Ideas and opportunities are often seen as the same, but there are differences and shared similarities that imply on the way one can achieve and research about them. Creative solutions by creative people are always welcome and can be somewhat improved by technical training or crowdsourcing. However, the recurrent ability to address or to be driven by the value spark that makes the idea a winner still demands research and tools. A new valuable product idea is a complex entity. This paper presents a brief investigation of theoretical innovation models with a focus on its mechanisms for identifying new product opportunities. The work aims to complement partially the research conducted by Kampa [1], which features an emphasis on approaches presented by classical New Product Development Process (NPD) models. An exploratory study was conducted on generic innovation models and its main stages in order to identify how new product opportunities are treated in them. It was seen that few procedural detailsare offered, and that the topic has been mainly discussed on idea management models. Despite their aim on the idea part of the equation, it is clearly noted that the opportunity identification mechanisms should be investigated within these areas, somewhat segregated as sources on NPD researches, and should involve works on idea management models and open innovation models.