Identifying Opportunities
Strategic Innovation Methodology

Identifying Opportunities

Discovering the Path Ahead

The convergence step. You arrive with a raw pool of ideas and leave with structure a business can act on. Two more techniques top up the pool first, Alternative Worlds and the Creative Matrix, because the best ideas often arrive last. Then the affinity process groups what you have into coherent territories, and each becomes a structured Opportunity Description. Those bundle into Opportunity Spaces and land on a map that shows where growth actually sits.

$425with its Studio, $750

The Studio is the hour with an SME Practitioner that earns the badge for this Step. What a Studio is  ·  All sixteen Steps

Self-paced, and yours to keep once you enroll. Add as many Steps as you want and check out once.

At a glance
PhaseImagine
FormatSelf-paced, six parts
TimeFour to six hours, plus your work on the tools
AppliedYour organization, not a case
AccessYours to keep
BadgeEarned in the Studio
Office hoursNinety days, with the Studio
SectionInside This Step

The Whole Step, Before You Buy It

This is the real structure, named exactly as it is inside. Six parts carry the method. Three more put it against your own initiative. All of it opens the moment you enroll and stays yours.

Before you start
 

Start Here

Where this Step sits in the methodology · Introduction
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The six parts
01

Synthesis: Combining Ideas into Something Bigger

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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02

Opportunity Description: Giving Each Opportunity a Common Shape

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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03

Creative Matrix: Combining Dimensions to Spark Ideas

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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04

Alternative Worlds: Borrowing Brilliance from Other Fields

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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05

Affinity Process: Clustering Ideas into Opportunity Spaces

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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06

Opportunity Space Map: Seeing the Whole Landscape at a Glance

Watch · Deeper dive · Check yourself
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Where it becomes your artifact
 

Reading the Altitude

Reading the altitude
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Toolkit: Apply It to Your Project

Your toolkit · Your application assignment
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Accelerating This Step with AI

Leveraging AI in this Step
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The tools
Synthesis · Alternative Worlds · Creative Matrix · Affinity Process · Opportunity Description · Opportunity Space Map

The tools for this Step are fillable PDFs you download and keep. Some of the methods run as group sessions, and you record what the room produced on the sheet.

SectionWhat You Leave With

What Your Initiative Carries Forward

Everything below is built against your own organization rather than a case study. A badge marks this Step, and the badge is earned in the Studio. Add the four Studios in Imagine, plus the Advance Studio that closes the Phase, and the Imagine certificate follows.

  • Structured Opportunity Descriptions
  • Ideas bundled into Opportunity Spaces
  • An Opportunity Space Map ready to expand
The phase
Imagine
One of sixteen Steps
Six parts, worked at your pace
Office hours twice a month
Yours to keep
SectionHow It Works

Six parts. One artifact.

Watch The Video

Short, plain, and to the point. Every part opens with one, and none of them run long.

Go Deeper

A written dive that sits behind each video, so you can go straight to the part your initiative needs first.

Check Your Understanding

A short self-check closes every part. It is there to catch a gap before you carry it into the artifact, and it is yours alone to read.

Build The Artifact

The tools run against your own organization. What you complete is what your initiative carries into the next Step.

The honest time
The videos and the deeper dives take four to six hours. You then run the tools against your own project, and your project sets that pace. Most of the work, and most of the value, sits in that second part.
Office hours
Office hours run twice a month with an SME Practitioner. Adding the Studio to this Step opens ninety days of access. Bring the tool you are stuck on and we work it live with you.

Developed by a team of alumni and faculty, and run across engagements in energy, manufacturing, healthcare, and community organizations. APHIONE holds it under license.

SectionThe Studio

The Studio For This Step

A Studio is one hour, one to one, with an SME Practitioner. You apply this Step to your own project. Finishing the Studio is what earns the badge for Identifying Opportunities. The Studio is optional, and the Step is complete without it.

One, before

You prepare

You complete the Studio Preparation Sheet for this Step and send it ahead. It asks what you built, what you are unsure about, and where you want the hour spent.

Two, the hour

You meet

Sixty minutes with an SME Practitioner, on your own project rather than a case. You walk through the work you have done and they press on it.

Three, after

You make the changes

You revise your artifact and complete the Studio Reflection Sheet. The changes the hour produces are the point of the hour.

What earns the badge
All three, in order: the Preparation Sheet completed and sent ahead, the hour attended, and the Reflection Sheet completed afterward. Badges are only ever issued for work that is actually finished.
Also included
Ninety days of access to APHIONE office hours, which run twice a month. Bring the tool you are stuck on and we work it live with you.
What it costs

$325 added to this Step

The Step on its own is $425. The Step with its Studio is $750. You can add the Studio today or a year from now, and the price is the same either way.

What a Studio is not

It is not a group session.

One hour, one to one, on your own project.

It is not required.

The Step is complete on its own. Adding the Studio later never costs more.

It is not more content.

Everything you need is already inside the Step. The hour applies it to your project.

Begin Step

Discovering the Path Ahead. Worked against your own organization, at your own pace.

Add the Studio and you also add the hour that earns the badge, plus ninety days of office hours. You can add it later instead, at the same price.

Back to all sixteen Steps