The Fuzzy Frontend of product development

There are a number of factors that positively impact the success of innovation with the core being management making the decision to allocate resources, to follow a structured process and to acknowledge that these projects do take time.
Interestingly companies do not have any problem investing in product development projects where they easily spend millions of euro's but still hesitate to invest 10% of that amount in making sure we develop the right product. And as you know: crap in is crap out.
The phase preceding the traditional structured stage-gate development process is called "The Fuzzy Frontend". The name already suggests that this phase is fuzzy and can not be described in a "one size fits all" process. It combines strategy and strategic decision making with market analyses and ideation activities. That makes this phase difficult to comprehend and manage.
Here is the original article explaining the Fuzzy Frontend: Fuzzy Frontend - Peter A. Koen
What I have learned: an outsinde in approach where a multidisciplinary team goes into a creative ideation phase based on a selected customer problem results in a wealth of patentable and great innovative product ideas. Validating different ideas with your customers lead to the confidence you should want to have before deciding to invest millions into development.
Here is a very high level & simplified picture I have created to explain the fuzzy frontend mainly based on the deliverables that result from each phase.