If you had marked idea 1 – 7 for user value and 8 for skillset relevance you'd mark a point on the graph as follows:

Ideation decider graph with one point on it

Once you've added all your points, look for the point that takes up the most area – this will be the value where your skillset best matches the value for your users:

The area each idea takes up on the graph can be calculated with the following equation:

User value X Skillset relevance = Idea potential

The idea you should pursue is the one that occupies the largest area under the graph i.e. the one with the largest Idea potential value.