A good brainstorm can really energise a team and produce fantastic results for a project. Sometimes brainstorms can get a bit stale. Quite often marketers and creatives will use the same techniques they've used for a long time. Here's a list of six techniques, you might've come across many of them before, but it doesn't hurt to freshen your memory or try something a bit different.
When you take a brainstorm one of four things tends to happen:
People want to do ‘real’ work not think of hypothetical situations
People share ideas they think the boss will like rather than what’s needed
Extroverted people share ideas, while the introverted nod silently or are talked over
The organiser expects inspiration to just come from nowhere
How do you avoid this?
A lot depends on the organiser to manage and co-ordinate the activity, they should encourage the participants to…
Start before entering the room, go for a walk to clear your head.
Consume differently. Look at something you wouldn't normally before the meeting.
Break your usual routine. This will put you in a different frame of mind before brainstorming.
It’s hard to jump from a meeting about budgets to creativity. Consider participants diaries and headspace.
Make sure people aren’t clock watching rushing to something else, give the meeting time to breathe.
Ensure no distractions like mobiles and laptops allowed in the room.
Understand that no idea is a bad idea.
RULES/GUIDELINES
Rules suck, but guidelines help, organiser should show that they…
- Help guide discussion
- Ensure everyone has a fair chance at being heard
- Makes the time more productive
- Focus on quantity, not quality in a brainstorm
- Don’t criticise until it’s time to prioritise
- Encourage big ideas
- Forget budgets
- Build on ideas from others
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 1
MIND MAPPING
Works best as an individual brainstorming session. It's simple and probably the most well-known technique.
Draw a circle.
Write your problem in that circle.
Branch out your ideas from there.
You may have marketing, product or other ideas scattered about in various circles, ideas branch off from there.
Canva offers free templates to try this technique.
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 2
BRAIN WRITING
The team leader will throw out an idea.
Each participant on a team will write down an idea to follow it on.
The paper is passed to the next participant who builds on the idea or adds a new idea.
Do this for four or five times, each group six to ten people.
The team leader shortlists the best ideas and constructs a plan on those ideas.
No one knows who wrote what.
People are free to express their thoughts.
The team leader still has control over what’s happening by selecting the top ideas for discussion.
If you set this against the clock it’s known as 'speed storming' and creates a sense of urgency, gut reaction and more spontaneity.
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 3
BRAIN WALKING
A variation of the brainwriting technique.
Brain walking is similar, except people, move instead of the paper.
Pieces of paper are stuck on a wall listing problems.
People add their idea on a post-it to solve the problem then move to the next paper.
This makes ideas public.
Ideas can be added to.
It generates positive energy and discussion in the room.
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 4
IDEA PAD QUADRANT
(Apparently, this is what 'thinking outside the box' refers to)
Associates unrelated concepts together to tackle the problem.
Break down the challenge into four, then combine ideas from one quadrant to another.
Start with the challenge at the centre.
Solution. Typical ideas that come to mind or something tried in the past.
Role or what would (NAME) Do?
Who could solve this problem for you?
A celebrity, a well-known person or someone in the field
This is known as ‘figuring storming’
Nutshell. This is one word or phrase that sums up the challenge in a new way.
Assumption. List reasons or assumptions with the challenge, any complications or factors that add to it?
Combine. Take one item from one quadrant and pair it with another quadrant
What are some of the ideas that come to mind? How could these two things together solve your problem?
These help guide discussion and ensure everyone can be heard during the session.
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 5
REVERSE THINKING
Find ways to prevent what you are trying to achieve.
Then reverse those actions to help solve the problem.
First, identify the problem. Then, reverse it.
E.g. you’re trying to create a piece of branded content to increase conversions, you might ask: “How can we get 1 million users engaging?” But rephrase the question to: “How can we make sure no one engages with this content?” If you already have a piece of content and want to optimise it, then ask: “How can I make this asset worse?”.
Brainstorm the reverse problem and generate ideas.
Reverse the ideas into solutions for the original problem.
You’ll end up with a table like this based on the example:
TECHNIQUE NUMBER 6
BUBBLE LINKS
Draw nine circles on a page, three in each row.
In the middle, list the problem you’re trying to solve.
Then list out eight creative ideas around that main topic.
Once you have generated ideas, start the process over again
E.g. you’ll take idea number five, place that in the middle and build out more ideas around it.
This technique mixes team with individual contributions.
Your team may come up with eight ideas, then you can assign an idea to each individual and they could work alone.
Everyone can re-join to see the results.
NOW, WHAT?
THREE WAYS TO REFINE AND PRIORITISE
Option 1: Dots
List your top ideas on a board. Give each team member a sticker dot. Put your dot next to the idea you like best.
Option 2: Pros & Cons
List out pros and cons. Limit this to only a few pros and a few cons. List the reasons why the idea will or won’t work.
You can decide what’s feasible. The best idea is sometimes the hardest to do. Your team can make value judgments.
Option 3: Face-Off
Say you have 10 ideas. List them out one to ten.
Rank them from the bottom up in pairs. Compare 9 and 10. Is 10 a better idea than 9? Move it up. What about 7 and 8? 5 and 6?
Each idea faces off for a higher spot.
Repeat by trying two pairs that you didn’t do before (like 8 and 9 would face-off, instead of 9 and 10 and so on).
Keep using this method, until your best idea comes out on top.
Hopefully, you'll find these techniques useful. There are plenty more available and you can tinker with them to find a method that best suits you and your situation.
Happy brainstorming!
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