Here are some ways to help manage and maintain new ideas in business:

1. Build a culture where ideas and innovation are valued
It really does not matter how fancy your idea collection methods are. You can have an old box or a fancy Intranet website. People know what their management values. If ideas are not one of the things management values, then they will dry up.

2. Create way to collect and save ideas (from everyone)
All ideas, even bad ones are valuable to collect. Also, everyone should be able to submit ideas. You really don’t know where the next great idea will come from.

3. Keep the ideas in a repository
Even the “rejected” ideas need to be kept. Review periodically. Occasionally, that silly idea that was rejected a couple year ago – starts looking good within a year or two.

4. Identify problems that need unique solutions
On the flip-side, not only should you collect ideas (perhaps some ideas looking for solutions). You should collect problems looking for solutions.

5. Constantly evaluate ideas
Not all ideas are a priority to look at right now. You need a team that can pick the top ideas in light of the business’ needs and the idea’s feasibility. This may need to be a cross-functional team of people, depending on the company.

6. Prototype, Prototype, and Prototype
Once ideas have been identified, be prepared to constantly prototype new ideas. Get as many prototypes in front of representative users as possible.

7. Fail Fast & Learn
Fail fast. For ideas that are now working out, move on to the next idea. A failure is not something your company should shy away from. A failure is learning experience. Learn and move on fast. If failure is an issue, see number 1.

8. Keep teams as small as possible
2 Pizza teams are preferable for fast-moving product development. When a team gets too large to feed with 2 pizzas, then re-evaluate.

9. Find out what your customers want
As everyone knows, you should always be asking and evaluating what your customers want… but see number 10

10. Find out what your customers will want
Even more important when planning a new product or feature, it is important to evaluate trends in technology and customer trends –  to understand where your customers will be in a few years. This is an art and is not precise. But, that’s why you get paid the big-bucks, right? Your data mostly tells you what your customers wanted yesterday. That’s great. Be sure to evaluate that data in light of what tomorrow will look like.