Structured Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a standard idea-generation technique. In a group setting, though, groupthink can set in, and truly innovative ideas can be suppressed or missed completely. In structured brainstorming, you are encouraged to take on different roles and remove constraints that might be limiting your thinking.

Example applications

Structured brainstorming can be used at any time during the design process, especially when you’re trying to generate ideas. Brainstorming works best when ideas are open and everyone in the group is has agreed to the process.

Steps

The goal of brainstorming is to generate as many ideas as possible. Brainstorming individually, and then in a group, is a great way to make sure you come up with a bunch of different ideas.

1. Agree to the rules of brainstorming as a group. This might involve valuing creativity over reality, and encouraging broad ideas over detailed ideas.
2. Agree on a question or problem that you’re brainstorming. Using a How Might We.. question (see Problem Framing is a handy way to frame a brainstorming session. Write down the statement so that it can be referred to during the brainstorming.
3. Assign each member of the team a different brainstorming role. There are two good ways to do this:
   • • break up in stakeholders - assign each person in your team a different stakeholder perspective to brainstorm from. For example, user, designer, manufacturer, owner, etc.
     • break up by adding/removing constraints - assign each person in your team a different hypothetical constraint. For example, what could you do if you… had unlimited/no money; had unlimited/reduced technology capacity; had unlimited/reduced resources, etc.
4. Give a short amount of time for each team member writes down 5-10 ideas (agree on a number) from that perspective. Post-it notes are essential here, and different colours are handy to identify different stakeholders
5. Then, go around the group taking turns to map out ideas. Overlapping ideas can be joined together. See what comes out, and then discuss the possibilities.

Hints

• Once you’ve generated all your different ideas, you could try wearing De Bono’s six thinking hats (see De Bono’s six-hat thinking)to critique the different ideas
• Avoid taking brainstorming personally. The reason that taking different roles can work well is that it separates you from being personally responsible for the idea, as you are roleplaying that perspective
• If the brainstorming isn’t getting your group anywhere, take a break. Go for a walk, or do something social, and come back to the idea generation fresh or explore a different question to brainstorm

Core resources

• Stanford’s D.School note on effective brainstorming (Online or as PDF)
• IDEO.org’s Field Guide to Human-Centred Design provides some good suggestions on general brainstorming. [Online or section as PDF]