Brainstorming Techniques
Creative methods and structured approaches to generate innovative ideas
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Explanation
The original brainstorming method by Alex Osborn establishes four fundamental rules: defer judgment to avoid shutting down ideas prematurely, encourage wild ideas to break conventional thinking, build on others' ideas to create combinations and improvements, and focus on quantity over quality to generate the most material to work with later.
Example
A team brainstorming app features follows the rules: 'What if users could time-travel in the app?' (wild idea) → 'Version history navigation!' (building on it) → 'Undo/redo with visual timeline' (practical evolution). Generate 100+ ideas in 60 minutes before evaluating any.
Explanation
Developed by Bernd Rohrbach in 1968, this structured technique generates 108 ideas in just 30 minutes. Six participants write three ideas on worksheets within five minutes, then pass their sheets to the right. Each round builds on previous ideas, creating a snowball effect of creativity while eliminating the dominance issues of verbal brainstorming.
Example
Marketing team improving customer onboarding: Round 1: Email sequence, video tutorials, checklist. Round 2: Personalized emails based on user role, interactive tutorials, gamified checklist with badges. Round 3: AI-generated emails, VR tutorials, collaborative team checklists. Result: 108 ideas spanning practical to innovative.
Explanation
SCAMPER is a creative thinking technique that uses seven different approaches to modify existing ideas or products. Each letter represents a different way to transform something: Substitute elements, Combine with other things, Adapt from elsewhere, Modify or magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate parts, or Reverse/rearrange elements.
Example
Improving a coffee shop: Substitute: Plant-based milk options. Combine: Co-working space. Adapt: Subscription model from Netflix. Modify: Larger sizes, stronger coffee. Put to other use: Evening wine bar. Eliminate: Paper cups. Reverse: Customers make their own coffee (self-serve premium).
Explanation
Mind mapping uses visual thinking to explore ideas by starting with a central concept and branching out with related thoughts, creating a web of connected ideas. This technique, popularized by Tony Buzan, helps overcome the anchoring effect where people get stuck on the first few ideas by encouraging non-linear thinking and visual associations.
Example
Project management app mind map: Center: 'Project Management.' Branches: Tasks, Teams, Timeline, Reports. Task branch: Creation, Assignment, Tracking, Completion, Dependencies. Team branch: Roles, Communication, Collaboration, Permissions. Each branch spawns sub-branches, revealing features like automated task creation from email.
Explanation
Instead of asking 'How do we solve this problem?', reverse brainstorming asks 'How could we cause this problem or make it worse?' This counterintuitive approach often reveals hidden assumptions and generates unexpected solutions. It's particularly effective when traditional brainstorming feels stuck or when you need to identify risks and failure points.
Example
How to increase customer satisfaction? Reverse: How to make customers angry? Ignore their emails, make checkout complicated, ship wrong products, no refunds. Now reverse each: Fast response times, one-click checkout, quality control, generous return policy. Often reveals non-obvious solutions like proactive communication.
Explanation
Starbursting focuses on asking comprehensive questions rather than immediately jumping to solutions. By systematically exploring Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How, teams thoroughly understand the challenge before generating answers. This technique prevents premature solution jumping and often reveals aspects of the problem that weren't initially considered.
Example
Launching new product feature: Who will use it? Power users vs casual users? What exactly does it do? When will they use it? Where will they access it? Why do they need this vs alternatives? How will they discover it? Questions reveal need for different onboarding flows for different user types.
Explanation
Rolestorming involves taking on different perspectives or personas during idea generation. By thinking as someone else—a customer, competitor, expert, or even fictional character—participants can break free from their own assumptions and biases. This technique is particularly powerful for overcoming groupthink and generating diverse viewpoints on the same challenge.
Example
Designing workplace collaboration tool: As stressed manager: 'I need quick status updates without meetings.' As remote worker: 'I need to feel connected to the team.' As Steve Jobs: 'This should be beautifully simple.' As busy executive: 'One dashboard showing everything.' Each perspective generates different feature ideas.
Explanation
Rapid ideation prioritizes speed and quantity over quality, pushing participants to write down every idea that comes to mind without self-editing. The time pressure prevents overthinking and allows subconscious ideas to surface. This technique is particularly effective for breaking through mental blocks and generating raw material that can be refined later.
Example
Improving user onboarding—10 minutes, write everything: Welcome email, tutorial videos, progress bars, gamification, personal assistant, skip options, examples, templates, guided tours, chatbot help, community forums, success stories, FAQ, quick wins, social proof, mobile-first design, etc. 47 ideas generated—several gems in the mix.
Explanation
The Nominal Group Technique combines the benefits of individual thinking with group interaction by having participants first generate ideas silently, then share and build on ideas systematically. This prevents dominant personalities from steering the session while ensuring all voices are heard. It's particularly effective for sensitive topics or hierarchical teams.
Example
Team deciding product priorities: 10 minutes silent writing of priorities. Round-robin sharing with no discussion. Clarification questions only. Silent ranking of all ideas. Mathematical aggregation of rankings. Results often differ significantly from what would emerge in open discussion, revealing true team consensus.
Explanation
Random word stimulation uses arbitrary words to break conventional thinking patterns and create unexpected connections. By forcing your brain to connect unrelated concepts, this technique can produce surprising insights and creative solutions that wouldn't emerge through logical thinking alone. The randomness prevents you from staying within familiar mental paths.
Example
Improving team meetings + Random word: 'Garden' → Ideas: Plant meeting seeds earlier (better prep), Weed out unnecessary items (tighter agenda), Seasonal meetings (quarterly deep dives), Cross-pollination (different departments mixing), Pruning (removing attendees who don't contribute). Garden metaphor unlocked fresh perspectives.
Explanation
The 'How Might We' technique transforms problem statements into opportunity-focused questions that invite creative solutions. By starting with these three words, teams shift from problem-focused thinking (what's wrong) to solution-focused thinking (what's possible). This subtle reframing opens up possibility space and encourages collaborative ideation.
Example
Problem: 'Customers abandon shopping carts' becomes 'How might we make checkout more compelling?' Problem: 'Employees don't collaborate' becomes 'How might we make collaboration more rewarding?' Problem: 'App is slow' becomes 'How might we make speed feel instant?' Each reframe suggests different solution approaches.
Explanation
Effective brainstorming requires both divergent thinking (generating many possibilities) and convergent thinking (evaluating and selecting the best ones). Most teams confuse these phases, trying to evaluate while generating ideas, which kills creativity. The key is to clearly separate these modes and give each phase dedicated time and energy.
Example
App feature brainstorming: Divergent phase: Generate 200+ feature ideas without judgment—social features, AI features, customization, integrations, gamification. Convergent phase: Group similar ideas, evaluate against user needs and technical constraints, prioritize top 10, select 3 for development. Mixing phases kills both creativity and decision-making.
Explanation
Brainwalking combines physical movement with idea generation by setting up different stations around a room, each representing a different aspect of the challenge or a different brainstorming prompt. Participants rotate through stations, building on ideas from previous visitors. The physical movement helps stimulate creative thinking, and the station format prevents fixation on single approaches.
Example
Product development brainwalk: Station 1: User needs, Station 2: Technical possibilities, Station 3: Business model, Station 4: Competitive advantages, Station 5: Implementation challenges. Teams spend 10 minutes at each station, building on previous groups' ideas. Cross-pollination between stations often generates breakthrough insights.
Explanation
Psychological safety is the foundation of effective brainstorming. When team members fear judgment, criticism, or ridicule, they self-censor their most creative ideas. Research shows that teams with high psychological safety generate more diverse and innovative ideas. Creating this environment requires deliberate effort to establish norms and behaviors that encourage risk-taking and vulnerability.
Example
Good facilitation: 'All ideas welcome, even half-baked ones.' 'What seems impossible that could work?' 'Build on that strange idea.' Bad signs: Eye rolls, 'That's unrealistic,' interrupting, dismissive body language, senior person shooting down ideas. High safety teams share wild ideas that lead to breakthrough innovations.
Explanation
Before brainstorming solutions, teams should explicitly identify and question their assumptions about the problem, users, constraints, and possible solutions. Many breakthrough ideas come from challenging fundamental assumptions that everyone takes for granted. This technique prevents solutions from being limited by unexamined beliefs about what's possible or necessary.
Example
E-commerce checkout: Assumptions: 'Users must create accounts,' 'Payment happens at end,' 'One item per transaction,' 'Desktop and mobile same.' Challenge each: Guest checkout, pay-as-you-browse, bulk buying, mobile-first design. Challenging assumptions reveals new solution spaces like social checkout and progressive purchasing.
Explanation
Sometimes the pressure to generate good ideas creates paralysis. The 'Worst Possible Idea' technique deliberately seeks out bad, inappropriate, or impossible ideas. This removes performance anxiety and often leads to unexpected insights. Bad ideas can contain kernels of good ideas, and the permission to be silly often unlocks more creative thinking overall.
Example
Improving customer service: Worst ideas: Make customers wait longer, charge for support, only help on weekends, answer in foreign languages, use robot voices. Analysis reveals insights: 'Wait longer' → What if waiting included entertainment? 'Charge for support' → Premium support tier? 'Robot voices' → AI that sounds more human than humans?
Explanation
Cross-pollination involves looking to completely different industries, domains, or contexts for inspiration. Many breakthrough innovations come from applying solutions from one field to problems in another. By systematically exploring how other industries handle similar challenges, teams can discover approaches they would never have considered within their own domain.
Example
Online education inspired by gaming: Progress bars from RPGs, badges from scouts, leaderboards from sports, social features from social media, micro-transactions from mobile games. Restaurant reservation systems applied to healthcare: OpenTable model → doctor appointment scheduling with real-time availability, reviews, and automatic reminders.
Explanation
Silent brainstorming addresses several problems with traditional vocal brainstorming: social loafing (letting others do the thinking), production blocking (waiting for turns), and evaluation apprehension (fear of judgment). By having everyone think individually first, you harness the full cognitive capacity of the group and generate more diverse ideas.
Example
Team of 8 brainstorming product features: 15 minutes silent individual brainstorming yields 120 ideas (15 each). Same team in vocal brainstorming generates 35 ideas total, mostly from 2-3 dominant speakers. Silent phase captures introverts' ideas and prevents anchoring on first suggestions. Follow with sharing and building phase.
Explanation
Research shows that setting high numerical targets for idea generation leads to more creative solutions. The first 10-20 ideas tend to be obvious and conventional. Breakthrough ideas typically emerge after teams push past their initial mental models and comfort zones. Quotas force teams to dig deeper and explore less obvious possibilities.
Example
Team brainstorming app monetization: First 15 ideas are standard (ads, subscriptions, freemium). Push to 50 ideas: Cryptocurrency integration, NFT features, prediction markets, educational partnerships, API licensing, white-label solutions, consulting services. Ideas 35-50 often contain the most innovative approaches.
Explanation
Crazy 8s is a fast sketching exercise where participants fold paper into 8 sections and sketch a different solution idea in each section, spending just 1 minute per sketch. This technique forces rapid ideation without overthinking, uses visual thinking to explore concepts, and generates diverse approaches quickly. It's particularly effective for design challenges but works for any problem requiring creative solutions.
Example
Mobile app homepage redesign: 8 sketches in 8 minutes: minimalist dashboard, social feed style, card-based layout, full-screen video, split-screen dual purpose, gesture-based navigation, voice-first interface, AR overlay. Quick sketches reveal directions that hours of discussion might miss.
Explanation
The Future Press Release technique involves writing a mock press release from the perspective of having already successfully solved your challenge. This approach forces you to think about desired outcomes, benefits, and impact rather than getting stuck in current constraints. It's particularly effective for long-term strategic challenges where the solution space is unclear.
Example
'Company X Revolutionizes Remote Team Collaboration with AI-Powered Empathy Engine.' Article describes solution that reads team emotions, suggests optimal meeting times, automatically adjusts communication styles. Writing the press release reveals needed features: emotion detection, scheduling optimization, adaptive interfaces. Solution direction emerges from imagined success story.
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