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8/22/2019 10 Tips for Effective Creative Brainstorming _ Design Shack
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Brainstorming can either be a creative gold mine or a time wasting disaster.
Brainstorming is often discussed in relation to a business environment. In college, nearly every one of my
business school textbooks had an entire chapter dedicated to the concept. Though creative brainstorming is in
many ways a different beast due to its visual nature, many of the same concepts apply.
Today well take a look at ten tips to consider before you pull your creative team into a brainstorming session.
When applied properly, they can drastically increase productivity and quality of results.
#1 Assign a Moderator
Assigning someone to guide the brainstorming session into a productive direction is an absolute must. Though
the entire point involves the free flow of ideas, this can quickly get completely off track and out of control if
not kept in check.
Who Should Be the Moderator?
Choose someone who knows the project scope intricately and is seen as an authoritative figure. This person
should not dominate conversation or even present many ideas but instead drive the conversation away from
unproductive or hostile conversation and towards original thought and successful teamwork.
How Should the Meeting Be Managed?
Whoever you choose to be the moderator (be it yourself or someone else) should be an outgoing, social
person familiar with providing direction in a non-authoritarian manner. The conversation should be eased in
different directions, not forced. Remember that you want people to feel comfortable throwing out ideas and
not afraid to change the topic or say something unconventional.
#2 Identify Goals
Its best to begin a brainstorming session by briefly stating an overview of the project. Even if everyone
present is familiar with it, the refresher is a good way to get their brains in the right place. After stating what
the project entails, clearly state the goal of the brainstorming session. Never go into a brainstorming session
without a clear idea of what you want out of it, otherwise youre setting yourself up for a phenomenal waste
of time.
Good Goals vs. Bad
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Good Goals vs. Bad
As you consider what you want to get out of the meeting, make sure the goals you set are very specific. You
should be able to tell immediately after the session ends whether or not the goals you set out were met. Be
wary of vague overarching intentions such as Create the best website ever. Instead focus on achievable and
measurable results such as Identify 10 possible ways to improve the homepage user interface.
SMART Goals
For more information on creating productive goals, check out Setting Smart Management Goals from
dummies.com. As a brief overview, SMART is an acronym for:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Bound
#3 Set a Time Limit
Obviously, youll have to end the brainstorming at some point. However, it may not always be the best idea to
ideate until people simply stop talking. Try setting and announcing a firm time limit at the beginning of the
session. The significance of the announcement is that it ensures everyone knows that the agreed upon goals
must be met by a certain time. If youve got a strong team, this will encourage them to stay on track and
really crank out as many ideas as possible within the allotted timeframe.
How Long?
It sounds like a copout, but it really does depend on the scope of the project. Just keep in mind that its easy
to get burnt out. If youre tackling a fairly large project, split each phase or category up into its own session
with breaks in between so everyone involved can give their mind a rest.
Also, if time permits, consider spreading the sessions out over several days and/or dividing your team into
different groups to cover more ground in a shorter time.
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#4 Write Down and/or Sketch Everything
Be prepared at the start of the meeting with sketchpads, stickies, or a large amount of whiteboard space for
everyone involved. Remember that every idea, good or bad should be briefly written or sketched out. Never
imagine that youll simply remember the important things that were said. Otherwise, three days later youll be
scratching your head trying to figure out how you could forget all those great ideas.
Visual Brainstorming
Dont fall into the trap of thinking that brainstorming is purely for the boring informational stuff, it can also be
a valuable tool for hammering out visual themes, making interface improvements, and experimenting with
different layouts.
If youre tackling a visual project, be sure to bring lots of scratch paper. As someone throws out an idea,
encourage everyone to quickly sketch out what it might look like. Misinterpretations can strangely enough
work in your favor at this stage. If someone throws out an idea to four people who all interpret it very
differently, it quickly becomes five ideas! Never assume that just because you were the originator of an ideathat youll be the best person to bring it to life. Instead, eagerly await seeing how others can improve or
rethink the concept.
#5 Dont Judge
This concept might be a bit overstated but it is absolutely essential to effective brainstorming. At the
beginning of the process you want to shoot for quantity over quality. Rather than taking five minutes to
discuss reasons why a particular idea is bad or good, just take every idea and move along.
Time isnt the only factor in play here either, more importantly is the mood of the room. An idealbrainstorming environment maximizes the number of ideas put forth by removing any peer pressure regarding
the quality of the suggestions. If someone in the group is too afraid to speak up for fear of rebuttal or rebuke,
the entire session is compromised and productivity will suffer greatly.
Eliminate the Weak Link
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If there is a particular person in your group that is intent on making snide comments or harsh castigations
against the ideas of others, your only two choices are to let them continue to undermine your entire purpose
or to simply ask them to sit this one out. The no judging concept is pretty simple so if anyone just cant
contain themselves then theres no reason to keep them around as they are obviously just looking to build
themselves up or support their own agenda. Perhaps they can return when it comes time to sort through the
ideas and decide which ones actually have merit.
#6 Embrace the Ridiculous
If you really want to see the value of brainstorming, dont simply avoid judging unrealistic ideas, actually
encourage them. As strange as it sounds, the very best ideas are often born from the very worst. Ask
questions like, what if money were no option? or what if our time table were three times as long?
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Look for Inspiration in the Outlandish
After youve arrived at a satisfactory number of initial ideas, start to encourage discussion of those that seemreally over the top. Examine what makes these ideas appealing and how you can strip away the unrealistic
aspects until you arrive at something that retains some of the attractiveness of the original idea but is actually
achievable. For instance, lets say youre designing a news site and someone suggests an interactive 3D
experience where users control a character that swims through a virtual underwater world of headlines and
pictures to navigate the content on the site. After some realistic discussion regarding the lack of a flash
developer, this crazy idea could simply turn into a two-dimensional nautical theme for a site titled
NewsShark. Granted, the end product is no where near as exciting as the original, but it definitely has merit
on its own and would have never been thought up without discussing the unrealistic water world concept.
#7 Start General, End SpecificIf youre the moderator of the brainstorming session, your job is to gently steer the conversation towards a
productive output. Heres what you should keep in mind as the meeting progresses.
Shotgun Blast
Similar to the spray of ammunition from a shotgun, the initial ideas should be numerous and widespread. If
you hear too many similar ideas, encourage participants to stray from that topic by suggesting something
completely unrelated. Remind them that there will be a time later to flesh out specific ideas. The point initially
is diversity of thought, not unity.
Laser Beam
This is where the quality of ideas suddenly becomes important. As the meeting progresses, hone in on and
refine the best ideas while eliminating those that dont effectively address your goals. Its best to pair down
your selection to only three or four good ideas that you can focus on shaping and improving as a group. After
youve determined the specific nature of the ideas, break off the session and assign each idea to a small team
and plan a time to come back as a group to evaluate the progress of each team.
#8 Look for Synergy Potential
As you begin to trim your selection of ideas in the step above, beware of viewing the possibilities in black and
white terms. Its not always the case that the furthering of one idea must mean the death of another. There is
often potential for creating synergy among originally separate suggestions.
Get the Big Picture
Hang all the suggestions up around the room where everyone can stand back and have a look at them as a set.
Then discuss ways to combine entire ideas or to selectively mix elements of two or more weaker ideas to form
a stronger whole. Try using stickies or thumb tacks to move certain ideas from place to place to see where
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they fit the best.
Be Democratic
If you come across an idea that most people like but are split as to what to partner it with, put it to a simple
vote. Just be aware of the fact that open voting among immature adults can cause unwanted division and an
inability to cooperate effectively. If youre worried about this with your team, simply keep the voting
anonymous to avoid the headache.
#9 Avoid Group Think
Theres a fine line between a team that productively cooperates and one that suffers from too much
cooperation. The moderator should watch intently for signs of group think and steer the conversation
accordingly.
What is Group Think?
Group think is a phenomenon that occurs in decision making groups that seek to eliminate conflict entirely. In
an attempt to escape the frustrations of lengthy arguments or the embarrassment of being the squeaky wheel,
individual members avoid promoting ideas that are beyond the realm of the generally accepted norm. Groups
with one particularly respected or vocal member are very susceptible to this behavior as members inevitably
begin to agree with this influential leader.
Its great to have positive reinforcement and agreements within the group, but not at the expense of critical
thinking, creativity and ultimately, quality. As group think increases, the quality and diversity of the ideas
being presented sharply decreases.
Play the Devils Advocate
If your group is suffering from excessive uniformity, try taking of the role of the devils advocate by asking
tough questions and presenting multiple alternatives to ideas that are raised. As the moderator, make it a point
to audibly praise those who even begin to question the will of the majority. This positive reinforcement for
creative thinking will not go unnoticed by other members of the team who will hopefully follow suit in
presenting their own arguments and original thoughts.
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presenting their own arguments and original thoughts.
#10 Include an Outsider
My final suggestion for effective brainstorming is to include at least one person in the group who doesnt
belong. For instance, if youre working with a team of designers, try throwing in a developer to add some
diversity to the mix. Or better yet, grab someone who knows absolutely nothing about creating websites or
developing attractive user interfaces.
Why it Wont Mess Things Up
You might be thinking that including a non-designer in design-related decisions is just asking for trouble. Afterall, this outsider will be on a completely different page than everyone else in the room and their suggestions
will no doubt be off the wall and way off target. To this argument I say: exactly. Bringing someone in who
actually thinks more like an end user than a designer will give you an inside track into a normal persons
brain. Designers often have a strong, unwavering tendency to design for other designers instead of every day
people. Including one or two people to shake up your otherwise uniform group will further enable you to
avoid the group think scenarios in the previous tip.
Who To Include
As youre selecting candidates to include in your session, theres a few things to keep in mind. The first thing
to think about is the personality of the candidate. If theyre brilliant but shy, odds are they wont add a singlething to the group. Similarly, if theyre loud and obnoxious, they could do more harm than good.
You also want to consider the content being discussed and whether or not the candidate will even be able to
achieve moderate comprehension of the topic. Throwing your copywriter in with a bunch of seasoned PHP
developers is akin to making them watch a foreign film with no subtitles. Again, not very productive.
Finally, youll want to consider going beyond including a single outsider by inviting multiple people from
different areas of the company to join the session. If your topic is something that most people can grasp, such
as basic visual design or website contest ideas, you might find that the input of a developer, a writer and a
layman is collectively invaluable when compared to the input of just one of these on his/her own.
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layman is collectively invaluable when compared to the input of just one of these on his/her own.
The IDEO Way
For more inspiration on creative brainstorming, Ill refer you to the experts: IDEO. This company lives and
breathes innovation and is among the most productively creative corporations on the planet. Theyre a lot like
a modern day Edison Invention Factory, continually churning out game changing ideas, designs and
inventions.
To see them in action, check out this inspirational (though a bit outdated) video of IDEO redesigning the
shopping cart from the ground up.
Video: Inside IDEO
Conclusion
The above ideas represent just a few ways to get your design brainstorming session off to a good start. Use the
comments below to let us know how you handle brainstorming sessions and whether or not you think they are
ultimately a good method of generating quality design ideas.