It's one thing to have an idea, its anther to have an idea like an engineer.
This process uses Slack, Onshape, pen & notebook, Google Docs, or Google Drawings.
So inspiration for an idea can come from anywhere. A good place to start is observing the world around you and look at how similar problems are being solved. Try and figure out the important parts of those designs and those could be a good start to an idea.