How to Use the "Idea Generator"

How to Use

This page explains how to use the web app "Idea Generator".

When you press the "Generate Ideas" button, the contents of "Idea Features" and "Products & Services" are randomly changed.

This feature allows you to combine completely unrelated characteristics.

The "Idea Features" section randomly displays frequently used concepts extracted from intellectual property rights (patents and utility models).

The "Products & Services" section randomly displays words extracted from a wide variety of products and services existing in the market.

Combining these words creates approximately 420,000 possible combinations. In other words, you can generate ideas randomly without having to think through 420,000 possibilities yourself.

Why the Random Idea Generation Method Works

Humans cannot escape from the world they currently live in. In other words, it is impossible to generate ideas outside the boundaries of your existing beliefs and thinking.

For example, imagine you suddenly want to buy a new car. Until then, you may not have been interested in cars, but suddenly you start noticing them everywhere. You begin observing which cars are popular and realize how many different types of cars exist. You start remembering car models and learning trivia about them. Many people have experienced something like this.

Or imagine that your wife (or you yourself) becomes pregnant. Have you ever felt as if suddenly there are many more pregnant women around you?

When people become interested in something, they begin noticing things that were previously invisible to them. Even though those things were always around, they only become visible once attention is directed toward them.

This phenomenon also applies to idea generation. It is easy to come up with ideas in areas you are already interested in. However, it is extremely difficult to create ideas in fields you do not care about. Yet innovative ideas can only emerge by combining your area of expertise with concepts outside your normal thinking range. The problem is that you usually have no interest in those outside areas, so you cannot naturally make those combinations. This is one reason why revolutionary ideas are so difficult to create.

The random idea generation method on this site can randomly combine ideas from a database. It easily introduces combinations that are outside your normal way of thinking. In other words, it helps you create innovative ideas that you could not have generated on your own.

How to Think About Ideas

Try pressing the "Generate Ideas" button once.

Idea Feature: Incorporating Light

Product / Service: Kitchen Scissors

How would you interpret "kitchen scissors with light"? Personally, I would imagine scissors with a built-in lamp so that the blade can be clearly seen even in dark areas.

Now press the button again.

Idea Feature: Bent at a Right Angle

Product / Service: Chocolate Bar

What if a chocolate bar could be folded into a three-dimensional shape like a gingerbread house? Children might love it. Perhaps a DIY chocolate house kit could become a fun business idea.

Even combinations that seem strange at first can inspire interesting ideas with just a little thought. Most people would never think about bending a chocolate bar, but that unusual combination can lead to a business concept such as a chocolate house-making kit.

In this way, truly original ideas are often hidden inside strange combinations.

What Is the Category Version?

The Idea Generator allows you to generate ideas by dividing products into several categories.

For example, imagine you want to create business ideas for stationery products. In that case, it would not be very useful if home appliances or food products appeared in the "Products & Services" section.

Therefore, the category-based Idea Generator randomly displays products and services belonging to a specific market category in the "Products & Services" section.

With this feature, even business owners who already operate in a certain domain can generate startup ideas and business ideas specialized for their own industries.

In particular, because the Idea Generator uses random combinations, it can easily present unexpected ideas outside your normal thinking range. This enables you to create innovative ideas that would otherwise be difficult to imagine.

You can access the web app "Idea Generator" here.
Go to the Idea Generator