Context Slice Ideation Process
Step 1: Analyze Feedback Themes
Before brainstorming, understand patterns in the feedback:
- Pain points — What frustrates users?
- Workarounds — What hacks are they using?
- Requests — What do they explicitly ask for?
- Delights — What do they love? (protect and extend)
- Confusion — Where do they get lost?
Step 2: Identify Opportunities
Transform themes into opportunity statements:
Formula: "[User] struggles with [problem] when [context], which leads to [negative outcome]."
Example: "Project managers struggle with status updates when team members forget to update tasks, which leads to inaccurate reporting and wasted standup time."
Step 3: Brainstorm Solutions
For each opportunity, generate multiple solutions:
- Obvious solution — What most people would build
- Minimal solution — Smallest thing that addresses it
- Ambitious solution — What if we really solved this?
- Adjacent solution — What if we solved a related problem instead?
Step 4: Evaluate and Prioritize
Score ideas against criteria that matter for your product/stage.
Ideation Output Template
# Feature Ideas from [Feedback Source]
## Feedback Summary
- **Source:** [Where this feedback came from]
- **Volume:** [How much feedback analyzed]
- **Time period:** [When collected]
## Theme Analysis
### Theme 1: [Name]
**Frequency:** [How often this came up]
**Example quotes:**
> "[Quote from customer]"
> "[Another quote]"
**Underlying need:** [What they're really trying to accomplish]
### Theme 2: [Name]
...
## Feature Ideas
### Idea 1: [Feature Name]
**Addresses theme:** [Which theme this solves]
**Description:** [What it does in 2-3 sentences]
**User story:** As a [user], I want to [action] so that [benefit].
**Effort estimate:** [T-shirt size: S/M/L/XL]
**Impact potential:** [High/Medium/Low] — [Why]
**Risks/concerns:** [What could go wrong or block this]
### Idea 2: [Feature Name]
...
### Idea 3: [Feature Name]
...
## Ranked Recommendations
| Rank | Feature | Theme Addressed | Effort | Impact | Rationale |
|------|---------|-----------------|--------|--------|-----------|
| 1 | [Name] | [Theme] | [S/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [Why prioritize] |
| 2 | [Name] | [Theme] | [S/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [Why prioritize] |
| 3 | [Name] | [Theme] | [S/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [Why prioritize] |
| 4 | [Name] | [Theme] | [S/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [Why prioritize] |
| 5 | [Name] | [Theme] | [S/M/L] | [H/M/L] | [Why prioritize] |
## Themes to Monitor
These themes appeared but don't warrant immediate action:
- [Theme] — [Why we're waiting]
- [Theme] — [Why we're waiting]
## Next Steps
1. [Recommended action]
2. [Recommended action]Ideation Tips
Quantity First
Generate many ideas before evaluating. Bad ideas often lead to good ones.
Involve Others
Different perspectives surface different solutions. Include engineering, support, sales.
Look for Patterns
Multiple customers saying the same thing in different words = real signal.
Question the Request
"We need export to PDF" might really mean "I need to share this with someone who doesn't have access."
Consider Non-Solutions
Sometimes the best response is education, not features. Or removing something.
Common Pitfalls
- Building what they say, not what they need — Dig deeper into underlying needs
- Recency bias — Last week's feedback feels most urgent
- Loud minority — 3 vocal users ≠ what most users want
- Complexity creep — Each idea adds settings and edge cases
- Ignoring existing features — Maybe the solution is already there, just hard to find