3. Preparing the various stages of the method

Identify a population (P) of project and product ideas (i): (P = {A1, A2... An}, i = 1, 2... n). The authors will use methods such as brainstorming or other approaches and methods to generate a maximum number of innovative, non-redundant, exhaustive ideas.

Define a set of criteria between 3 and 5: they must be disjoint, non-contradictory, uncorrelated or non-redundant and consistent with each other. Criteria must be defined on the basis of rules that are known and accepted by all. Each criterion has an explicit scale. Criteria express the decision-maker's preferences.

Each criterion can be defined on the basis of a utility function (unique to each criterion). A utility function defines the importance of the expert's preference u _i (g _...