Replenishing the New Product Idea Funnel:
An Intertape Polymer Group Ideation Case Study

Intertape Polymer Group (IPG), a leading manufacturer of packing supplies, including shrink and stretch films, masking tape and duct tape, was looking for a fast and effective way to replenish its new product idea funnel. The CEO had established aggressive new product sales goals for the coming year, which required the R&D group to reach beyond the more comfortable realm of effecting cost reductions and improving raw materials, and focus instead on the development of new products.

In the past, according to R&D Manager Robin Ganger, the company had solicited new product ideas directly from the sales department, asking each to submit perhaps three new ideas by a particular date. Traditional brainstorming had also been tried in the past, but Ganger deemed these approaches expensive, difficult to coordinate, and severely hampered by the “free-rider effect,” in which non-vocal participants received the same rewards as those who actively participated in the brainstorming process. Now, with increased expectations from management, the company would need a more productive and collaborative approach to brainstorming, while still keeping an eye on the bottom line.

IPG Discovers IDEALYST®

With these challenges in mind, Ganger began researching several new product brainstorming processes, and discovered IDEALYST when a marketing mailing landed on her desk. IDEALYST is an on-line ideation and brainstorming tool developed by Applied Marketing Science in conjunction with researchers at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Columbia University. Ganger liked the fact that IDEALYST moves the traditional brainstorming process to the web, allowing participants to anonymously share their own ideas and build on ideas suggested by others. She also was impressed by the game’s unique scoring system, which rewards participants for each idea they contribute, as well as for every time another participant builds on one of their ideas. After talking with AMS and interviewing several previous users of the system at other companies, IPG settled on IDEALYST, and began setting up the company’s first game. (To watch a 3-minute video about IDEALYST, click here.)

Let the Game Begin!

The team invited 33 customers and employees to participate, 27 of whom became active players in the game. Ganger believes that the high participation rate was due to the “invitation only” atmosphere her team created prior to the game. “People felt like it was a privilege to be selected to participate,” she said. Internal participants were based across the U.S. as well as in Europe, and included representatives from R&D, engineering, sales and marketing, operations, and executive management. The company held a brief conference call training session for the team and also e-mailed instructions to those who were unable to participate in the training. In order to prevent company politics or favoritism from entering into the game, identities of the participants were kept anonymous. Instead, each was assigned a pictorial icon that appeared next to each of their postings.

Prior to beginning IDEALYST, Ganger’s group seeded the game with three main ideas to initiate discussion. According to Ganger, “we didn’t even really need those – we had tons of participation.” During the session, participants revisited the game repeatedly, at their own convenience, to read, review and respond to the ideas of others. Postings were organized into threads or trees, with main ideas at the top and commentary or embellishments on each idea indented below. Participants were encouraged to “challenge” ideas that were either repetitions of earlier submissions or totally irrelevant or disruptive to the discussion – challenges were not allowed simply for disagreeing with another’s ideas.

Follow-Up and Next Steps

At the conclusion of the game – following an extension requested by popular demand! – IPG had collected 218 unique ideas and 685 builds on those ideas. Anyone generating five or more points received a Home Depot gift card worth two dollars for each point they had accumulated; all told, the company paid out $1,960 in rewards. Prior to receiving their gift card in the mail, participants were required to complete a survey about their experience. One of the biggest benefits of the game, according to the survey results, was that people could log on repeatedly, and see how many points they had received and who (in icon symbols) was winning. Many said they were pleasantly surprised when a gift card arrived in the mail; they felt that playing the game and watching the creativity of their fellow players unfold, was reward enough. The only negative came from the few who had logged on too much and felt that their ability to get their regular work done had been compromised.

Following the game, IPG screened and categorized each idea and assigned the top two or three suggestions to the appropriate business unit for follow-up. “With traditional brainstorming, we found that the same ideas tended to surface over and over,” said Ganger. “IDEALYST helped us identify some incredibly innovative ideas, including some that are potentially patentable.” Particularly gratifying to Ganger was the response she received from the various business unit leaders. “The synergy among participants from different functional areas was really fantastic,” she said. “We’re looking forward to playing our next IDEALYST game.”