Lost Swordfish Blog
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Step Ladder
Everyone brainstorms individually. The first two people present ideas to each other. A third person is invited into the room to present their ideas. Repeat until everyone has presented unaffected by others’ ideas. Finally, recap all ideas for the group.
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Diverse Inputs
Creative insights often arise from novel perspectives, so try to facilitate diverse group dynamics e.g. put engineers with designers, management with front-line staff, and so on.
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Vote No To Bias
Our judgments are invariably shaped by our personal biases. So, it’s best to have discerning independent third parties evaluate anonymized ideas rather than a group vote.
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Brain Writing
Everyone writes an idea on a piece of paper. Pass your piece of paper clockwise, the next person builds on the idea. Repeat until everyone has contributed to each other’s ideas.
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YOURBIAS.IS
Group brainstorming is often affected by social factors and confident voices thwarting more considered thinking. Familiarize yourself with common cognitive biases that can affect decision making, evaluation, and group dynamics at yourbias.is
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Starburst Questions
Create a mind map star with six points for each of the classic analysis questions: Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Note that the ‘why’ is the most likely to provide relevant insight, and that the ‘how’ can sometimes be a distraction.
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Reverse Brainstorming
Instead of solutions, brainstorm to generate problems. What other issues might need solving? Will there be flow-on effects that require different solutions? What’s a different way of thinking about the problem space?
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See Inspiration
Use the room you’re in as a visual inspiration canvas by finding references to print and put up on the walls, along with your rough concepts, sketches, headlines, and so on. Try some image searches for related ideas and save the ones you like as stimuli.
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Will It Blend
How could you combine two or more ideas, techniques, aspects, solutions, or problems? Try writing relevant keywords or ideas down on bits of paper then mashing them up randomly.
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Reverse Brainstorming
Instead of solutions, brainstorm to generate problems. What other issues might need solving? Will there be flow-on effects that require different solutions? What’s a different way of thinking about the problem space?