I’m currently reading “The Art of Innovation“ by Tom Kelley.Tom and his Brother David are head honchos at IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm. 
Through the years, they’ve developed a simple strategy for unleashing innovation at IDEO. It boils down to this:

1. UNDERSTAND - not only the market, the client and the technology, but also the perceived constraints on the problem. 
2. OBSERVE - Real people in real life. Not focus groups. Real people trying to tackle the problems you want to help them with. 
3. VISUALIZE - The brainstorming session. If I was faced with the problem, what challenges would I be weighed down with and what are creative ways to solve that problem.
4. EVALUATE & REFINE - What works, what doesn’t, what confuses people, what they seem to like. Test, Modify, Retest.
5. IMPLEMENT - If the idea is great  and you can’t implement it, than the idea is of little value.

It’s not rocket science. It’s just about having a managed approach to Creativity and having a roadmap to take the next big thing from beginning to end.  Any thoughts?