Idea Generation

A brainstorm is an activity that most of us are familiar with. We may have participated in these as early as grade school and they can be incredibly straightforward. You gather a group of people and then throw out as many ideas as you can in a short period of time. That's all there is to it right? I posit that there are techniques and strategies you can apply to your brainstorming sessions that will greatly increase the yield of your time! I have learned many of these techniques while conducting engineering brainstorms but the principles apply whether you are generating ideas for marketing or business strategies, developing your own personal or career goals, or even storing ideas for a fun Friday night!

Suspend Judgement

The golden rule of brainstorming: there is no such thing as a bad idea! At some point, you will have to decide which ideas are best, which are feasible, and which are absurd. But during a brainstorm is not the time. You must suspend judgement and allow every idea to be presented and received with equal consideration. The most outlandish and ridiculous ideas may serve as a springboard for additional avenues of thought that may result in that one idea that solves your problem!

Casting judgement on a new idea will kill it before it has chance to take root and develop. Every idea will have pros and cons, but if you shine a light on the cons before the pros are enumerated you could miss out on some of your greatest ideas. 

Abandon ownership

Much of what we attribute to creativity is the genesis of an idea. The better, or more numerous your ideas, the more creative you are. Or so the association is perceived in most of society. The inverse law

People tend to get possessive. We assign ownership to even the most fleeting and insubstantial objects. Someone steps in front of you in a line and you think "they stole my place!" If anyone threatens their time with a toy, children are quick to declare "that's mine!" These things may not, and in many cases cannot, be owned by us. Somehow 30 seconds of exposure translates into stewardship and fierce sense of protectiveness. 

In the same way we tend to assign ownership to ideas as soon as they leave a person's lips. It is important to give credit where credit is due, but that can wait until after the brainstorming. By not referring to a concept or potential solutions as "Becca's" or "Charles'" you demote it from being the 'sacred cow' to just a mere member of the herd. This allows ideas to stretch, grow, reshape, and evolve. 

Find your inspiration

Great ideas can come from anywhere. It can be useful to think of products that have similar features a feel that you are looking for and write those down. Looking at the way excellent products solve similar problems can be a powerful method for getting your own creative juices to flow. I recently working on a product where a latch was required. I was vaguely reminded of broom handle storage or the way a light-weight Dyson vacuum machine stores on the wall. These were examples of great products that achieved more or less the same functionality in different ways. I was able to gather these ideas and then branch off in my own direction for a final solution. (Just keep in mind that if your brainstorm is to come up with a product design, you may have to explore if you could be infringing on existing patents as well).

no wrong way

There is no wrong way to brainstorm ideas for whatever it is you are working on, but I hope these suggestions are of some use. Best of luck!