Interested in knowing how generative AI can accelerate idea development and help you get across the finish line with less effort and in record time? Dive with us into the world of CO-STAR together with Laszlo Gyorffy – Lead Instructor at ABC Silicon Valley.
Innovation is often glamorized by the bookends of sourcing promising ideas like colorful post-it notes or highlighting the final polished product we see in the store. Stories of the unglamorous hard work required to bridge the gap between “I have an idea” to its realization are often not shared. Generative AI will undoubtedly play an enabling role throughout the innovation process by making it easier for people with new ideas to get off to a fast start. We will show you how generative AI can accelerate idea development and help get you across the finish line with less effort and in record time.
Leveraging CO-STAR
Whether you are an employee with a great idea or an aspiring entrepreneur, you will be confronted with many similar challenges when it comes to innovation. You are likely to face the inevitable resistance to change, a lack of time, resources, collaborators, data, or expertise needed to push ahead. It is enough to stop you from starting but the world needs your imagination, and with technical advances that complement your innate creativity, there has never been a better time to develop winning ideas.
To clarify your idea and guarantee others recognize its potential, we recommend utilizing the CO-STAR framework. It is a simple, yet effective way to develop a compelling case for your idea, what we call a value proposition. CO-STAR helps you to identify and validate the key elements of your value proposition and articulate them concisely. This will assist you in connecting with your target audience (users, buyers, managers, partners, etc.) and persuade them to choose your solution over the alternatives. CO-STAR was developed in Silicon Valley and has been used by idea champions like yourself in over 41 countries around the world.
Before we show you how to turbocharge your ideas with CO-STAR and generative AI, let’s clarify the six areas you must develop to ensure your idea is indeed a valuable one. CO-STAR is an acronym that stands for:
- Customer: Who is the target customer for your idea and what are their unmet needs or problems?
- Opportunity: What is the size of the problem and the full potential of addressing the customer’s unmet needs?
- Solution: What is your idea and how does it solve the unmet needs/problems that your target customer is facing?
- Team: Who needs to be on your team (roles, skills, experience) to ensure your solution’s success?
- Advantage: What is the competitive advantage your solution has over the alternatives?
- Results: What are the expected results your solution will deliver? How will your target customer as well as your sponsor benefit?
The 6 questions work together to create a powerful narrative for your idea. Note, your Solution must address the Customer’s unmet needs at a level that produces Results significantly better than other alternatives or the status quo for it to be considered valuable. Answer the CO-STAR questions, quantify the answers to strengthen your case, and iterate your value proposition based on what you learn through this Q&A process until you are confident your idea is desirable, feasible, and viable.
About Generative Research and Refinement
Recently, there has been an avalanche of generative artificial intelligence tools, such as ChatGPT, Bard, Bing, etc., that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos. While generative AI offers lots of possibilities to support innovation, we will focus on its ability to help with researching your ideas, refining your value proposition, and writing a draft pitch. By posing a question or well-crafted prompt, it will gather information from the internet and present it to you in a concise and compelling manner. This application will help you get smart fast about your idea while creating content you can leverage.
Case Study: Sarah’s Sound Effects Company’s Disposable Hearing Aids
To get started, let’s suppose you are an employee at Sarah’s Sound Effects Company. They make traditional hearing aids and other auditory enhancements but are looking for new sources of revenue and novel product ideas to help grow their business. You are invited to participate in an innovation crowdsourcing campaign with the rest of the employees using IdeaScale software to capture and manage the ideas. You have a great idea for producing a disposable hearing aid and submit your idea to your company’s innovation management platform. The campaign sponsor encourages you to develop it further because it seems to offer great promise. Here is where CO-STAR and Generative AI can be a great asset!
If you want to see how to put generative AI into practice to refine your idea into a value proposition, make sure to check the rest of the article. And if you’re eager to learn more about innovations, artificial intelligence, and disruptive technology trends, make sure to join us this summer in San Jose for a two-week summer school program focused on perfecting your start-up idea and learning how to successfully pitch it to potential investors!
