Brainstorming can be productive and relevant, or it can be a complete waste of time. The difference between success and failure is the guard rails you place on the process by means of these simple rules.
1. Common understanding of the problem space you're trying to solve.
Ensure that all participants in the brainstorm session are familiar with all the results of the research so far. Focus the session on brainstorming the <magic happens> portion of one scenario, or methods of achieving one experience outcome. Ideas which are not directly related to the focus of the session should be recorded and parked for evaluation later. It can be useful to ensure that the session participants are also aware of the technical limitations of the current system, but we should not reject ideas which might take extra work to realize at this point.
2. Go for quantity.
Moving quickly suppresses the tendency to exercise judgement and control. This prohibits vertical thinking from taking over. Setting a goal of coming up with ten ideas in a ten minutes will help make this shift.
3. Defer judgement.
Judgement is vertical thinking. To engage our lateral thinking capability, we give the team permission to not judge any idea during the brainstorming session.
4. Build on the ideas of others ("yes, and…" instead of "no, but…")
Listen to and build on the ideas of others. The randomizing input of your teammates can help spur new ways of solving a problem. Don't criticize any idea at this point, since that has the effect of shutting down the creative/lateral thinking pathways which may hint at new solutions.
5. Encourage wild ideas.
Even if an idea seems nonsensical, accept the idea as a foundation for the next idea you generate. Even jokes can help engage the lateral thinking part of our brain. The idea that comes after the wild one might be an interesting way of solving the problem. An apocryphal example relates the story of a utility company striving to minimize the cost and disruption of ice storms severing power lines that traverse wilderness areas. One teammate suggested you could get bears to shake the utility poles. Another teammate added you could get the bears to climb the poles by placing honey at the top. Another suggested you could use a helicopter to refill the pole-top honey buckets. Another team member had experience with helicopters and suggested that the downdraft of helicopter propellers would be sufficient to knock the ice off the lines. Regardless of whether or not the story is true, it is still a useful example of the potential benefit of wild ideas.
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@Moses Oduor @muyawachira thanks for the feedback but I hope the post on brainstorming was helpful. We will keep you posted when everything is in place. The coffee meetups will start soon