Product Ideation & Concept Development

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Startup Cost
$8,000-$50,000
Difficulty
Intermediate
Time to Profit
8-15 months
Profit Potential
$80,000-$400,000/year

Overview

Ideation facilitators run workshops, brainstorming sessions, and concept development to generate product and business ideas.

With companies seeking fresh ideas and structured creativity, ideation generates revenue of $130,000-$460,000 with 85-95% margins.

The business requires facilitation expertise, creative thinking techniques, design thinking knowledge, workshop materials, and concept development skills.

Services include ideation workshops and brainstorming, design thinking sessions, concept generation and selection, customer journey mapping, value proposition design, and rapid prototyping exercises.

Revenue through workshop fees $2,000-$15,000 per session.

Success factors include creative facilitation and energizing groups, mastering innovation techniques (SCAMPER, TRIZ, design thinking), creating safe divergent thinking environment, rapid concept development and visualization, and serving innovation teams and product groups.

Marketing focuses on corporate innovation teams, product teams, and startups.

With structured creativity and fresh ideas needed in 2025, ideation consulting offers creative opportunities facilitating innovation with facilitation skills and creativity techniques as differentiators.

Required Skills

  • Workshop facilitation
  • Creative thinking techniques
  • Design thinking
  • Group dynamics
  • Concept development
  • Visual thinking

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • High workshop margins
  • Creative and energizing work
  • Corporate innovation demand
  • Multiple sessions per client
  • Remote virtual workshops possible

Cons

  • Facilitation skills required
  • Session preparation demands
  • Travel to client sites
  • Group dynamics challenges
  • Follow-through and implementation

How to Get Started

  1. Master facilitation and creativity techniques
  2. Learn design thinking
  3. Develop workshop curriculum
  4. Create materials and activities
  5. Market to innovation teams
  6. Offer virtual and in-person
  7. Build facilitation portfolio

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