brainstorming in creative writing

Five Different Brainstorming Techniques for Authors

You know your story is brewing somewhere inside you, waiting to come out. You open up a new project in Dabble, ready to write a bestseller.

And you type: It was a really, really cold day. So cold, Lisa was chilly.

Riveting, right? So you don’t write the best opening line ever. What’s the big deal? You can always fix it later—for now, it’s on to the next words.

But they never come. Writer’s block , clogged pipes, brain fart—whatever you want to call it, something is stopping your story from coming to life.

The ideas aren’t right, the words are worse, and you actually hate your characters right now.

We’ve all been there. 

Luckily, there are some things you can do to help out: establish a writing habit , read great books about writing , or try some writing exercises to kick-start your creativity.

But one of the best things you can do to get your imagination going is some good ol’ fashioned brainstorming.

If brainstorming seems daunting or you’ve had less-than-stellar success in the past, don’t fret. In this article, we’re going to look at a bunch of different brainstorming exercises, including:

• Using bullet points
• The Plot Grid
• Connecting branches
• Testing different perspectives

By the time we’re done, you’re going to have a bunch of new tools in your writing toolkit to brainstorm amazing ideas and help you write your best novel.

How to Brainstorm for Your Novel

There isn’t a right or wrong way to brainstorm a novel. Just like writing itself, whatever gets your brain working is somewhat unique to you.

That’s why I’m coming at you with a whole bunch of different ways to brainstorm. Give them a chance if they seem like they might work for you. Take what works and forget the rest!

Up first is a crudely named yet incredibly effective technique called word vomiting. More well-mannered individuals than myself might also refer to it as freewriting. What can I say? I’m more about writing sassy villains than stalwart knights.

Whatever you call it, this brainstorming technique looks to lower all those inhibitions and crippling self-doubt that’s keeping your creativity on a short leash.

Word vomiting means exactly what it sounds like: you just let the words spill out onto the page/screen. Even that can be easier said than done, though, so here are some tips for freewriting:

Do it in bursts -  Like nausea, creativity comes in waves. Sometimes the best way to freewrite is to set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes before taking a break. During that time, don’t stop writing. We aren’t looking for perfect; we’re just looking for words. Take a break once the timer is up, then rinse and repeat. (We also have a completely free online writing sprint tool you can use for this!)

Manuscript or outline? -  Your word vomit can help for both writing your first draft and coming up with new ideas for your plot, characters, and settings. Choose what you want to brainstorm before you start, and focus your bursts on that.

Don’t worry -  What you come up with while word vomiting isn’t meant to produce flawless work. You’re going to need to revise your work , likely more than what you produce during a normal writing session. But the whole point of word vomit is to get you writing so your momentum can carry you through to the good stuff.

Bullet Points

Another useful brainstorming technique is using bullet points. This method is great for writers who prefer a more structured approach to generating ideas. Instead of free-flowing sentences, you create a list of bullet points outlining your story’s plot, characters, and setting.

Bullet points allow you to focus on the key elements of your story without worrying about the details. You can start with a basic outline and add more details as you go along. This method is also useful for breaking down complex ideas into manageable pieces.

When using bullet points to brainstorm, it’s important to remember that the goal is to generate ideas, not to create a polished draft. The purpose of this exercise is to get your creative juices flowing, so don’t worry too much about the order or structure of your bullet points. You can always refine and organize them later.

Here are some tips for using bullet points in your brainstorming process.

Keep it simple -  Don’t worry about making your bullet points look perfect or follow a specific format. The point is to get your ideas down quickly and in a way that’s easy to read and understand. You can always go back and reorganize or expand on them later.

Focus on quantity -  When using bullet points to brainstorm, you want to generate as many ideas as possible. Don’t worry about whether they’re good or bad, just get them down on paper. This will help you see the bigger picture of your story and give you plenty of material to work with when it’s time to start writing.

Group your ideas -  Once you have a long list of bullet points, start looking for patterns or connections between them. Grouping similar ideas together can help you identify themes or subplots in your story and can also help you see where you might need to fill in gaps or add more detail.

One thing I  love  about using bullet points is that it can be a helpful technique for both plotters and pantsers . Plotters can use bullet points to create a detailed outline of their story, while pantsers can use them to generate new ideas and keep track of their thoughts as they write.

One of the most powerful tools available to writers is built right into Dabble: The Plot Grid .

The Plot Grid is a versatile, fully integrated part of Dabble that lets you manage subplots and relevant notes that attach directly to each scene in your manuscript.

But how can you use this awesome tool to brainstorm? I’m glad you asked.

While having your notes automatically integrate with your scenes is nice, the real brainstorming benefit of the Plot Grid is its visual representation. Since everything other than your written paragraphs are drag-and-droppable in Dabble, the Plot Grid lets you experiment with a lot of “What If?” scenarios.

What if I put this scene in the haunted house instead of the school? What if the meet cute actually took place a chapter later in the story? What if a pivotal scene was actually about the antagonist instead of the hero?

Here are a few tips for using the Plot Grid to brainstorm your writing.

Visual changes inspire plot changes -  Even if the changes don’t stick, simply moving pieces of your story around can inspire creative changes in your plot. Some of those changes could even come from moving parts of entirely different sections around.

Create copies -  It’s as easy as clicking the three dots beside your Plot Grid in the nav menu and choosing “Copy Plot Grid.” This lets you mess around with an identical version of your Plot Grid without fear of ruining what you have.

Unlimited flexibility -  Though the columns of the Plot Grid are most often used for subplots, you can really use them for anything. I use columns for settings, POV, romantic interests, character arcs, red herrings, and more. You have the same flexibility to drag and drop in these columns as if they were for subplots. So go wild and see what inspires you!

Connecting Branches

Another powerful visual brainstorming technique is connecting branches. This method involves making connections between different elements of your story to create a cohesive and compelling narrative.

To use this technique, start by identifying the different elements of your story, including scenes, characters, and settings. Then, connect these elements by thinking about how they relate to each other. For example, you can connect scenes by actions and reactions, characters by relationships and conflicts, and settings by events and meaning to characters.

By connecting these different parts, you can create a more complex and nuanced story that engages your readers and keeps them invested in your characters and plot. This technique is especially useful for writers who want to create intricate plots with multiple subplots and characters.

When using connecting branches to brainstorm, it’s important to keep an open mind and be willing to explore different possibilities. Don’t be afraid to make connections that may seem unconventional or unexpected. These connections may lead to surprising plot twists and character developments that make your story more memorable.

Now, let’s move on to three tips for using connecting branches in your brainstorming process.

Experiment with different types of connections -  There are many ways to connect the different elements of your story using branches. You can connect characters by their relationships or conflicts, settings by their relevance to the characters, or scenes by their actions and reactions. Try experimenting with different types of connections and see what works best for your story. You might find that one type of connection works better than another or that a combination of different types of connections is most effective.

Use visual aids -  Connecting branches can be a visual way to help you see how different elements of your story are related. Use different colors or shapes for different types of connections to make them easier to distinguish. You can use software tools like MindNode or draw them by hand on a piece of paper. Whatever works best for you, make sure to keep your connections organized and easy to understand.

Keep revising -  Connecting branches can be a useful tool for brainstorming and outlining your story, but don’t be afraid to revise and change them as your story develops. As you write and revise your story, you may find that some connections no longer make sense or that you need to add new ones. Don’t be afraid to make changes and adjust your connecting branches as needed to ensure that they accurately reflect your story.

Test Perspectives

Finally, we come to one of my favorite ways to brainstorm your current scene: test it from different perspectives. I am  obsessed  with writing from multiple perspectives ; I think it adds so much depth to both the story and the characters.

When a scene just isn’t clicking or having the effect you want, that’s where this brainstorming method comes in. By writing the same scene from different character viewpoints, you can explore different angles and gain new insights into the story.

To start testing perspectives, choose a scene that you’re having trouble with. It can be a pivotal moment in the plot or a minor interaction between characters. Then, rewrite the scene from the perspective of a different character. You might be surprised at how much this changes the tone and impact of the scene.

When testing perspectives, it’s important to remember that every character has their own unique worldview and experiences. So try to get into the mindset of the character you’re writing from. What are their motivations? How do they perceive the other characters? What emotions are they feeling?

Here are some tips to help you get the most out of testing perspectives:

Choose characters strategically -  Don’t just choose any character to write from their perspective. Choose characters that will provide a unique insight into the scene. For example, if you’re writing a scene about a breakup, you might write it from the perspective of both people involved or from the perspective of a close friend or family member.

Pay attention to details -  When writing from a different character’s perspective, pay attention to the details that might be important to them. What do they notice that your main character might not? How do they interpret certain actions or words? By focusing on these details, you can add depth and complexity to your scene.

Compare and contrast -  After you’ve written the scene from different perspectives, compare them side by side. How are they similar? How are they different? What insights did you gain from each one? By comparing and contrasting, you can choose the best perspective to move forward with and create a more nuanced and powerful scene.

Write Your Best Book

No matter which method you choose, brainstorming is just one part of the novel-writing process. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back for every step of the journey.

To boost your writing knowledge, check out the hundreds of free articles we have on DabbleU . Become an expert on characters, conflict, genre, and everything you need to write your best book.

For a step-by-step guide to writing your first draft, download our free, 100+ page e-book, Let’s Write a Book   right here . No strings attached.

You don’t need to do this alone, either. Head on over to the Story Craft Café , an online community of writers who are there to share your writing journey with you.

And finally, harness the power of a writing tool made for fiction writers, by fiction writers. You can try all of Dabble’s premium features, including the mighty Plot Grid, for free for 14 days. You don’t even need to enter your credit card number to get started, you just need to click here .

Doug Landsborough can’t get enough of writing. Whether freelancing as an editor, blog writer, or ghostwriter, Doug is a big fan of the power of words. In his spare time, he writes about monsters, angels, and demons under the name D. William Landsborough. When not obsessing about sympathetic villains and wondrous magic, Doug enjoys board games, horror movies, and spending time with his wife, Sarah.

SHARE THIS:

TAKE A BREAK FROM WRITING...

Read. learn. create..

Whether writing is your hobby or career, you'll need to deal with the financial side of authorship sooner or later. It's not as fun as coming up with love triangles or magical worlds, but this Deep Dive tells you all you need to know to get a handle on your author finances.

Themes add an important element to our stories, giving them meaning and adding extra depth. We'll cover some common book themes and how to write stories with them in mind.

It isn't easy to write a good villain, at least not without the right ingredients. Let Dabble give you the perfect recipe for a villain!

The Writing Process

Making expository writing less stressful, more efficient, and more enlightening

Brainstorming

“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to always be right by having no ideas at all.” —Edward de Bono

Most people have been taught how to brainstorm, but review these instructions to make sure you understand all aspects of it.

• Don’t write in complete sentences, just words and phrases, and don’t worry about grammar or even spelling;
• Again, do NOT judge or skip any idea, no matter how silly or crazy it may initially seem; you can decide later which ones are useful and which are not, but if you judge now, you may miss a great idea or connection;
• Do this for 15, 20, or (if you’re on a roll) even 30 minutes–basically until you think you have enough material to start organizing or, if needed, doing research.

Below is a sample brainstorm for an argument/research paper on the need for a defense shield around the earth:

Photo: “Brainstorm” ©2007 Jonathan Aguila

16 Brainstorming Techniques to Boost Your Writing Skills

Have you ever wondered how writers become famous? Creativity is the key to their success, regardless of the genre in which they write. Many have prosperous careers because of the unconventional approaches they use in their work. Brainstorming, which often combines disparate ideas to reach innovative conclusions, is an important part of the creative process.

This article presents a collection of techniques and strategies to boost your creative thinking. Here you will find step-by-step instructions on how to engage in a brainstorming session. In addition, we’ve provided a list of the top free apps to ensure your success.

❓ What Is Brainstorming?

• 📝 Brainstorming Techniques for Writing
• 👣 Brainstorming Session: 6 Steps
• 📱 Free Apps

Brainstorming is a method used to find a creative solution to a complex problem. The first step in the brainstorming process is to identify the problem. The next is to generate as many ideas as possible, no matter how fantastic or strange, which could provide a solution. Finally, those ideas that offer the most creative way to solve the problem are selected and used.

In the 19th century, the term “brain-storm” was used to refer to a mental disturbance. A century later, in the 1940s, a similar word was coined for a different purpose. Alex Osborn, an advertising executive, developed a system to facilitate the production of ideas. He called it “brainstorming.” Some business executives believed that the term held medical connotations and was potentially offensive. They suggested using different terms, like “cloud bursting” and “thought shower,” but none of them caught on.

Brainstorming is an informal way to arrange a business meeting. It also can be used for personal purposes, especially by creative people. The main goal is to avoid criticizing or rewarding any of the ideas.

How Will Brainstorming Make Me a Better Writer?

Our society has trained our brains so much that thinking outside the box becomes more and more challenging the older we get.

If you are a writer, brainstorming is the best technique you can use in your work. It silences self-criticism and traditional thinking . Use a voice recorder or a pen and piece of paper to keep track of your ideas. Do not judge whether your thoughts are good or bad. Just record the flow of ideas.

There are six stages of writing. You start by generating ideas for your topic. Then, you plan your work, make an outline, and create content ideas. After this step, you usually face writer’s block. This is the most challenging time, but when you overcome it, you can write and finish your project. Brainstorming can help you at each of these stages. Below, you will find 15 techniques to help you along the entire writing process.

Writing is a creative activity, and brainstorming is the perfect tool to help you improve your skills. For this process to become even more productive, apart from following the tips below, we also recommend you to check out our essay database . It’s a perfect place to find information and sources of reference for any paper you’re about to write.

Individual Brainstorming

For many reasons, conventional thinking is viewed as the most productive type of thinking. But for creative jobs, this often proves to be quite wrong. The value of artists, writers, poets, and musicians lies in their uniqueness. It has been proven that individual brainstorming sessions produce more valuable results than group sessions. One explanation might be that when you work by yourself, you’re not afraid of how others will judge your ideas. On your own, you are free and more creative.

Group Brainstorming

The individual approach is more efficient with simple problems and broad ideas. But group brainstorming is perfect when a complex problem is at stake. Sophisticated issues require the input of many different perspectives. For example, during audit planning, a manager’s opinion is only a small part of the brainstorming session. Each employee should have a chance to propose possible solutions.

📝 16 Brainstorming Techniques for Every Stage of Writing

Some topics are so difficult that you could spend hours on end trying to think of something special to write. Complicated philosophical essays can also be challenging. Sometimes, a topic may offer an overwhelming number of ways to complete the assignment, but none seems appropriate. In all of these cases, a good brainstorming session is usually the first stop on your path to success.

We have selected the 16 best techniques to generate ideas at each stage of writing a paper of any length. Fifteen minutes of effort at every stage can save you hours of fruitless thinking.

Stage 1: Generating Topic Ideas

Before you begin writing, you need to identify your topic. This decision will narrow the field of your research. Here are five techniques to help you.

1. Brainwriting

This brainstorming game works well in groups. For instance, your teacher might assign a task to write an essay on internet addiction. Her preference is that no one in the class has the same topic.

• The first person writes down three topic ideas and passes the paper to the next student.
• The second person uses the topics already listed to trigger their own ideas and adds another three.
• This process repeats until all members of the class have added three topics to the list.
• Three to five minutes for each person is enough. You can make several rounds around the group if necessary.
• When you are done, cross out the topics that repeat or don’t apply.
• Share the remaining topics with the members of the brainstorming group.

2. Freewriting

This method offers the best way to avoid censoring ideas .

Have a lot of paper on hand (freewriting can take up a lot of space). Do not think about what to write next, and don’t judge your thoughts as good or bad. The only requirements are:

• Write in sentences and paragraphs.
• Keep on writing. If you don’t have any new ideas, write something like, “I am waiting for an idea, and it will come” as many times as you need before a new idea does come.

This exercise takes about 20 minutes, or you can continue until you feel the topic is ready.

3. Meditation

The general purpose of essay brainstorming is to free your mind from stress and improve its performance. What could combat stress better than meditation ? This technique is known for improving the quality of your sleep, focus, and even academic performance.

It also helps writers find the answers they need. While meditating, they remove distractive thoughts and focus on what matters.

4. The criminal technique

In the words of the wise Pablo Picasso, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

This method is perfect for selecting a title for your writing. Search for about fifteen texts similar to the one you have to write. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of their titles. Then, combine the good parts into your own original title. Voila!

5. The worst idea challenge

Try this when nothing else has been successful. Write down the worst topic ideas you can think of. You will be surprised, but some of them will not be as bad as you thought in the beginning. Our brain is primed for conventional wisdom and critical thinking, and these are the last things you need when trying to engage in creative activities.

Stage 2: Planning Your Work

Congratulations on coming up with a list of topics that perfectly match your assignment! But now, you have to choose just one. At this stage, you need to plan how and where you will search for information to include in your paper. SWOT analysis is a great tool to help you.

6. SWOT analysis

This technique is traditionally used to evaluate the strong and weak points of a company, but we can also use it to assess ideas for creative purposes. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. To evaluate the feasibility of your topic, juxtapose its strengths and opportunities with its weaknesses and threats. If the latter outweighs the former, choose another topic.

Stage 3: Outlining

This is often the most hated stage of writing, both among students and copywriters. Still, you’ll be thankful that your outline is so structured and detailed when you proceed to the writing phase. These two techniques can sweeten the pill.

7. Clustering/idea mapping

Draw a picture of all the ideas you have on the chosen subject. This technique is a great way to establish the relationships between problems, their causes, and consequences.

• Put your main idea or the possible thesis statement at the center of the paper.
• Write down related issues and draw connecting lines between them.
• Add problems, hypotheses, and facts that contribute to these issues.
• When you’re done, you will have a detailed diagram to help you develop any argument on your topic.

8. Topic association

Did you play the word association game as a child? This technique will help you generate and structure multiple ideas.

• Use short phrases or single words.
• Start with the topic word in the center.
• Write down sub-topics around it. Their relation should be general-to-specific, not cause-and-effect, like in idea mapping.
• Make another row of sub-sub-topics, and so on.

Stage 4: Generating Content Ideas

When your outline is ready, you need to produce those minor content details that make up a compelling paper. Although all of the above techniques can help create content ideas, here are several brainstorming techniques that offer specific benefits at this stage.

9. Reverse brainstorming

This is a useful tool for essays that need to offer a solution to a problem. In this case, the brainstorming procedure is used in reverse. Think of something that could cause or aggravate the given problem. The worse the consequences, the better! Repeat this step until you have brainstormed a complete disaster. Then, begin to examine how to eliminate those problems.

10. The Five Whys

This technique will bring you to the root of any issue. Think of a problem, ask yourself why it occurred, and write down the answer. Then, identify the cause of the last thing you wrote down. Continue the same sequence five times (or more, if needed).

For example:

• Why did the boat sink? Because the engine failed.
• Why did the engine fail? Because it overheated.
• Why did it overheat? Etc.

11. Role Storming

The method works best in a group, but you can brainstorm on your own for your writing purposes. Put yourself in the shoes of a person whose problem is discussed in your paper. If the topic is child obesity, think about the experiences the affected children and their parents might go through. If it is domestic violence, take on the roles of the victim, offender, and bystander. Empathy helps us see the same situation from different points of view.

12. Figure storming (an excellent idea for a historical project)

Choose a historical or fictional figure whose life, actions, and views are familiar to you. Imagine that you are Albert Einstein , Steve Jobs , or Thomas Edison , and that someone has asked you how to tackle a certain problem. What would you, as a great intellectual, suggest? We often lack clarity and assertiveness. Let these figures (and many more, thanks to our rich history) assist you.

13. Question everything

The name of the technique is self-explanatory, but the following example will make it more accessible. Question every single aspect of the topic you discuss, and you will discover new ideas.

Topic: The pros and cons of online education.

Questions: Are there any pros of online education? What is online education? Who cares about the problems of online education? Is the issue even worthy of consideration?

14. Pros and cons (excellent for argumentative and persuasive texts)

You have probably never noticed it, but you use this method every day. You weigh the value and price of any purchase before paying for it. You consider whether to stay in college or leave when you are offered an exciting job before graduation. Write down the available options (they can be more than two). Then, make a list of their strong and weak points. It will help you decide which argument to adhere to in an argumentative text.

Stage 5: Overcoming Writer’s Block

We all have a fear of a blank page. Even when you have an outline and a list of creative ideas, it can be difficult to begin writing. This is a common problem with perfectionists: they want everything to be perfect from the start. To overcome this block, use freestorming.

15. Freestorming

Freestorming is very similar to freewriting, which was discussed in the section on generating topic ideas. The difference is that with freestorming, you do not need to give yourself an arbitrary time limit. Take as much time as you need and write whatever comes to your mind on the subject. You are not just limited to topic generation now, so you can make the brainstorming experience more relaxed.

Stage 6: Writing

All the techniques above have probably generated so many ideas that you most likely have to choose which ones to include in your text. Another issue you may face now is selecting the right words. For that, the technique below will come in handy.

16. Word banks

To avoid repeating yourself, make a list of five to ten of the most common words in your text. To diversify your writing, find synonyms and use them throughout your paper.

👣 Organize a Great Brainstorming Session in 6 Steps

Brainstorming is the best method to search for a creative or strategic solution. It allows a group of people to accumulate a great number of ideas in a short time. But without proper organization, this opportunity for teamwork can be controlled by a few leaders, while the rest keep quiet. To make it a fair game that benefits each member, everyone should know and adhere to the rules.

Step 1: Demonstrate the Specific Problem

The person who organizes the session should make sure that all the participants have a clear understanding of the task. For example, it could be finding a solution to a problem, coming up with a new product or campaign, improving an existing solution, or defining new directions of research.

The following procedure will help you avoid any unwanted issues:

• State a clear, short question that embodies the entire problem.
• Establish boundaries for brainstorming ideas. These limitations will make the session more productive. For example: When does the research project need to be completed? What is the maximum amount of money that can be invested in the new product?
• Try to keep the limits to a minimum so that you can have a broader range of solutions.

Step 2: Establish the Context and Definitions

When a business project or research project involves a large group of people, knowledge distribution tends to be uneven, and the leaders usually know more than the rest. Everyone will benefit if this gap is decreased. These questions will help you equalize the knowledge between all the members:

• What do the participants know about the context?
• What else do they need to know to be productive thinkers?
• What are the key terms everyone should understand in the same way?

Step 3: Choose a Facilitator

It is important that each participant knows the main rule: there is no room for criticism or skepticism. The participants must give free rein to their imagination. They need to pick up each other’s ideas and develop them, supplementing them with their own insights. The facilitator is the one who keeps an eye on these “formalities:”

• They make sure everyone makes a contribution.
• They prevent anyone from dominating the session.
• They keep the participants focused.
• They do not generate ideas but combine them to keep the session moving.

Step 4: Collect the Right People

Be aware that the presence of some people can be detrimental to the session. Effective brainstorming needs people who are equally invested in the problem question. These rules can save your session from a disaster:

• Select three to eight people.
• Make sure some of them are experts. They will check every idea for viability.
• The other part of the group should be non-experts (i.e., workers or researchers from a neighboring domain). Experts are limited by their knowledge, and it is harder for them to think outside the box. Non-experts will ask silly questions entailing unconventional thinking.
• Try to select members from different backgrounds, age groups, and cultures. Diversity is your purpose!

Step 5: Plan the Session

It is helpful to prepare this point in a group handout. We suggest the following schedule:

• 20 minutes to set out the problem, its limitations, context, and definitions;
• 30 minutes for generating the options and new ideas;
• 20 minutes for sorting and discussing the brainstorming results; and
• 10 minutes to wrap up the session.

Step 6: Carry out the Session

There are multiple exercises, games, and techniques for successful brainstorming. Many of them were given above. But if you want to make it quick and simple, this procedure will do:

• The facilitator provides sticky notes to each member.
• They write down their ideas.
• These papers are put together in a place visible to everyone (a table or whiteboard).
• The facilitator groups them into several categories.
• Any new ideas are welcome on extra notes.
• The members vote for the best ideas and put them aside.
• Special attention should be given to the most innovative solutions.
• The facilitator summarizes the results and ends the session.

📱 Top 10 Free Brainstorming Apps

It is the XIX century, and brainstorming sessions can be held across continents. Moreover, free software can help you arrange new ideas and merge or compare them. If you are wondering how to innovate in groups or on your own, these apps can make you an expert brainstormer.

Brainstorming is a beautiful process in which a group of people with different experiences, views, and expertise unite to create something new. We hope that our advice and tips will enhance your creativity as a writer and a team player. If you have been a member or facilitator in a brainstorming group, share your know-how in the comments below.

• Share via Facebook
• Share via X
• Share via LinkedIn
• Share via email

By clicking "Post Comment" you agree to IvyPanda’s Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions . Your posts, along with your name, can be seen by all users.

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

• Basic site functions
• Ensuring secure, safe transactions
• Secure account login
• Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
• Remembering privacy and security settings
• Analyzing site traffic and usage
• Personalized search, content, and recommendations
• Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

• Remembering general and regional preferences
• Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy .

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy .

Brainstorming

What this handout is about.

This handout discusses techniques that will help you start writing a paper and continue writing through the challenges of the revising process. Brainstorming can help you choose a topic, develop an approach to a topic, or deepen your understanding of the topic’s potential.

Introduction

If you consciously take advantage of your natural thinking processes by gathering your brain’s energies into a “storm,” you can transform these energies into written words or diagrams that will lead to lively, vibrant writing. Below you will find a brief discussion of what brainstorming is, why you might brainstorm, and suggestions for how you might brainstorm.

Whether you are starting with too much information or not enough, brainstorming can help you to put a new writing task in motion or revive a project that hasn’t reached completion. Let’s take a look at each case:

When you’ve got nothing: You might need a storm to approach when you feel “blank” about the topic, devoid of inspiration, full of anxiety about the topic, or just too tired to craft an orderly outline. In this case, brainstorming stirs up the dust, whips some air into our stilled pools of thought, and gets the breeze of inspiration moving again.

When you’ve got too much: There are times when you have too much chaos in your brain and need to bring in some conscious order. In this case, brainstorming forces the mental chaos and random thoughts to rain out onto the page, giving you some concrete words or schemas that you can then arrange according to their logical relations.

Brainstorming techniques

What follows are great ideas on how to brainstorm—ideas from professional writers, novice writers, people who would rather avoid writing, and people who spend a lot of time brainstorming about…well, how to brainstorm.

Try out several of these options and challenge yourself to vary the techniques you rely on; some techniques might suit a particular writer, academic discipline, or assignment better than others. If the technique you try first doesn’t seem to help you, move right along and try some others.

Freewriting

When you freewrite, you let your thoughts flow as they will, putting pen to paper and writing down whatever comes into your mind. You don’t judge the quality of what you write and you don’t worry about style or any surface-level issues, like spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If you can’t think of what to say, you write that down—really. The advantage of this technique is that you free up your internal critic and allow yourself to write things you might not write if you were being too self-conscious.

When you freewrite you can set a time limit (“I’ll write for 15 minutes!”) and even use a kitchen timer or alarm clock or you can set a space limit (“I’ll write until I fill four full notebook pages, no matter what tries to interrupt me!”) and just write until you reach that goal. You might do this on the computer or on paper, and you can even try it with your eyes shut or the monitor off, which encourages speed and freedom of thought.

The crucial point is that you keep on writing even if you believe you are saying nothing. Word must follow word, no matter the relevance. Your freewriting might even look like this:

“This paper is supposed to be on the politics of tobacco production but even though I went to all the lectures and read the book I can’t think of what to say and I’ve felt this way for four minutes now and I have 11 minutes left and I wonder if I’ll keep thinking nothing during every minute but I’m not sure if it matters that I am babbling and I don’t know what else to say about this topic and it is rainy today and I never noticed the number of cracks in that wall before and those cracks remind me of the walls in my grandfather’s study and he smoked and he farmed and I wonder why he didn’t farm tobacco…”

When you’re done with your set number of minutes or have reached your page goal, read back over the text. Yes, there will be a lot of filler and unusable thoughts but there also will be little gems, discoveries, and insights. When you find these gems, highlight them or cut and paste them into your draft or onto an “ideas” sheet so you can use them in your paper. Even if you don’t find any diamonds in there, you will have either quieted some of the noisy chaos or greased the writing gears so that you can now face the assigned paper topic.

Break down the topic into levels

Once you have a course assignment in front of you, you might brainstorm:

• the general topic, like “The relationship between tropical fruits and colonial powers”
• a specific subtopic or required question, like “How did the availability of multiple tropical fruits influence competition amongst colonial powers trading from the larger Caribbean islands during the 19th century?”
• a single term or phrase that you sense you’re overusing in the paper. For example: If you see that you’ve written “increased the competition” about a dozen times in your “tropical fruits” paper, you could brainstorm variations on the phrase itself or on each of the main terms: “increased” and “competition.”

Listing/bulleting

In this technique you jot down lists of words or phrases under a particular topic. You can base your list on:

• the general topic
• one or more words from your particular thesis claim
• a word or idea that is the complete opposite of your original word or idea.

For example, if your general assignment is to write about the changes in inventions over time, and your specific thesis claims that “the 20th century presented a large number of inventions to advance US society by improving upon the status of 19th-century society,” you could brainstorm two different lists to ensure you are covering the topic thoroughly and that your thesis will be easy to prove.

The first list might be based on your thesis; you would jot down as many 20th-century inventions as you could, as long as you know of their positive effects on society. The second list might be based on the opposite claim, and you would instead jot down inventions that you associate with a decline in that society’s quality. You could do the same two lists for 19th-century inventions and then compare the evidence from all four lists.

Using multiple lists will help you to gather more perspective on the topic and ensure that, sure enough, your thesis is solid as a rock, or, …uh oh, your thesis is full of holes and you’d better alter your claim to one you can prove.

3 perspectives

Looking at something from different perspectives helps you see it more completely—or at least in a completely different way, sort of like laying on the floor makes your desk look very different to you. To use this strategy, answer the questions for each of the three perspectives, then look for interesting relationships or mismatches you can explore:

• Describe it: Describe your subject in detail. What is your topic? What are its components? What are its interesting and distinguishing features? What are its puzzles? Distinguish your subject from those that are similar to it. How is your subject unlike others?
• Trace it: What is the history of your subject? How has it changed over time? Why? What are the significant events that have influenced your subject?
• Map it: What is your subject related to? What is it influenced by? How? What does it influence? How? Who has a stake in your topic? Why? What fields do you draw on for the study of your subject? Why? How has your subject been approached by others? How is their work related to yours?

Cubing enables you to consider your topic from six different directions; just as a cube is six-sided, your cubing brainstorming will result in six “sides” or approaches to the topic. Take a sheet of paper, consider your topic, and respond to these six commands:

• Describe it.
• Compare it.
• Associate it.
• Analyze it.
• Argue for and against it.

Look over what you’ve written. Do any of the responses suggest anything new about your topic? What interactions do you notice among the “sides”? That is, do you see patterns repeating, or a theme emerging that you could use to approach the topic or draft a thesis? Does one side seem particularly fruitful in getting your brain moving? Could that one side help you draft your thesis statement? Use this technique in a way that serves your topic. It should, at least, give you a broader awareness of the topic’s complexities, if not a sharper focus on what you will do with it.

In this technique, complete the following sentence:

____________________ is/was/are/were like _____________________.

In the first blank put one of the terms or concepts your paper centers on. Then try to brainstorm as many answers as possible for the second blank, writing them down as you come up with them.

After you have produced a list of options, look over your ideas. What kinds of ideas come forward? What patterns or associations do you find?

Clustering/mapping/webbing:

The general idea:

This technique has three (or more) different names, according to how you describe the activity itself or what the end product looks like. In short, you will write a lot of different terms and phrases onto a sheet of paper in a random fashion and later go back to link the words together into a sort of “map” or “web” that forms groups from the separate parts. Allow yourself to start with chaos. After the chaos subsides, you will be able to create some order out of it.

To really let yourself go in this brainstorming technique, use a large piece of paper or tape two pieces together. You could also use a blackboard if you are working with a group of people. This big vertical space allows all members room to “storm” at the same time, but you might have to copy down the results onto paper later. If you don’t have big paper at the moment, don’t worry. You can do this on an 8 ½ by 11 as well. Watch our short videos on webbing , drawing relationships , and color coding for demonstrations.

How to do it:

• Take your sheet(s) of paper and write your main topic in the center, using a word or two or three.
• Moving out from the center and filling in the open space any way you are driven to fill it, start to write down, fast, as many related concepts or terms as you can associate with the central topic. Jot them quickly, move into another space, jot some more down, move to another blank, and just keep moving around and jotting. If you run out of similar concepts, jot down opposites, jot down things that are only slightly related, or jot down your grandpa’s name, but try to keep moving and associating. Don’t worry about the (lack of) sense of what you write, for you can chose to keep or toss out these ideas when the activity is over.
• Once the storm has subsided and you are faced with a hail of terms and phrases, you can start to cluster. Circle terms that seem related and then draw a line connecting the circles. Find some more and circle them and draw more lines to connect them with what you think is closely related. When you run out of terms that associate, start with another term. Look for concepts and terms that might relate to that term. Circle them and then link them with a connecting line. Continue this process until you have found all the associated terms. Some of the terms might end up uncircled, but these “loners” can also be useful to you. (Note: You can use different colored pens/pencils/chalk for this part, if you like. If that’s not possible, try to vary the kind of line you use to encircle the topics; use a wavy line, a straight line, a dashed line, a dotted line, a zigzaggy line, etc. in order to see what goes with what.)
• There! When you stand back and survey your work, you should see a set of clusters, or a big web, or a sort of map: hence the names for this activity. At this point you can start to form conclusions about how to approach your topic. There are about as many possible results to this activity as there are stars in the night sky, so what you do from here will depend on your particular results. Let’s take an example or two in order to illustrate how you might form some logical relationships between the clusters and loners you’ve decided to keep. At the end of the day, what you do with the particular “map” or “cluster set” or “web” that you produce depends on what you need. What does this map or web tell you to do? Explore an option or two and get your draft going!

Relationship between the parts

In this technique, begin by writing the following pairs of terms on opposite margins of one sheet of paper:

Looking over these four groups of pairs, start to fill in your ideas below each heading. Keep going down through as many levels as you can. Now, look at the various parts that comprise the parts of your whole concept. What sorts of conclusions can you draw according to the patterns, or lack of patterns, that you see? For a related strategy, watch our short video on drawing relationships .

Journalistic questions

In this technique you would use the “big six” questions that journalists rely on to thoroughly research a story. The six are: Who?, What?, When?, Where?, Why?, and How?. Write each question word on a sheet of paper, leaving space between them. Then, write out some sentences or phrases in answer, as they fit your particular topic. You might also record yourself or use speech-to-text if you’d rather talk out your ideas.

Now look over your batch of responses. Do you see that you have more to say about one or two of the questions? Or, are your answers for each question pretty well balanced in depth and content? Was there one question that you had absolutely no answer for? How might this awareness help you to decide how to frame your thesis claim or to organize your paper? Or, how might it reveal what you must work on further, doing library research or interviews or further note-taking?

For example, if your answers reveal that you know a lot more about “where” and “why” something happened than you know about “what” and “when,” how could you use this lack of balance to direct your research or to shape your paper? How might you organize your paper so that it emphasizes the known versus the unknown aspects of evidence in the field of study? What else might you do with your results?

Thinking outside the box

Even when you are writing within a particular academic discipline, you can take advantage of your semesters of experience in other courses from other departments. Let’s say you are writing a paper for an English course. You could ask yourself, “Hmmm, if I were writing about this very same topic in a biology course or using this term in a history course, how might I see or understand it differently? Are there varying definitions for this concept within, say, philosophy or physics, that might encourage me to think about this term from a new, richer point of view?”

For example, when discussing “culture” in your English, communications, or cultural studies course, you could incorporate the definition of “culture” that is frequently used in the biological sciences. Remember those little Petri dishes from your lab experiments in high school? Those dishes are used to “culture” substances for bacterial growth and analysis, right? How might it help you write your paper if you thought of “culture” as a medium upon which certain things will grow, will develop in new ways or will even flourish beyond expectations, but upon which the growth of other things might be retarded, significantly altered, or stopped altogether?

Using charts or shapes

If you are more visually inclined, you might create charts, graphs, or tables in lieu of word lists or phrases as you try to shape or explore an idea. You could use the same phrases or words that are central to your topic and try different ways to arrange them spatially, say in a graph, on a grid, or in a table or chart. You might even try the trusty old flow chart. The important thing here is to get out of the realm of words alone and see how different spatial representations might help you see the relationships among your ideas. If you can’t imagine the shape of a chart at first, just put down the words on the page and then draw lines between or around them. Or think of a shape. Do your ideas most easily form a triangle? square? umbrella? Can you put some ideas in parallel formation? In a line?

Consider purpose and audience

Think about the parts of communication involved in any writing or speaking act: purpose and audience.

What is your purpose?

What are you trying to do? What verb captures your intent? Are you trying to inform? Convince? Describe? Each purpose will lead you to a different set of information and help you shape material to include and exclude in a draft. Write about why you are writing this draft in this form. For more tips on figuring out the purpose of your assignment, see our handout on understanding assignments .

Who is your audience?

Who are you communicating with beyond the grader? What does that audience need to know? What do they already know? What information does that audience need first, second, third? Write about who you are writing to and what they need. For more on audience, see our  handout on audience .

Dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias

When all else fails…this is a tried and true method, loved for centuries by writers of all stripe. Visit the library reference areas or stop by the Writing Center to browse various dictionaries, thesauruses (or other guide books and reference texts), encyclopedias or surf their online counterparts. Sometimes these basic steps are the best ones. It is almost guaranteed that you’ll learn several things you did not know.

If you’re looking at a hard copy reference, turn to your most important terms and see what sort of variety you find in the definitions. The obscure or archaic definition might help you to appreciate the term’s breadth or realize how much its meaning has changed as the language changed. Could that realization be built into your paper somehow?

If you go to online sources, use their own search functions to find your key terms and see what suggestions they offer. For example, if you plug “good” into a thesaurus search, you will be given 14 different entries. Whew! If you were analyzing the film Good Will Hunting, imagine how you could enrich your paper by addressed the six or seven ways that “good” could be interpreted according to how the scenes, lighting, editing, music, etc., emphasized various aspects of “good.”

An encyclopedia is sometimes a valuable resource if you need to clarify facts, get quick background, or get a broader context for an event or item. If you are stuck because you have a vague sense of a seemingly important issue, do a quick check with this reference and you may be able to move forward with your ideas.

Armed with a full quiver of brainstorming techniques and facing sheets of jotted ideas, bulleted subtopics, or spidery webs relating to your paper, what do you do now?

Take the next step and start to write your first draft, or fill in those gaps you’ve been brainstorming about to complete your “almost ready” paper. If you’re a fan of outlining, prepare one that incorporates as much of your brainstorming data as seems logical to you. If you’re not a fan, don’t make one. Instead, start to write out some larger chunks (large groups of sentences or full paragraphs) to expand upon your smaller clusters and phrases. Keep building from there into larger sections of your paper. You don’t have to start at the beginning of the draft. Start writing the section that comes together most easily. You can always go back to write the introduction later.

We also have helpful handouts on some of the next steps in your writing process, such as reorganizing drafts and argument .

Remember, once you’ve begun the paper, you can stop and try another brainstorming technique whenever you feel stuck. Keep the energy moving and try several techniques to find what suits you or the particular project you are working on.

How can technology help?

Need some help brainstorming? Different digital tools can help with a variety of brainstorming strategies:

Look for a text editor that has a focus mode or that is designed to promote free writing (for examples, check out FocusWriter, OmmWriter, WriteRoom, Writer the Internet Typewriter, or Cold Turkey). Eliminating visual distractions on your screen can help you free write for designated periods of time. By eliminating visual distractions on your screen, these tools help you focus on free writing for designated periods of time. If you use Microsoft Word, you might even try “Focus Mode” under the “View” tab.

Clustering/mapping. Websites and applications like Mindomo , TheBrain , and Miro allow you to create concept maps and graphic organizers. These applications often include the following features:

• Connect links, embed documents and media, and integrate notes in your concept maps
• Access your maps across devices
• Search across maps for keywords
• Convert maps into checklists and outlines
• Export maps to other file formats

Testimonials

Check out what other students and writers have tried!

Papers as Puzzles : A UNC student demonstrates a brainstorming strategy for getting started on a paper.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Allen, Roberta, and Marcia Mascolini. 1997. The Process of Writing: Composing Through Critical Thinking . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cameron, Julia. 2002. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity . New York: Putnam.

Goldberg, Natalie. 2005. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within , rev. ed. Boston: Shambhala.

Rosen, Leonard J. and Laurence Behrens. 2003. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook , 5th ed. New York: Longman.

University of Richmond. n.d. “Main Page.” Writer’s Web. Accessed June 14, 2019. http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb.html .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

What is brainstorming in writing? (Tips & Examples)

Use this strategy to become an idea machine.

Ideas are the lifeblood of creative work. Whether you're a writer, an artist, or any similar role, your job relies on providing a steady stream of original output. This is where the practice of brainstorming comes into play.

Brainstorming is a type of idea generation activity that enables people to produce a large number of ideas quickly.

This article will dive into how it works, explain the different types you can use, and end with a few examples to guide your work.

How does brainstorming work?

Think about the last time you solved a problem in your head. It probably went something like this: you encountered the issue, immediately thought of 1-2 clear solutions, considered each briefly, and then chose the best option.

If the above process includes four steps, brainstorming focuses exclusively on step #2 where the goal is to think of possible solutions to a problem.

However, it differs from normal problem-solving because participants are not supposed to validate or choose an option. All the energy goes towards a single goal: identifying as many ideas as possible within the time and creative constraints.

What types of brainstorming are there?

There is an endless variety of ways you could ideate, but my favorites tend to be the simplest. Here are a few of the most common ones.

• Freewriting — Writing down related and unrelated words allows your brain to make new connections. No need for good grammar or punctuation; just get those words onto a page!
• Clusters — Start by writing down 3-6 “topics” on a page, leaving ample space between each, and freewrite around each one to see what new ideas spring up.
• Diagrams and charts — Instead of using words to explain your ideas, draw pictures illustrating how an idea could work. Whiteboards are an excellent tool for this.
• Worst idea — An inverse of traditional brainstorming where you list out "bad" ideas. The goal is to eliminate these options while being open to unforeseen opportunities.

Any of these activities can be done in a group or alone. Although, research shows that the best method is to have individuals brainstorm independently first and then come together to share and ideate further as a group. Psychologists have proven this reduces groupthink .

Another nuance I like to point out is that my suggestions don't include activities like making pros and cons lists or SWOT tables. That's because these tend to push people to evaluate their ideas, which is not the goal of brainstorming. There will be room for that later, but when we try to analyze and refine our ideas too early, we limit our efforts.

Examples of brainstorming

To help bring these ideas to life, I want to share the following video with you. In it, the illustrators highlight six brainstorming tactics you can try right away.

The examples shown in the video include:

• Mind mapping
• Right braining
• Provocative action
• Break and build
• Pessimist versus optimist

Brainstorming tips for new writers

Finally, let’s close with a few strategies you can use to make brainstorming an integral part of your writing process.

• Keep a dedicated notebook. It's easy for ideas to get scattered. My solution is to keep a ruled notebook near my desk for all my ideas. I avoid using it for anything else and divide it into project-related sections to keep it organized.
• Use the Notion app . For those who prefer a digital solution, Notion is an excellent alternative to a physical notebook.
• Throw away old notes. During my first few years as a writer, I was terrified of losing a good idea. So, I kept every notebook and scrap of paper in the hopes of keeping every random idea within arm's reach. As you might imagine, this wasn't helpful at all, and I carried around a low level of cognitive overload for no reason. Now, I throw away all of my notes at the end of every year, and I've yet to run out of ideas!
• Create a commonplace book. My one exception for keeping old notes is if you're working on a large project that will take more than a year to complete (like a book). I've personally found Ryan Holiday's commonplace book to be a satisfactory middle ground.
• Practice regularly. Brainstorming is a muscle, and like any muscle — the more you use it, the stronger it will get!

If you found this article helpful, subscribe for more tips on how to improve and monetize your writing work. Happy brainstorming!

Daily Writing Tips

5 brainstorming strategies for writers.

Brainstorming is useful whether you have too few ideas, or too many. It can help you whether you don’t know how to organize your thoughts, or whether you don’t even have any thoughts. But before you start, remember the first rule of brainstorming: Enumerate, don’t evaluate. Just get the ideas down, and don’t judge them or organize them until the creative phase has wound down.

In this strategy, a topic or idea is examined from six distinct viewpoints — hence the name. Describe the topic (what is it?), compare it (what is it like or unlike?), associate it (what does it make you think of?), analyze it (what constituent parts is it made of?), apply it (how can it be used?), and argue for and/or against it (how can you support or oppose it?).

Cubing was developed as a critical-thinking exercise to help students express their thoughts in opinion essays, but it can be adapted for general nonfiction writing, though it is of limited value for fiction.

A similar technique is to explore three perspectives: The first is to describe the topic and its features, its constituent parts, and its challenges, and to compare and contrast it with other topics. The second is to trace the history of the topic and the influences on it throughout that history, and the topic’s evolution. The third is to map the topic to similar contemporary topics as well as to its influences, and to topics that it influences.

2. Freewriting

Write. You don’t know what to write? Then write that. Just write.

Have a quantitative goal: 500 words, three pages, five minutes — it doesn’t matter. Just write.

Do not pause in order to spell correctly or write flawlessly, and don’t go back to rewrite. Turn off your inner editor. Do not strive for coherence. Just write.

Consider closing your eyes while you’re writing or typing, or turn the computer monitor off. Just write.

If your intent is to write an essay or a review or profile, what do you want to communicate? If you wish to craft a story, which ideas and elements do you wish to convey? Jot down a list of phrases or single words you will return to later. For nonfiction, the list can consist of opinions, arguments, facts, questions, or components, or any combination of the above. For fiction, list people, places, and things, values and qualities, goals and obstacles.

Don’t outline at this point. Outlining stalls the creative act of brainstorming by requiring you to evaluate and organize your thoughts. Remember, brainstorming should be an uninhibited activity.

Mapping, also known as clustering and webbing, is a graphic form of listing that simply involves jotting down ideas on a large writing surface and then making connections by associating similarly themed ideas with color-coded circles or underlines of distinct patterns and then indicating other relationships by linking with lines.

How you produce the map, exactly, is up to you, but as with any other brainstorming tool, wait until you’ve (temporarily) run out of ideas before you begin making connections — but don’t hesitate to continue recording new ideas as you marshal others. The Creately blog has a great article with several other visual brainstorming strategies you can try.

5. Researching

You know the topic you want to write about, or the outline of a novel’s plot, but you don’t know how to populate the piece with ideas? Go to the reference section of a library, or call up reference Web sites. As you read about a current or past event, or a contemporary or historical issue, record the ideas in list or map form. You might find the key point you’ve been looking for, or change the one you had in favor of this new detail.

If you’re planning on writing a novel, learn more about the city or country in which it takes place (even if it’s the one you live in). If it’s a historical novel, read about the social structure and cultural atmosphere of the time and place, and take notes about how people dressed, talked, ate, worked, and engaged in other quotidian activities.

The Next Step

If one of these strategies doesn’t work for you, try another until something clicks. Even if one does work, try more than one.

Then, whichever technique(s) you’ve employed, review your result. Don’t feel that you’ve failed if your work does not yield eloquence or epiphanies, but search for whatever may help you develop your writing assignment or project.

If you feel that an outline is useful, make one after you complete the brainstorming activity. If you don’t, launch into whatever part of the topic attracts your attention based on your brainstorming output. You don’t have to start at the beginning, and you don’t have to complete one part of your assignment or project before you move on to another one. Just build on your background work one piece at a time as it develops.

Stop making those embarrassing mistakes! Subscribe to Daily Writing Tips today!

You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed!

Each newsletter contains a writing tip, word of the day, and exercise!

You'll also get three bonus ebooks completely free!

9 thoughts on “5 Brainstorming Strategies for Writers”

Husband is a HUGE fan of mind mapping (he’s a beta tester). He uses it for everything, and will help me mind map too, if I ask for help (I am a bit slow with mapping). It’s wonderful to see all your thoughts arrayed before your on a screen.

I am big on research. Nothing kick starts my imagination like a day in the library, and I have found that most librarians are so pleased and eager to help. They know all this arcane information, and just want to share it. I don’t know how to say this politely: I suck up to the librarians; they are the gate keepers.

Great tips – I think I am going to use that listing technique to change-up the different restaurants I want to eat at!! Seriously good stuff to help especially if a case of writers block drops by! W.C.C.

I have actually just started using a program called MindGenius which allows me to brainstorm and map. I have been using it to come up with various plot ideas for books, character names and themes etc.

It is great having everything in front of me and being able to move things around without too much effort. I can also quickly review my ideas so far and strengthen them if something else relating to a specific section pops into my head.

Listing works for me best. Especially for copywriting. Thanks for the ideas!

As an example of listing, I submit “Talk to Me, Fiddle” a song by country music legend Charlie Daniels. It goes through the (possibly fictional) history of his fiddle — how it came to America in the suitcase of a Jewish immigrant fleeing persecution in his homeland and how he played it at his daughter’s wedding, how it was used as a bet in a poker game on a Mississippi riverboat, how it was bought for a dollar by an elderly black man who “taught” the fiddle how to play the Blues, etc. Whether the instrument really went through all those hands isn’t the issue, it’s the history that is the story. By imagining where that fiddle may have been and what has happened around it since it stopped being a tree and started being a violin you create a colorful, deep, human tale. Such a simple technique can be applied to almost any used object (the older, the better) — a rusty can opener, tarnished pocket knife with a chip out of the blade, hand mirror, antique car, etc. — that you could find in any junk shop or museum. This is a rich resource for creating a story when your creativity is at low ebb.

I’ve only used a couple of these tips. I think I will be trying some new ones out, now though. Thanks so much for the ideas!

Thanks for your post Mark,

Those are intresting approaches, one of the techniques that I also frequently like to use, looks a lot like the Free Writing only although I also don’t worry about organising it while writing, I do write with some sort of guiding ‘Assignment’ in mind. The asignment is simply to write about the thing I want to write about and than just start writing about it.

For example I want to write a comment about some of the way’s I do my brainstorming, telling people about how I use an Assignment as a Guide for it, like I just wrote about.

Inspiration is a program that you can use for mindmapping.

I’m working on a novel, in which the story plays out OK. My problem is that I keep switching from narration to dialogue, and then vice versa. I get the impression it’s bitty, and the reader might get confused, after getting involved in the dialogues, to find himself back with the narrator, who isn’t the hero of the novel. any suggestions here?

Leave a Comment

7 Best Tools for Writers to Brainstorm Effectively

Table of Contents 

What is brainstorming.

• Why Use Brainstorming?

What Are the Types of Brainstorming?

• What Are Some Key Brainstorming Techniques?  

How to Brainstorm Effectively

• 7 Tools for Writers to Generate Ideas
• Key Takeaways 
• Conclusion 

Brainstorming kick-starting a writing project. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on the number of ideas presented on the table, along with the quality. The tricky part is when participants try to overanalyze ideas and shy away from voicing them due to the fear of rejection or judgment. In this article, we discuss the various brainstorming techniques and the best tools for writers to create engaging content . 

When you hear the word “brainstorming”, you might feel intimidated. If you are recalling the difficult times of scribbling ideas for an environmental study project back in college, then you are safe. In reality, brainstorming is much more productive and rewarding. It is a way to unleash the creative juices within you and look for better ways to meet your writing targets. 

Brainstorming is an effective way to generate new ideas, but it doesn’t have to be tiresome, and definitely not boring. It can be considered the crux of new strategies and products. We will show you why and how to brainstorm if you manage to stick till the end of this article.

Brainstorming in writing refers to engaging your brain to generate ideas and noting them down simultaneously. It doesn’t only pertain to generating ideas, but also connecting pieces of different ideas and tying them up as a whole, and knowing which creative writing tools to use. 

However, there is no right or wrong way to brainstorm. It is a natural process that requires considerable effort and time. Some people prefer brainstorming by themselves, sitting on their balconies with a pen and pad. They like to jot down their ideas before having a group discussion. And others like to brainstorm in groups.

Why Use Brainstorming Techniques?

Brainstorming is crucial in many ways. For example, if you are in the middle of a problem or you are all set to start a new venture, then brainstorming can help you come up with ideas to resolve the issue or set a clear path for yourself. 

However, this doesn’t necessarily happen at the beginning of a new project. To explain this better, let us take an instance from the TV show “House”. The characters use a technique called “differential diagnosis”. In this technique, the actors look at the kinds of symptoms a patient shows and discuss the potential diseases and their treatment.

Brainstorming works in a similar pattern. If you even find yourself stuck with something, start brainstorming to know the cause of the problem. The outcome? You will come up with better solutions or eliminate anything that wasn’t working.

There are two primary kinds of brainstorming: individual and group brainstorming, of which the latter is more common.  

Group brainstorming

In a group setting, you have the advantage of learning from the experiences and ideas of team members. Here, you understand the thinking abilities of different people. If one participant’s idea faces a dead-end, others can build on that idea and create something unique out of it. 

In group brainstorming sessions, you can become receptive to ideas coming from everybody in the room. Group brainstorming is a great team-building exercise too.

Individual brainstorming

Often, group brainstorming sessions are more successful at producing ideas than individual ones. But at times, the latter has shown positive outcomes too. 

When you are by yourself, there is no need to worry about the opinion of others. Judgment, biases, and ego take a backseat. 

You are more confident and creative when you are the only one in the room thinking of ideas. 

You can even use some of the writing tools on the internet if you’re stuck thinking about ideas.

For example, you might hesitate to voice your idea when you are in a group setting. But when you are on your own that idea might develop into something extraordinary. 

What Are Some Key Brainstorming Techniques?

If you find yourself struggling to think of quality ideas, then use the techniques mentioned below to boost your creativity:

• The stepladder technique : this is beneficial in getting the quiet team members to participate by introducing them one at a time.
• Brainwriting : this is a written technique. Here, all the participants can contribute by jotting down their ideas and discussing after.
• Online brainstorming : this is technically another word for brain-netting. It is an electronic method that makes use of virtual systems to engage people in brainstorming
• The Crawford slip method : in this simple technique, everyone’s ideas receive equal weightage by being collated on not. 
• Rapid ideation : this technique helps participants generate as many ideas as possible (sometimes using the best tools for writers) in a short period of time. Participants get a specific amount of time (usually between five and ten minutes) to come up with as many ideas as possible.

Source: https://britton-nixcentral.weebly.com/eng-010/the-rhetorical-triangle

When you are brainstorming in a group, there are certain rules to follow, in order to avoid disruption. You can engage your team in a bonding session before or after brainstorming. This will be a win-win situation, as it can motivate team members to provide the best output; and they will feel cared for in the process. To run a productive brainstorming session, you can practice the following steps. 

Before you begin a brainstorming session, it is important to prepare. You should gather enough information to come up with solutions for the problem. However, always keep in mind that preparation is essential, but too much information can complicate or worsen the purpose and productivity of the session.

Having a set of best tools for writers researched beforehand and choosing an ideal place to conduct the brainstorming session is a first; this setting could be a co-working space, office, or somebody’s home. If it is a virtual session, make sure you have access to virtual brainstorming tools. There are tons of brainstorming and content writing tools for you to choose from. 

Next, make a list of people to be called for the session. A brainstorming session with only like-minded people will have a negligible impact; therefore, invite a diverse group of people from different walks of life. This approach results in a greater variety of contributions. 

Once you decide the place and people, appoint one person to note the session. This person will be responsible for summarizing the session and jotting down everything important that was discussed. An icebreaker will be a great idea to break the tension in the room if people aren’t familiar with each other.

2. Present the problem

Present the problem clearly and let everyone know the motive of the session. Tell the participants the expected outcome of the session as well. Make it clear that the goal of the meeting is to come up with as many ideas as possible. 

The participants in the room should know that each of their inputs matters. After presenting the problem, give them ample time to think. Then, encourage everyone to share their thoughts and give everyone an equal opportunity to speak up.

3. Guide the discussion

After every participant has shared their views and ideas, initiate a group discussion to encourage a healthy debate. This way, you could build on the concepts that are already shared and dismiss ones that are not allied with your goals. Building on an existing idea can be one of the most valuable takeaways from the discussion. 

As the facilitator, you should make sure no one criticizes or passes sly comments about an idea. This strategy will encourage everyone to contribute freely. At any point, if the group loses focus, the facilitator must step in and refocus the motive. 

Make the environment fun and not forced. You should ensure that your participants develop a bundle of ideas, even if some of them are not necessarily doable. If the session goes on for too long, give the members a break to cool off and refresh themselves.

Now, let’s look at some of the best tools for writers to ensure quality wordsmithing!

7 Best Tools for Writers to Generate Ideas

Source: https://zapier.com/blog/brainstorming/

If you find yourself in a fix when writing a blog or putting together a bunch of ideas for your next article, then take a sigh of relief because there are a handful of writing tools online . The best part? They are free! These content writing tools are packed with numerous helpful features. We have already done the tedious work of shortlisting the best ones for you. Read on. 

1. MindMeister

When you’re doing a quick run-through of the things you’ve planned out for the day, you sure do not want anything getting in the way and disrupting your concentration. This is why it’s important to have an app or software to avoid such hurdles. MindMeister is a mind-mapping tool that helps you generate ideas effectively. With this app, you just have to give your map a headline, press the “insert” key to add a new branch, and hit enter. 

MindMeister adds formatting to your sentences to make them sound better. You can also add hyperlinks, pictures, and keynotes after the initial map has been created. As you’re getting into the brainstorming process, you’d want it to be seamless and frictionless. MindMeister facilitates this process with its clean and interactive interface. You can get your work done with little to no training and start using the app.

This tool comes in handy especially if you want to expand your ideas. Mind-mapping is surely a great practice when it comes to brainstorming. The app makes this job easy by allowing you to capture all your ideas, fine-tune them, and share them with everybody. Capture all your ideas and place them in a file. This is undoubtedly one of the best tools for writers on the internet.

Turn to Ginger if you ever find yourself struggling to put a sentence together. This app uses artificial intelligence and spots any misspelled word or grammatical error. It helps you rectify your language- as well as context-based errors by suggesting sophisticated fixes. It’s a great tool to kickstart your writing journey. Ginger is available as a web extension as well as a Microsoft Word add-on. The free version provides limited spellcheck and language suggestions but is enough for beginners. This app is especially helpful if you have to write lengthy pieces. 

3. HubSpot Blog Ideas Generator

Imagine being stuck with the same blog topics and being unable to think of innovative ideas? The next thing you should do is download the Blog Ideas Generator by HubSpot. When you run out of topics, trust this free writing tool to do the work for you.  As the name suggests, this tool helps you develop ideas to write on. 

To be precise, this tool sets you up with five unique ideas for a set of five nouns. In case you want to make any changes; you can re-enter the keyword. If you’re just starting out as a blogger, this free content writing tool is made for you. 

4. Workflowy

Workflowy is a top productivity application. With the help of this app, you can drop tasks in various folders and subfolders. Once you’re done with a task, you can mark it as completed and it will disappear. This application is a great tool to create outlines and organize your ideas and projects regularly. This app is a sound investment if you’re a writer by profession and require the help of tools in your day-to-day life. 

This tool for writers is ideal to create content formats that come with straightforward outlining. After all, a well-structured article begins with a well-structured outline. With the help of Workflowy, you can create a summary of your blog using bullet points as well as images.

5. Slick Write

If you ever want to sit down and analyze your writing, Slick Write is at your rescue. An online proofreader, Slick Write helps fix language-, grammar-, and style-related errors. This is a free content writing tool that provides comprehensive feedback and reports. This tool is smart and user-friendly, and its built-in “Associator” helps you come out of writer’s block by suggesting relevant words. 

Sometimes authors like to “Talk their book”. This means that writers or authors often make use of recording software to convert their voices into words. This is called transcribing. The online web has many such tools, but Temi is undoubtedly one of the least costly tools out there. Temi records clear audio and turns that into words at any time of the day. It’s a great resource for writers that are always on the go or when they don’t have access to their laptops. You can open the Temi app and start recording your words instantly. Once this is done, Temi will email you a transcript. This is ideal for authors that like to vocalize their thoughts before they sit to write. You must have those moments when there are so many ideas popping into your brain but by the time you reach the computer, these thoughts have dissipated! Temi helps overcome those “Oh no!” moments. You can use their free trial or pay for their service, in both cases you can export it to word, pdf, and other files.

Every time you sit down to finish a blog, you’re distracted by the sale pop-ups from Sephora on your computer. You’re already on their site trying to find the perfect foundation shade for yourself. This costs you a lot of time because you’ve wasted a good 30 minutes of your writing time! The internet can be a time-consuming place and it’s not helpful when you’re running on deadlines. Therefore, for many writers, this app could be a game-changer. Freedom is a website blocker that is available for Android, Mac, and Windows. It’s not specifically a writing tool but it aids the writers by eliminating distractions. The verdict- Freedom is a great app for writers who can’t afford to waste their time!

Source: https://creately.com/blog/marketing/writing-process-steps/

Key Takeaways

• In order to write effectively, generate as many ideas as you can. 
• Let your judgment take a backseat while listening to another participant’s idea. 
• Your ideas don’t always have to fit into the “practical” category. It is your idea; own it
• Internet writing tools are great but the originality of content depends on you

In a nutshell, brainstorming is for anybody who wants to create something, not just for college students who have research paper submissions. If you wish to take your business to the next level, brainstorming is crucial to develop and implement effective and modern strategies. 

Once you realize its purpose, you are all set to create a brainstorming session by yourself or with a group. After a strategy is decided upon after a productive brainstorming session, use some of the best tools for writers available online to create engaging content. 

First, set a time limit and announce the problem. To have a healthy brainstorming session, you should discourage any judgment or criticism coming in the way. Ideas are neither right nor wrong. Therefore, encourage all kinds of ideas, even if they sound crazy. This approach boosts the group’s morale and encourages every participant to speak up. Lastly, remember the golden rule of brainstorming is “quantity over quality.”

The secrets to an effective brainstorming session are a positive attitude, having fun, absolutely absurd ideas, and no criticism. Try to keep the tension in the room at bay so that people in the session get along well with each other.

A writer’s toolkit is essentially a place where writers store their writing tools in the form of phrases or words that are needed to write successfully. This can be a scrapbook or even an online writing file.

Though there are many tools for writers, most of them are loyal to Microsoft Word. This is one of the most popular apps for all writers as it’s convenient and easy to use. It is the most widely used book writing software in the U.S

Latest Blogs

In this blog, explore the golden rules of using AI marketing tools so you can leverage the benefits to their maximum potential.

In this blog, you’ll learn how to avoid the pitfalls of SEO over-optimization while enhancing your site’s performance.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what AMP is, its advantages and disadvantages, and how it affects SEO.

Get your hands on the latest news!

Similar posts.

9 mins read

Content Marketing vs Advertising – Which One is More Effective?

11 mins read

Interactive Content vs. Static Content: Which is More Effective?

6 mins read

Unlocking Success: 4 Case Studies of Successful Content Marketing Campaigns Using a Platform

The Brainstorming Guide

Introduction to Brainstorming

Have you ever encountered a challenge that felt impossible to overcome, dreamt of starting a business from the ground up, wanted to create a solid plan, launch a product, or hoped to write a memorable story? And the good news is that within you, right now, lies the key to unlocking solutions, innovations, and narratives that can transcend boundaries.

Your secret weapon? Brainstorming.

Brainstorming can help you solve problems, start businesses, make plans, or create stories successfully. But here’s the issue: many people don’t know how to brainstorm effectively, whether they’re doing it alone or with others.

Sometimes, people waste a lot of time thinking of repeated and uninteresting ideas that won’t actually work. They believe they’re brainstorming, but they’re not doing it effectively.

What if you could learn the best way to brainstorm and start coming up with really powerful and profitable ideas quickly?

Keep reading to find out how to make the most of brainstorming.

Definition of Brainstorming

We’ll start off with the basics.

Brainstorming is a creative problem-solving technique that involves generating a large number of ideas or solutions to a particular issue or challenge.

It typically takes place in a group setting, although it can also be done individually. The primary goal of brainstorming is to encourage free thinking and idea generation without immediate criticism or evaluation.

Brainstorming is a valuable tool for generating creative solutions, fostering teamwork, and encouraging innovative thinking. It can be applied to a wide range of contexts, from business strategy and product development to creative writing and problem-solving in everyday life.

Brief History of Brainstorming

If you are interested in learning how brainstorming came to be, here’s a brief history of brainstorming.

Brainstorming was first developed by advertising executive Alex Osborn in the late 1930s. Osborn was seeking ways to improve the creative thinking and idea generation process within his advertising agency, and he formalized the brainstorming method in his book titled “Applied Imagination” in 1953.

Origins in Advertising

Alex Osborn coined the term “brainstorming” to describe a structured approach to idea generation. He believed that traditional meetings often stifled creativity, so he introduced brainstorming as a way to encourage free thinking and open collaboration.

Modern Approaches

In response to some of the limitations of traditional brainstorming, modern variations and techniques have emerged. These include techniques such as mind mapping , brainwriting , and online brainstorming tools , which aim to boost creativity and idea generation in different ways.

Four Rules of Brainstorming

Osborn also established four fundamental rules to guide effective brainstorming sessions. These rules are designed to pave the way for a creative and open-minded atmosphere favorable for idea generation. The four rules of brainstorming are:

• No criticism: During a brainstorming session, participants are explicitly instructed to withhold criticism, judgment, or negative feedback of any kind. The aim is to create a safe and non-threatening environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas, no matter how unconventional or seemingly impractical they may be.
• Quantity over quality: Participants are encouraged to generate as many ideas as possible within the allotted time frame. The emphasis is on quantity rather than quality in the initial stages of brainstorming. This rule encourages participants to think freely and prevents them from censoring themselves or holding back potentially valuable ideas.
• Build on ideas: Brainstorming sessions thrive on collaboration and the interplay of ideas. Participants are encouraged to build on one another’s suggestions. This means that when someone presents an idea, others should try to expand, modify, or combine it with their own contributions to create new and improved concepts.
• Encourage wild ideas: “Wild” or unconventional ideas are actively welcomed and encouraged in brainstorming. These unusual or seemingly far-fetched ideas can often serve as catalysts for innovative thinking. They may inspire more practical solutions or lead to unique insights.

What are the Benefits of Brainstorming?

Brainstorming offers a range of benefits in various personal, professional, and creative contexts. Some of the key advantages of brainstorming include:

• Idea generation : Brainstorming is a structured approach to generating a large number of ideas in a relatively short time. This is especially valuable when you need creative solutions, innovative concepts, or fresh perspectives.
• Promote creativity : It promotes creative thinking by encouraging participants to think outside the box, explore unconventional ideas, and break free from mental constraints and self-censorship.
• Explore multiple perspectives : Brainstorming sessions often involve multiple participants with different backgrounds, expertise, and viewpoints. This diversity can lead to a broader range of ideas and solutions.
• Foster collaboration : Brainstorming sessions often involve group participation, fostering collaboration and teamwork. Participants can build on each other’s ideas, leading to the development of more refined concepts.
• Identify effective solutions: It is an effective tool for problem-solving. Brainstorming can help identify potential solutions to challenges, enabling better decision-making.
• Inspire innovation : Brainstorming often leads to the generation of innovative and novel ideas, which can be valuable in fields such as product development, marketing, and research.
• Effective meetings : When conducted efficiently, brainstorming can lead to more productive and focused meetings, reducing the likelihood of unproductive discussions and tangents.
• Time efficiency : Brainstorming can lead to quicker problem-solving and idea generation compared to individual or unstructured approaches.
• Adaptability : It can be applied to a wide range of situations, from brainstorming in business to personal decision-making.

Important Brainstorming Factors to Keep in Mind

Despite its benefits, it’s important to note that brainstorming may not always be the most effective method in every scenario. It works best when guided by established principles and adapted to suit the specific needs and goals of a particular project or challenge.

• Group dynamics : Brainstorming may not work well in groups where there is a lack of trust, or where dominant personalities overshadow others. In such cases, alternative methods like individual ideation followed by group evaluation might be more effective.
• Time constraints : If time is limited, traditional brainstorming sessions can be lengthy. In such cases, rapid brainstorming techniques like “brainwriting” may be more time-efficient.
• Complex problems : For highly complex issues, brainstorming alone may not be enough. It might need to be supplemented with other problem-solving techniques, research, or expert consultation.
• Sensitive topics : Some topics may be too sensitive or controversial for traditional brainstorming, as the “no criticism” rule can hinder necessary discussions. In such cases, a more structured and moderated approach may be better.
• Overused technique : If a group frequently relies on brainstorming without variation, it can become less effective due to repetitive thinking. Mixing in different creative techniques can help maintain its effectiveness.
• Large groups : With too many participants, managing a brainstorming session can become unwieldy. Smaller breakout groups or online collaboration tools may be needed to facilitate effective idea generation.
• Clear goals : Brainstorming should always have a clear objective. If the purpose is ill-defined or ambiguous, it can lead to unfocused sessions and ineffective outcomes.

Different Types of Brainstorming

Based on the participants' involvement and the approach used to generate ideas, brainstorming can be divided into different types.

Individual Brainstorming

This involves a single person generating ideas on their own, often in a quiet and reflective setting. It’s suitable for personal projects, introspective thinking, or when group collaboration is impractical.

Group Brainstorming

Group brainstorming involves a team of people coming together to collectively generate ideas. It’s a collaborative approach that benefits from diverse perspectives and is often used in professional settings. Learn more about group brainstorming with our guide to effective group brainstorming strategies .

Analytical Brainstorming

In analytical brainstorming, participants focus on critically evaluating and analyzing existing ideas or problems. The aim is to break down complex issues and generate solutions through systematic analysis.

Quiet Brainstorming

Quiet brainstorming emphasizes a calm and focused environment, ideal for introverted individuals or those who work best in solitude. It allows for deep thinking without the pressure of vocalizing ideas.

Role Play Brainstorming

Participants take on different roles or personas to approach a problem from various perspectives. This technique encourages empathy and creative thinking by viewing the issue through different lenses.

What to Do Before a Brainstorming Session

Preparing for a successful brainstorming session is the first crucial step toward unlocking creativity and innovative solutions. Whether you’re tackling a complex problem, generating fresh ideas, or planning your next project, careful preparation will set the stage for productive collaboration and meaningful outcomes.

Select the right participants

Choose participants carefully based on their expertise, knowledge, and relevance to the topic. Ensure diversity in perspectives if possible, as different viewpoints can lead to richer discussions.

Schedule and communicate

Set a date, time, and location for the session, and communicate this information to all participants well in advance. If it’s conducted online, make sure to send an email invitation with the meeting link prior to the session. Ensure that everyone knows the session’s purpose and what is expected of them.

Provide background information

Share relevant information, data, or research materials with participants ahead of time. This allows participants to come prepared and have a better understanding of the topic or problem.

Prepare materials

Make sure that you have all the necessary materials ready, such as whiteboards, flip charts, markers, sticky notes, or digital tools. This makes it easier to capture and organize ideas during the session.

Assign a facilitator or moderator

If possible, appoint a facilitator or moderator who can guide the session, keep it on track, and enforce the ground rules. This person can also help manage time and encourage participation.

Refreshments and comfort

Depending on the duration of the session, provide refreshments and ensure a comfortable environment. Hungry or uncomfortable participants may not be as engaged or creative.

Backup plan

Have a backup plan in case technical issues arise or if the brainstorming session encounters unexpected challenges. Being prepared for contingencies can prevent disruptions.

Review previous sessions

If this is not the first brainstorming session on the topic, review the outcomes of previous sessions to build on existing ideas and avoid duplication.

How to Run a Productive Brainstorming Session

Define clear objectives.

Clearly articulate the purpose and goals of the brainstorming session. What specific problem are you trying to solve, or what ideas are you seeking to generate? Having a well-defined objective makes sure that the session remains focused.

Set the ground rules

Establish clear ground rules for the brainstorming session . Remind participants of the principles, such as no criticism during idea generation, encouraging wild ideas, and focusing on quantity over quality.

Set a time limit

Determine the duration of the brainstorming session and allocate specific time slots for each stage (ideation, discussion, evaluation, etc.). Adhering to a schedule helps maintain focus and productivity.

Warm-up activity

Consider starting the session with a warm-up activity or icebreaker to help participants get into a creative mindset and build rapport with each other.

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

Decide on a brainstorming technique

If you prefer a more structured brainstorming approach, you can select a brainstorming technique such as mind mapping, 5 whys, reverse brainstorming, etc. to guide the idea generation process. You can also use sticky notes to write down ideas first and an affinity diagram to group them later based on themes.

Generate ideas

Encourage participants (whether individual or group) to generate a wide range of ideas without self-censorship. Emphasize that all ideas are welcome, no matter how unconventional they may seem.

Capture ideas

Record and document all ideas as they are generated. Use tools like whiteboards, sticky notes, or digital platforms to display and organize the ideas.

Build on ideas

After initial idea generation, invite participants to expand, refine, or combine each other’s ideas. This collaborative process can lead to innovative solutions.

Organize and prioritize

Categorize and group related ideas to identify common themes or patterns. Discuss and evaluate the ideas based on relevant criteria to prioritize the most promising ones.

You can use a prioritization grid to visually evaluate the ideas based on relevant criteria such as feasibility, impact, and relevance to prioritize the most promising ones.

Select the best ideas

Choose the ideas or solutions that align best with your objectives or criteria. Encourage participants to vote on ideas they prefer and you can select ones with the most votes. These are the concepts you will further develop or implement.

Action planning

Create an action plan that outlines specific steps, responsibilities, and timelines for implementing or exploring the selected ideas.

Document everything

Keep a comprehensive record of all generated ideas, even those not immediately selected. These can serve as a valuable resource for future brainstorming or reference.

Feedback and iteration

Seek feedback from others if applicable, and be open to refining and iterating on your ideas based on input and new insights.

Brainstorming Methods and Templates

Brainstorming methods are valuable tools for individuals and groups seeking to tap into their collective creativity and explore new possibilities. From structured processes like mind mapping and SWOT analysis to more unconventional methods like the 5 Whys and negative brainstorming, these techniques provide a structured framework to inspire fresh thinking and uncover innovative solutions.

• Mind mapping : Creating a visual representation of ideas by branching out from a central concept with related sub-ideas, helping to uncover connections and associations.
• Brainwriting : Participants silently write down their ideas on paper or digital platforms, passing them to others for further development or evaluation.
• Round Robin Brainstorming : In a group, each member takes turns suggesting one idea until everyone has contributed, often fostering more equitable participation.
• Reverse Brainstorming : Identifying ways to create or exacerbate a problem, which can lead to innovative solutions when these negative scenarios are reversed.
• SCAMPER : An acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate, and Reverse, used to prompt creative thinking by altering existing ideas.
• Storyboarding : Creating a visual narrative of a process, idea, or concept using drawings, images, or sketches to aid in brainstorming and idea development.

Roles Storming : Participants take on different roles or personas to explore a problem or idea from various perspectives.

SWOT Analysis : Evaluating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to a topic to generate ideas for improvement or growth.

• Random Word Association : Using randomly generated words or images as prompts to trigger creative thinking and idea generation.
• Card Sorting : Organizing ideas or concepts on physical or digital cards, then rearranging and categorizing them to identify patterns or solutions.

Stepladder Technique : Introducing new members to an ongoing brainstorming group one at a time, allowing fresh perspectives and ideas to emerge gradually.

Six Thinking Hats : Participants wear metaphorical “hats” representing different thinking styles (e.g., creative, critical, optimistic) to explore a topic from multiple angles.

• Lotus Blossom Technique : Expanding on a central idea by creating a diagram with multiple interconnected sub-ideas, allowing for in-depth exploration.
• Starbursting : Ask and answer questions (who, what, where, when, why, how) about a central idea to gain insights and generate new ideas.
• Rapid Ideation : Quickly generate a large quantity of ideas without overthinking, with the understanding that evaluation comes later.
• Plus-Delta Method (Delta+) : Assess past experiences by identifying positives (pluses) and areas for improvement (deltas) to learn and make future improvements.
• Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa) : Visualize and analyze potential causes of a problem using a branching diagram.
• Affinity Diagram : Organize large amounts of data or ideas into related categories or themes to identify patterns and insights.

Common Brainstorming Mistakes to Avoid

Brainstorming is a valuable tool for generating creative ideas and solutions, but it can be less effective if certain common mistakes are not addressed. Here are some common brainstorming mistakes to avoid:

• Criticism and evaluation : One of the cardinal rules of brainstorming is to defer criticism and judgment during the idea generation phase. Critiquing ideas as they are presented can stifle creativity and make participants hesitant to share. Avoid evaluating or criticizing ideas until the brainstorming session is over.
• Dominance : Allowing one or a few individuals to dominate the discussion can lead to an imbalance of ideas. Ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute, and encourage quieter participants to speak up.
• Groupthink : Groupthink occurs when participants conform to a consensus or the opinions of a dominant person within the group. It can limit the diversity of ideas. Encourage participants to think independently and express dissenting viewpoints.
• Lack of structure : While brainstorming should be free-flowing, it still benefits from some structure. Without clear guidelines or a well-defined problem statement, brainstorming sessions can become disorganized and unfocused.
• No follow-up : Brainstorming without follow-up actions can result in a lack of accountability and implementation. Ensure that ideas generated in the session are documented, evaluated, and assigned to responsible parties for further action.
• Overthinking : Overthinking and overanalyzing ideas too early in the process can inhibit creativity. Encourage participants to let their thoughts flow freely without worrying about feasibility or practicality at the beginning.
• Staying in the comfort zone : Participants may stick with familiar or safe ideas instead of exploring new or unconventional ones. Encourage thinking outside the box and exploring diverse perspectives.
• Not mixing techniques : Relying solely on one brainstorming technique for all situations may not yield the best results. Experiment with different techniques and approaches depending on the goals and nature of the problem.
• Skipping warm-up activities : Jumping straight into brainstorming without warm-up activities or icebreakers can hinder creativity. Warm-up exercises can help participants get into a creative mindset.

Brainstorming Tips

Whether you’re working individually or in a group, here are some effective brainstorming tips to help you create a conducive environment for creativity, encourage diverse perspectives, and improve the quality of ideas generated.

• Set clear objectives : Clearly define the problem, challenge, or goal that the brainstorming session aims to address. A well-defined objective provides participants with a clear focus and purpose for generating ideas.
• Create a comfortable environment: Ensure the physical environment is comfortable, with ample seating, appropriate lighting, and minimal distractions. Additionally, create a psychologically safe space where participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas without fear of criticism.
• Defer judgment : Emphasize that during the initial idea generation phase, criticism and evaluation should be avoided. This encourages participants to freely express their thoughts without self-censorship.
• Build upon ideas : Encourage participants to listen actively and build on each other’s ideas. Collaboration and idea development can lead to more refined and creative concepts.
• Use visual aids : Utilize visual tools such as whiteboards, sticky notes, or digital collaboration platforms to help participants organize ideas visually and stimulate creative thinking.
• Silent brainstorming : Incorporate silent brainstorming sessions where participants write down their ideas individually before sharing them with the group. This approach can be particularly helpful for introverted participants.
• Change perspectives : Encourage participants to explore the problem or idea from different angles or viewpoints. This can trigger fresh insights and solutions.
• Mindful listening : Promote active and attentive listening during idea sharing. This means allowing others to express their ideas without interruption and acknowledging their contributions.
• Combine and modify ideas : Explore how combining or modifying ideas can lead to entirely new and innovative solutions. Encourage participants to think about how different concepts can complement each other.
• Rotate facilitators : If conducting multiple brainstorming sessions, consider rotating the role of the facilitator. Different facilitators can bring diverse leadership styles and approaches to each session, leading to varied outcomes.
• Celebrate successes : Recognize and celebrate the achievements resulting from successful brainstorming sessions. Acknowledging contributions and successes fosters a culture of innovation and encourages continued creative thinking.

Effective Tips and Tricks to Running Successful Brainstorming Workshops

You can use these tips to improve your brainstorming workshop’s creativity, engagement, and overall effectiveness.

• Have a diverse facilitation team : Assign a co-facilitator or subject matter expert to help the primary facilitator. This allows for different perspectives and expertise to guide the workshop effectively.
• Use idea generation techniques : Try different structured idea generation techniques beyond standard brainstorming, such as mind mapping, SWOT analysis, or the Six Thinking Hats method, to generate multiple ideas.
• Rotate facilitators : If the workshop is lengthy, consider rotating the facilitator role during different phases. This helps to maintain participants' engagement and provide fresh perspectives.
• Use breakout groups : Split participants into smaller breakout groups to work on specific aspects of the problem or to generate ideas independently. Afterward, bring these groups together to share and analyze what they brainstormed.
• Try cross-pollination : Encourage participants from different teams or departments to collaborate, fostering cross-functional thinking and innovation.
• Use silent brainstorming : Silent brainstorming is a technique where participants write down their ideas independently before sharing. This minimizes groupthink and helps generate a wide range of ideas.
• Try role play and simulation : Include role-playing or simulation exercises relevant to the workshop’s theme to encourage creativity and empathy in problem-solving.
• Use physical props : Introduce physical props, visual aids, or prototypes related to the topic to stimulate ideas and inspire innovative solutions.
• Form expert panels : Invite experts or guest speakers to share insights or provide different perspectives during the workshop, inspiring participants with fresh viewpoints.
• Have storytelling sessions : Hold storytelling sessions where participants share personal or relevant stories related to the topic. This can evoke emotions and lead to more creative thinking.
• Use gaming elements : Include gamification elements, such as team challenges or problem-solving games, to make the workshop more engaging and competitive. Here’s how to make virtual brainstorming fun and effective .
• Have feedback loops : Build in periodic feedback loops where participants can reflect on the workshop’s progress and suggest adjustments to the process.
• Use visual documentation : Use visual recording techniques (e.g. graphic facilitation or sketchnoting) to visually capture the workshop’s key points and ideas, creating a dynamic record.
• End with a creative exercise : Wrap up the workshop with a creative exercise or activity that helps participants to unwind and reflect on the day’s accomplishments, reinforcing the creative mindset.

In this guide, we have covered everything about brainstorming, from what it is to how to do it well. We explored methods, gave tips, and pointed out common mistakes to avoid. Whether you’re a business leader, team member, or just interested in brainstorming, this guide has given you the knowledge and tools to succeed.

Remember, brainstorming is not just a process; it’s a way of thinking that encourages open discussion and creative problem-solving. By using the principles and practices mentioned here, you can tap into the full potential of brainstorming to generate creative ideas and find innovative solutions for your personal and professional challenges.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

Table of contents

What is brainstorming?

Definition of brainstorming.

Brainstorming is a creative thinking technique for coming up with new ideas and solving problems. Teams use this ideation method to encourage new ways of thinking and collectively generate solutions. Brainstorming encourages free thinking and allows for all ideas to be voiced without judgment, fostering an open and innovative environment. This process typically involves a group of people, although it can be done individually as well.

This guide will help you get the most out of every creative session. When you're ready to start your next free thinking exercise, jump into Miro’s brainstorming tool to generate ideas and turn them into action.

What is the main purpose of brainstorming?

The primary purpose of a brainstorming session is to generate and document many ideas, no matter how “out there” they might seem. Through this lateral thinking process, inventive ideas are suggested, which sparks creative solutions. By encouraging everyone to think more freely and not be afraid to share their ideas, teams can build on each other’s thoughts to find the best possible solution to a problem. Brainstorming usually takes place in a group setting where people get together to creatively solve problems and come up with ideas. However, it’s also useful for individuals who need to explore novel solutions to a problem. Sitting down by yourself and writing down solutions to potential problems is a great way to brainstorm individually. Focusing your mind on a defined problem allows you to think of many creative ways to get to an answer. While brainstorming normally allows for free-form methods of thinking and doesn’t require many rules, the best results usually stem from controlled sessions. Posing questions and role-playing different scenarios during the brainstorming session is a smart way to pull out unusual ideas and never-before-thought-of solutions.

Benefits of brainstorming

Why is brainstorming such a popular approach to solving problems and generating ideas? Here are some of its many advantages:

Encourages creativity

Brainstorming sessions are meant to be free of judgment. Everyone involved is meant to feel safe and confident enough to speak their minds. There will be some good and some bad ideas, but this doesn’t matter as long as the final outcome is one that can solve the problem. This kind of free-thinking environment, along with a few essential brainstorming rules, encourage creativity in the workplace.

Fosters collaboration and team building

Brainstorming is not only good for problem-solving. It also allows employees and team members to understand how the people around them think. It helps the team get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and helps build a more inclusive and close-knit workforce.

Generates innovative, revolutionary ideas

Brainstorming is the perfect mix between a free-thinking, creative environment and one that is governed by rules. Being faced with a defined problem or asking questions like “What do we do in X scenario?” forces everyone in the room to come up with ideas and solutions. No two people think alike. So, combining the good parts of everyone’s answers will result in holistic and revolutionary solutions.

Establishes different perspectives

One of the major benefits of brainstorming is that it allows and encourages all members of the session to freely propose ideas. This type of environment fosters courage in people who may not usually offer their perspective on a problem. Garnering a range of different perspectives can lead to a never-before-thought-of solution.

Introduces many ideas quickly

The beauty of brainstorming is that it encourages teams to come up with many ideas in a relatively short period of time. Ideas are thrown around, and every train of thought is documented. Different perspectives give different answers, and sifting through a few good answers in quick succession may lead to the perfect solution in no time.

Types of brainstorming techniques

There are plenty of creative brainstorming techniques to choose from. Here are some of the most popular ones:

Reverse brainstorming

In a typical brainstorming session, the group is asked to consider solutions to a problem. This means that they will spend time thinking about the outcome — the end goal — rather than the root of the problem — the starting point. Reverse brainstorming is simply the opposite: teams are asked to ideate on the problem instead of the solution. This type of brainstorming is done before the start of an important project, as it helps teams anticipate any future obstacles that might arise. To help frame this way of thinking, use a Reverse Brainstorming Template to get the team started.

Random word brainstorming

One of the main goals of a brainstorming session is to come up with new ideas. One of the best ways to do this is to say the first words that come to mind when a specific topic or subject is mentioned. Random word brainstorming allows for exactly that. The team is given a problem, and they need to shout out the first words that they think of, regardless of what they are. These words are then written down and later put into interesting combinations to see if they will lead to a usable solution. This brainstorming method is extremely fast and usually very efficient at solving a defined problem. The Random Words Brainstorming Template can help get you started.

The 5 Whys Method

Like the reverse brainstorming method, the 5 Whys method aims to look at the root causes of a problem to stop that same issue from arising again. This method attempts to curb the problem before it can reoccur by asking the question “why?” over and over until it can no longer be answered. Once you reach this stage, you have arrived at the root cause of the issue.

SCAMPER model

Developed by Bob Earle, an author of creativity books for kids, the SCAMPER model was originally a game aimed at imagination development in adolescents. It has, however, become popular in the corporate world as a means of improving and encouraging creativity in team members when dealing with complex, defined problems. Using this model, your team will view a problem through 7 filters: substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse.

Rapid ideation

Rapid ideation brainstorming is almost the exact same thinking model as random word brainstorming. In this method, however, everyone writes down the solutions they are thinking of instead of shouting them out. This gives participants a bit more privacy with their immediate thoughts — possibly leading to even more creative and revolutionary outcomes.

Starbursting

Once again, brainstorming can change based on the team’s perspective and each session’s expected outcome. Starburst brainstorming focuses on getting the team to ask questions instead of coming up with answers.

How to hold a brainstorming workshop

Ready to harness the power of a well-run brainstorming session? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to organize a successful brainstorming workshop:

1. Assign a facilitator

When done as a group, a brainstorming session needs to have boundaries. You need to choose someone who will facilitate the session and provide guidelines for the thinking exercises that the group will partake in. This is so the session doesn’t get too scattered and stays on the right track. The facilitator should pose questions and guide the group from start to finish.

2. Establish context and ensure group understanding

A brainstorming session cannot be properly carried out without context. The group must understand why they are meeting and what the end goal of the session is. Everyone should also understand the meaning of brainstorming and what to expect from the brainstorming process. The brainstorming method that will be used should also be established (see point 5) and explained at the outset.

3. Define an objective

While brainstorming is often looked at as a form of free-thinking creativity, it is best to try to stay within certain rules. It’s essential that you define a clear objective and use the session to reach your predetermined goal.

4. Set a time limit

Setting a defined time limit before the session starts is important to the success of your brainstorming session. No doubt your team could come up with countless ideas, but there has to be a limit on how long the session can run. Knowing that you need to solve a problem within one hour, for instance, will help the team focus on the job at hand and come up with ideas faster. It will also keep everyone thinking about the same problem.

5. Decide on the brainstorming technique

The brainstorming technique that will be used must be decided on before the session begins. The best way to do this is to look at the problem at hand. If you’re looking to prevent obstacles from arising in the future, try the “5 Whys” technique. If you’re looking to come up with new marketing ideas or get creative with workplace conflicts, try the rapid ideation technique.

6. Set some ground rules

As stated above, the best and most productive brainstorming sessions are those that allow for free thinking and creativity within preset boundaries. Brainstorming ground rules are essential to to the success of the session, as they keep everyone focused on the topic at hand and ensure that no one goes off track.

7. Capture all ideas

The entire point of a brainstorming session is to come up with as many ideas as possible, regardless of whether the standalone suggestion will lead to success. This means that you need to use the right tools to document the ideas being suggested. Miro has a host of idea-capturing tools, including a simple-to-use visual platform for remote brainstorming sessions and digital sticky notes .

8. Discuss and vote on ideas

After all the ideas have been captured, it’s time to discuss them. The team needs to be productive in choosing a creative idea that suits the problem, or they can try combining a few ideas to come up with a holistic solution. To make decisions as a group and come to an agreement, teams can use the dot voting method . This technique reveals group priorities and helps everyone reach a consensus on the direction to take.

9. Turn ideas into action

Once the final idea has been chosen, it’s time to create a plan of action and a deadline for the idea to be put in place. Transform your ideas into detailed, tangible steps with the Action Plan Template . This will help with coordination between team members and ensures that nothing is missed.

Tips for your brainstorming activities

While all brainstorming sessions look a little different, here are some best practices to get the most out of yours:

Record all ideas

If you want to have a successful and productive brainstorming session, it’s important that you capture every idea suggested, good and bad. An idea might seem silly when first brought up, but it might become an invaluable idea as the session moves on. Capture everything, and right at the end, work out which ideas best suit the problem.

Ensure that everyone’s ideas are heard

When brainstorming is done as a group activity, everyone needs to feel comfortable and confident to propose ideas. The best way to make sure the environment fosters these feelings is to make the session feel like a conversation, not a presentation. Create a safe and open environment that gives everyone equal opportunity to voice their opinions and ideas.

Focus on quantity

People often like to say, "Focus on quality, not quantity," but it’s the opposite when brainstorming. In a brainstorming session, you should focus on getting as many ideas on the board as possible, even if they're only one-word ideas. These can all be used to come to a holistic solution at the end of the session. Each suggestion could be invaluable if you're coming up with a combined idea.

Brainstorming should be a fun and creative endeavor. You shouldn’t be too rigid — though some ground rules are important. If your team has weekly brainstorming sessions, try new brainstorming techniques and activities each time you meet. This will keep your team members on their toes and help make them excited about the next meeting. It will also encourage out-of-the-box thinking, which is essential to any successful brainstorming session.

Avoid criticism

We’ll say it again: there are no bad ideas in a brainstorming session. This is the attitude that all team members must adopt when entering the session. No one should be criticized for the ideas that they propose. The best way to foster an environment that is devoid of criticism and encourages creativity is to maintain a relaxed approach. This will make everyone feel comfortable and happy to contribute their ideas.

Discover more

Guide to collaborative brainstorming, when to use brainstorming (and which techniques are best), what is brainwriting, what is reverse brainstorming, how to conduct a brainstorming session, get on board in seconds, plans and pricing.

What Is Brainstorming in Writing? [Explained For Writers & Authors]

Your initial idea is not always the one you end up writing about. In addition, you might have a vague idea of what you want to write, but nothing specific. This is where brainstorming comes in.

Brainstorming is a great way to explore ideas and uncover new ideas. It involves generating as many ideas as possible, without worrying about whether they are good or bad. This can lead to more creative thinking, which can be helpful in developing your argument or writing your book.

In this article, we’ll discuss what is brainstorming in writing, some brainstorming techniques, tips for successful brainstorming, and how to make the most of the writing process .

👉 New to brainstorming and prewriting? See our simple guide on Prewriting for other prewriting techniques!

Let’s Talk

Are you a writer aspiring to pen a masterpiece that never fails to captivate? Look no further. Reach out to us and uncover how we can help you to take your writing to unprecedented heights!

What Is Brainstorming In Writing?

Brainstorming is a part of prewriting where you come up with as many ideas as you can. It doesn’t matter if many of the ideas are unreasonable, difficult, or not 100% related to your topic. The main aim here is to generate as many ideas as possible. Relax and don’t worry about being accurate yet.

Brainstorming involves generating a lot of ideas in a short period of time. You can use it to come up with solutions to problems or new ways of thinking.

You can start your brainstorming session as a discussion or dialogue between you and someone else. You can do it in small groups or large ones. But you can also do it alone—just start by writing down any ideas that come to mind. Once you have some ideas, then it’s time to start exploring them further. Ask yourself questions about each of the ideas, such as: How does this idea relate to the topic? What advantages and disadvantages does this idea have?

Fiction authors might for instance brainstorm various endings for the same short story . Here are some guidelines you can follow when brainstorming:

• Be in an environment that is most conducive for work.
• Grab a paper and pen. Text editing software will also do.
• Set a timer.
• Write down anything that comes to mind.

Brainstorming is not compulsory. It might not be your cup of tea. That said, writers who don’t brainstorm are more likely to get stuck when their single idea doesn’t turn out to be as good as they thought it would be. In addition, some of the ideas you generate during this process can easily become subtopics and subheadings in your final piece.

Categories of Brainstorming In Writing

Before you start brainstorming, it can be helpful to identify which category your topic fits into. Brainstorming techniques are often categorized into three main groups: creative, analytical, and lateral thinking.

• Creative thinking involves using imagination to come up with new ideas or solutions. It’s a great technique for fiction authors who are stuck on how to create a unique story .
• Analytical thinking is the opposite of creative thinking. It involves using logic and facts to come up with answers. This type of thinking can be used to solve problems or develop arguments.
• Lateral thinking , also known as divergent thinking , involves taking existing ideas and altering them slightly. This can be useful for coming up with new solutions that might have been overlooked if you were to just start from scratch.

Brainstorming for individual vs Group

Brainstorming can be done both individually and in a group, but which is better? That depends on the situation.

Brainstorming with a group can be beneficial in terms of generating more and better ideas. However, individual brainstorming is also valuable. It’s important to try out both so that you can get the most out of your process.

As an individual writer or author, try to have a clear goal in mind when you brainstorm Ask yourself what kind of ideas you want to generate and why. It can also help to structure the session with a timer so that you stay focused. When brainstorming in a group, give everyone the chance to contribute and come up with ideas. Encourage people to explore different angles and offer input to the discussion.

What are the various brainstorming techniques In Writing?

When it comes to brainstorming, can be done either individually or as part of a group and there are many different techniques you can use. Here’s a look at some of the more popular ones:

• Rapid ideation
• Brainwriting
• Figure storming
• Ideafishing
• Mind-mapping
• Eidetic image method
• Brainstorming games
• Online brainstorming, aka brain netting
• Round-robin brainstorming
• Step-ladder technique
• Brainwalking.

These are just some of the techniques you can use for brainstorming. Experiment with different techniques until you find the one that gives the best results.

How to use brainstorming in the prewriting process

Before you start the prewriting process , it’s important to establish a timeline for yourself so that you don’t get too overwhelmed. First, think about the topic you want to write about. Then, take some time to brainstorm. After you’ve got a list of ideas, you can then narrow it down until you find the one that works best for your book or paper.

Once you have done this, it’s then time to start researching and gathering information. This is where the ideas that you came up with during your brainstorming session will be really useful. They can help guide your research process and make sure that it is relevant and in-depth.

Brainstorming Examples In Writing

Let’s look at an example of how we can brainstorm the topic “digital currencies”. Here are some random ideas associated with digital currencies:

• Internet money
• Online trading
• International trading
• Government control
• Crypto apps
• Exchange rate
• Blockchain technology
• Cryptocurrency wallets
• Fraud protection
• Security measures
• Smart contracts
• Decentralized currency

Now that we have a list of ideas related to digital currencies, it’s easier to draw connections between them and come up with a structure for our book.

For example, blockchain technology could be used to discuss the security and fraud protection of digital currencies. Exchange rate can be used to talk about international trading, while smart contracts could be used to discuss how they are used in online trading.

After we do this, we can then proceed to structure our work in terms of chapters and subtopics. For instance, we could start by discussing what digital currencies are and how they work, then move on to the different types of digital currencies available, followed by the risks associated with investing in digital currencies, and finally finish off by looking at the potential benefits of digital currencies.

So, you can see that by brainstorming the topic, we have come up with a rough structure for our work which will help us stay focused while writing. This saves us time and energy in the long run, as it is much easier to write when you already know the structure and flow of your argument.

Brainstorming Exercises In Writing

Now it’s your turn to try out a brainstorming exercise. Think of a topic or story that you are interested in and then write down as many ideas related to it as you can. Thereafter, take some time to look through the list and draw connections between them so that you can come up with a structure for your book.

Let’s see some exercises for our next brainstorming practice:

Set a timer for ten minutes. Brainstorm the following until each timer goes off:

• The national unemployment rate.
• Your country’s president.
• Disney World
• Your favorite film.
• Game of Thrones

Final Notes on Brainstorming In Prewriting

Brainstorming is an important part of the prewriting process and should not be overlooked. It helps generate a wealth of ideas which can then be used to create a structure for your book. Moreover, it saves time in the long run by providing you with a roadmap for your book. Experiment with different techniques until you find the one that yields the most results.

Chioma Ezeh is an author, digital marketer, business coach, and the founder of chiomaezeh.com, a blog that teaches how to build successful online businesses. Get in touch.

Similar Posts

Types of Audiences In Writing [Explained]

Discover the different types of audiences in writing that you might encounter as a writer and learn how to best appeal to each.

Prewriting Strategies: 9 Proven Steps With Tips, Examples & Worksheets

Do you want to be a better writer? Follow these simple 9 prewriting strategies to help you get started! Includes examples and worksheets for you to get started!

Prewriting benefits: 15+ Reasons You Should Be Prewriting for Your Book

There are many benefits to prewriting, but these prewriting benefits will motivate you and help you get the most out of your writing process.

Types of Research Methods In Prewriting: What You Need To Know As A Writer

If you’re a writer, then it’s important to know the different types of research methods that are available to you before beginning your next project. This post will show you the four main types and how to use them for your prewriting.

What Is Third Person Point of View? [Definition & Examples]

Learn about the third person point of view and see how this writing technique helps authors effectively tell their stories.

Writing The First Draft Of A Book: 12 Tips For A Quick Process

Writing the first draft is the process of making sure you eventually have something to edit, publish, market, and so on. Techniques writers use when creating the first draft include freewriting, outlining, taking notes, and more.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Reviews / Why join our community?
• For companies
• Frequently asked questions

Brainstorming

What is brainstorming.

Brainstorming is a method design teams use to generate ideas to solve clearly defined design problems. In controlled conditions and a free-thinking environment, teams approach a problem by such means as “How Might We” questions. They produce a vast array of ideas and draw links between them to find potential solutions.

• Transcript loading…

How To Use Brainstorming Best

Brainstorming is part of design thinking . You use it in the ideation phase. It’s extremely popular for design teams because they can expand in all directions. Although teams have rules and a facilitator to keep them on track, they are free to use out-of-the-box and lateral thinking to seek the most effective solutions to any design problem. By brainstorming, they can take a vast number of approaches—the more, the better—instead of just exploring conventional means and running into the associated obstacles. When teams work in a judgment-free atmosphere to find the real dimensions of a problem, they’re more likely to produce rough answers which they’ll refine into possible solutions later. Marketing CEO Alex Osborn, brainstorming’s “inventor”, captured the refined elements of creative problem-solving in his 1953 book, Applied Imagination . In brainstorming, we aim squarely at a design problem and produce an arsenal of potential solutions. By not only harvesting our own ideas but also considering and building on colleagues’, we cover the problem from every angle imaginable.

“It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one.” — Alex Osborn

Everyone in a design team should have a clear definition of the target problem. They typically gather for a brainstorming session in a room with a large board/wall for pictures/Post-Its. A good mix of participants will expand the experience pool and therefore broaden the idea space.

Brainstorming may seem to lack constraints, but everyone must observe eight house rules and have someone acting as facilitator.

Set a time limit – Depending on the problem’s complexity, 15–60 minutes is normal.

Begin with a target problem/brief – Members should approach this sharply defined question, plan or goal and stay on topic.

Refrain from judgment/criticism – No-one should be negative (including via body language) about any idea.

Encourage weird and wacky ideas – Further to the ban on killer phrases like “too expensive”, keep the floodgates open so everyone feels free to blurt out ideas (provided they’re on topic).

Aim for quantity – Remember, “quantity breeds quality”. The sifting-and-sorting process comes later.

Build on others’ ideas – It’s a process of association where members expand on others’ notions and reach new insights, allowing these ideas to trigger their own. Say “and”—rather than discourage with “but”—to get ideas closer to the problem.

Stay visual – Diagrams and Post-Its help bring ideas to life and help others see things in different ways.

Allow one conversation at a time – To arrive at concrete results, it’s essential to keep on track this way and show respect for everyone’s ideas.

To capture everyone’s ideas in a brainstorming session, someone must play “scribe” and mark every idea on the board. Alternatively, write down your own ideas as they come, and share these with the group. Often, design problems demand mixed tactics: brainstorming and its sibling approaches – braindumping (for individuals), and brainwriting and brainwalking (for group-and-individual mixes).

Take Care with Brainstorming

Brainstorming involves harnessing synergy – we leverage our collective thinking towards a variety of potential solutions. However, it’s challenging to have boundless freedom. In groups, introverts may stay quiet while extroverts dominate. Whoever’s leading the session must “police” the team to ensure a healthy, solution-focused atmosphere where even the shiest participants will speak up. A warm-up activity can cure brainstorming “constipation” – e.g., ask participants to list ways the world would be different if metal were like rubber.

Another risk is to let the team stray off topic and/or address other problems. As we may use brainstorming in any part of our design process—including areas related to a project’s main scope—it’s vital that participants stick to the problem relevant to that part (what Osborn called the “Point of View”). Similarly, by framing problems with “How Might We” questions, we remember brainstorming is organic and free of boundaries. Overall, your team should stay fluid in the search for ways you might resolve an issue – not chase a “holy grail” solution someone has developed elsewhere. The idea is to mine idea “ore” and refine “golden” solutions from it later.

How to Supercharge Brainstorming with AI

Learn more about brainstorming.

The Interaction Design Foundation’s course on Design Thinking discusses Brainstorming in depth.

This blog offers incisive insights into Brainstorming workshops .

Jonathan Courtney’s article for Smashing Magazine shows Brainstorming’s versatility .

Literature on Brainstorming

Here’s the entire UX literature on Brainstorming by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Brainstorming

Take a deep dive into Brainstorming with our course Design Thinking: The Ultimate Guide .

Some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Google, Samsung, and General Electric, have rapidly adopted the design thinking approach, and design thinking is being taught at leading universities around the world, including Stanford d.school, Harvard, and MIT. What is design thinking, and why is it so popular and effective?

Design Thinking is not exclusive to designers —all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering and business have practiced it. So, why call it Design Thinking? Well, that’s because design work processes help us systematically extract, teach, learn and apply human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way—in our designs, businesses, countries and lives. And that’s what makes it so special.

The overall goal of this design thinking course is to help you design better products, services, processes, strategies, spaces, architecture, and experiences. Design thinking helps you and your team develop practical and innovative solutions for your problems. It is a human-focused , prototype-driven , innovative design process . Through this course, you will develop a solid understanding of the fundamental phases and methods in design thinking, and you will learn how to implement your newfound knowledge in your professional work life. We will give you lots of examples; we will go into case studies, videos, and other useful material, all of which will help you dive further into design thinking. In fact, this course also includes exclusive video content that we've produced in partnership with design leaders like Alan Dix, William Hudson and Frank Spillers!

This course contains a series of practical exercises that build on one another to create a complete design thinking project. The exercises are optional, but you’ll get invaluable hands-on experience with the methods you encounter in this course if you complete them, because they will teach you to take your first steps as a design thinking practitioner. What’s equally important is you can use your work as a case study for your portfolio to showcase your abilities to future employers! A portfolio is essential if you want to step into or move ahead in a career in the world of human-centered design.

Design thinking methods and strategies belong at every level of the design process . However, design thinking is not an exclusive property of designers—all great innovators in literature, art, music, science, engineering, and business have practiced it. What’s special about design thinking is that designers and designers’ work processes can help us systematically extract, teach, learn, and apply these human-centered techniques in solving problems in a creative and innovative way—in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, and in our lives.

That means that design thinking is not only for designers but also for creative employees , freelancers , and business leaders . It’s for anyone who seeks to infuse an approach to innovation that is powerful, effective and broadly accessible, one that can be integrated into every level of an organization, product, or service so as to drive new alternatives for businesses and society.

You earn a verifiable and industry-trusted Course Certificate once you complete the course. You can highlight them on your resume, CV, LinkedIn profile or your website .

All open-source articles on Brainstorming

Stage 3 in the design thinking process: ideate.

• 1.2k shares
• 4 years ago

14 UX Deliverables: What will I be making as a UX designer?

Introduction to the Essential Ideation Techniques which are the Heart of Design Thinking

• 1.1k shares

Learn How to Use the Best Ideation Methods: Brainstorming, Braindumping, Brainwriting, and Brainwalking

Three Ideation Methods to Enhance Your Innovative Thinking

Ideation for Design - Preparing for the Design Race

Revolutionize UX Design with VR Experiences

Transform Your Creative Process with Design Thinking

Start Your UX Journey: Essential Insights for Success

Open Access—Link to us!

We believe in Open Access and the  democratization of knowledge . Unfortunately, world-class educational materials such as this page are normally hidden behind paywalls or in expensive textbooks.

If you want this to change , cite this page , link to us, or join us to help us democratize design knowledge !

Privacy Settings

Our digital services use necessary tracking technologies, including third-party cookies, for security, functionality, and to uphold user rights. Optional cookies offer enhanced features, and analytics.

Experience the full potential of our site that remembers your preferences and supports secure sign-in.

Governs the storage of data necessary for maintaining website security, user authentication, and fraud prevention mechanisms.

Enhanced Functionality

Saves your settings and preferences, like your location, for a more personalized experience.

Referral Program

We use cookies to enable our referral program, giving you and your friends discounts.

Error Reporting

We share user ID with Bugsnag and NewRelic to help us track errors and fix issues.

Optimize your experience by allowing us to monitor site usage. You’ll enjoy a smoother, more personalized journey without compromising your privacy.

Analytics Storage

Collects anonymous data on how you navigate and interact, helping us make informed improvements.

Differentiates real visitors from automated bots, ensuring accurate usage data and improving your website experience.

Lets us tailor your digital ads to match your interests, making them more relevant and useful to you.

Advertising Storage

Stores information for better-targeted advertising, enhancing your online ad experience.

Personalization Storage

Permits storing data to personalize content and ads across Google services based on user behavior, enhancing overall user experience.

Advertising Personalization

Allows for content and ad personalization across Google services based on user behavior. This consent enhances user experiences.

Enables personalizing ads based on user data and interactions, allowing for more relevant advertising experiences across Google services.

Receive more relevant advertisements by sharing your interests and behavior with our trusted advertising partners.

Enables better ad targeting and measurement on Meta platforms, making ads you see more relevant.

Allows for improved ad effectiveness and measurement through Meta’s Conversions API, ensuring privacy-compliant data sharing.

LinkedIn Insights

Tracks conversions, retargeting, and web analytics for LinkedIn ad campaigns, enhancing ad relevance and performance.

LinkedIn CAPI

Enhances LinkedIn advertising through server-side event tracking, offering more accurate measurement and personalization.

Google Ads Tag

Tracks ad performance and user engagement, helping deliver ads that are most useful to you.

Share Knowledge, Get Respect!

or copy link

Cite according to academic standards

Simply copy and paste the text below into your bibliographic reference list, onto your blog, or anywhere else. You can also just hyperlink to this page.

New to UX Design? We’re Giving You a Free ebook!

Download our free ebook The Basics of User Experience Design to learn about core concepts of UX design.

In 9 chapters, we’ll cover: conducting user interviews, design thinking, interaction design, mobile UX design, usability, UX research, and many more!

Brainstorming: 10 Examples, Techniques, and Benefits

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

Brainstorming is the divergent thinking process of gathering a large number of ideas in a short amount of time, which you will parse and improve upon in future steps.

Commonly, it takes place on a piece of paper or large board where you can visually dump your ideas. However, it can also occur in your mind. It may also be either done individually or in groups (Al-Samarraie & Hurmuzan, 2018).

Definition of Brainstorming

The word brainstorming was first coined in the 1940s by advertising executive Alex F. Osbornn (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

Osborn defined it as a way to generate a large number of ideas in a short amount of time without any criticism or judgement.

Importantly, brainstorming is about generating as many ideas as possible in order to help push through a plateau or brain block. Ideally, it will help bring out creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in order to generate fresh and innovative ideas (Litchfield, 2008).

One of the key benefits of brainstorming is that it allows an individual or group to think freely and suspend judgement of ideas.

This can lead to the creation and consideration of ideas that may not have been considered otherwise. Even a seemingly useless idea may lead to a fruitful breakthrough.

History of Brainstorming

While the act of brainstorming has likely been used for thousands of years, the term itself has its roots in the 1930s when Osborn, along with his colleagues at an advertising agency, began using group creativity sessions to generate ideas for their clients (Putman & Paulus, 2009).

With a new term coined, the concept became refined and made more explicit. Today, it has become a popular tool used in both organizations and people’s personal lives to generate new ideas and solve problems.

Popular ideas behind brainstorming have evolved over the years and brainstorming strategies have been adapted to suit different situations, industries, and needs (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

For example, it can be used for anything from coming up with vacation ideas with your family to coming up with new product lines for large multinational corporations.

Stages of Brainstorming

The brainstorming process typically involves three stages: preparation, ideation, and evaluation (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

• Preparation: The focus of the preparation stage should be on setting the rules, structure, and culture around the session. It may, for example, encourage team members to come to the team with sufficient background knowledge, and ensure all people in the group know the importance of creating a non-judgemental environment.
• Ideation: The ideation stage involves sharing ideas which will be added to the brainstorming notes, such as on a flipboard or shared screen during a group video call (Litchfield, 2008). This is where the actual idea generation takes place. Participants are encouraged to share their ideas knowing that there is ‘no silly idea’ at this point in time.
• Evaluation: With a wide range of ideas collected, the group needs to categorize, review, and select the most promising ideas. This may involve drawing connections between ideas, merging ideas together, and finding identifying problems with certain ideas. At this stage, it’s important to ensure the chosen ideas have alignment with the objective.

10 Examples of Brainstorming

Below are some possible situations in which brainstorming can be highly effective.

Example 1: Product Development

Brainstorming can be used to generate new product ideas or improve upon existing ones. For example, a team of designers, engineers, and marketers could brainstorm ideas for a new smartphone that incorporates cutting-edge technology and features. Importantly, the team should be composed of product market experts and, ideally, people with prior knowledge about issues with the current product iteration, consumer feedback, and gaps in the marketplace.

Example 2: Marketing Campaigns

Brainstorming is common in marketing and advertising, and in fact, the term was coined by a marketing professional.

Generally, this session would involve bringing together a team of creatives with good knowledge of the market as well as cutting-edge marketing techniques in order to come up with a campaign idea. For example, a team of marketers could brainstorm ideas for a new social media campaign that leverages the power of influencers to reach the audience.

Example 3: Brainstorming for a Novel

Brainstorming can be an excellent approach to improve writing techniques, especially when writing a novel.

In this situation, I would gather some fellow writers or personal tutors who have experience developing plots, characters and themes and go over the things that could work better in your novel.

By analyzing my plot structure and understanding my character’s traits based on their backstory, I could get valuable insight into how to make the story more engaging.

Example 4: Brainstorming for Business Strategic Plans

Brainstorming is an excellent way to devise strategic plans for higher-level business development.

It helps you visualize how your business may look like in the future while allowing feedback from team members involved in the development process to obtain insights from all departments.

A team of executives may get together around a single table with reports and data sheets explaining different growth areas of the company.

Example 5: Brainstorming New Classroom Ideas

Brainstorming is one of the best ways for teachers to develop new ideas for curriculum building and lesson planning.

Teachers should consider mingling with colleagues who have years teaching experience engaging students around different scenarios shaping them towards positive cognitive outcomes.

Example 6: Brainstorming Home Decor Projects

When renovating a home, brainstorming can help skyrocket creativity while considering factors like budget, style, and functionality.

Collaborating with an interior designer or friends who have taste in home decor and DIY projects can be useful in generating interesting ideas that match the requirements of the homeowner.

Example 7: Brainstorming for Event Planning

Brainstorming is an essential tool when it comes to event planning as it helps to identify key themes, vendors, catering, and decoration ideas.

The best part of brainstorming is involving event planners together with their clients in a room or a virtual hangout session to discuss their vision for the occasion and generate ideas in real-time.

Example 8: Brainstorming Personal Life Goals

Brainstorming can help you set achievable personal goals while shedding light on your desires.

At times like these having a life coach might come in handy who can incorporate exercises where you jot down all the things you desire either professionally or personally such as traveling to other countries or buying a new house.

See Also: A List of 151 Goals for Life

Example 9: Brainstorming UX Designs

In the development of digital products such as web applications or mobile apps brainstorming plays a key role.

Through group discussions between UX designers and developers they’ll emphasize ways of enhancing user experience by identifying areas where previous iterations had no success.

Example 10: Brainstorming Career Choices

Brainstorming can help young people finishing high school to create a roadmap towards the best career for them.

At this time of life, people usually don’t have a clear idea of the job they will do, but they may have a clear idea of what they are good at, what they enjoy doing, and the general direction they want to go (white collar, blue collar, etc.).

The process of deciding what to do may involve seeking out mentors or attending career fairs where people can offer guidance and support.

Techniques for Effective Brainstorming

There are several techniques that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of brainstorming sessions (Al-Samarraie & Hurmuzan, 2018). Generally, this involves putting in place clear group norms , including:

• Encouraging all participants to share their ideas
• Avoiding criticism and judgement
• Using visual aids to stimulate creativity
• Building on others’ ideas
• Combining ideas to create new solutions
• Setting a time limit to encourage rapid idea generation

Benefits of Brainstorming

The benefits of brainstorming are numerous. It can help people and organizations generate new ideas, solve complex problems, and make better decisions.

In the workplace, it can also improve team morale and strengthen team cohesion . By engaging individuals in idea generation, companies can create a culture of innovation and creativity.

1. Innovation

Firstly, brainstorming plays a significant role in boosting innovation (Litchfield, 2008).

When we sit together and come up with different creative ideas, we tend to approach situations with new perspectives that we often overlook alone. Sometimes our minds can only go so far when left to its devices!

The act of bouncing thoughts off one another elevates creativity tremendously. Brainstorming as a group often produces new solutions that wouldn’t have surfaced otherwise (Al-Samarraie & Hurmuzan, 2018).

2. Problem Solving

Secondly, brainstorming is incredibly beneficial for problem-solving .

While we all face challenges in life, brainstorming can act as a beneficial tool for addressing and overcoming those issues.

When faced with a problem, having multiple people collaborate during the decision-making process leads to better outcomes than relying solely on one person’s point of view (Litchfield, 2008).

In addition, when each member contributes equally unique views and suggestions about possible solutions without dismissing others’ input or ideas, new strategies can arise which become successful approaches (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

3. Team Morale and Cohesion

A side-effect of brainstorming as a group is that it can make a stronger group dynamic . Its key principles include inclusion, open-mindedness, and working together.

Coincidentally, this can also make work much more enjoyable!

Collaborating as a team creates cohesiveness within the company culture because all persons contribute towards achieving mutual goals rather than accomplishing solo achievements only related to their title or job description (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

Support from team members through both triumphs and failures can increase mutual respect among colleagues for each other while creating social bonds.

4. Culture of Innovation

Lastly, creating a culture of innovation becomes achievable when utilizing brainstorming tasks regularly within the company environment.

Brainstorming can lead to creative solutions that would not be possible without the open-minded, free-flowing brainstorming process (Paulus & Kenworthy, 2019).

Challenges of Brainstorming

While brainstorming can be a highly effective tool for generating ideas and solutions, it is not without its challenges. Some common challenges include:

• Groupthink : where individuals conform to the group’s opinions and ideas (Putman & Paulus, 2009). This may happen if one dominant person leads the brainstorming session in a particular direction.
• Unequal Participation: some participants may dominate the discussion while others are minimally involved. Less experienced or peripheral members of the group may be pushed aside.
• Lack of Focus: a brainstorming session can become unfocused and start to lack direction. While creativity and open-mindedness is useful, the session may also drift away from its original goals and end up failing to be fit for purpose.
• Criticism and Judgement: depending on the group culture, ideas may be criticized or judged prematurely, which can undermine the purpose of brainstorming. This is where positive workplace culture is highly important (Litchfield, 2008).
• Not conducive to Convergent Thinking : brainstorming is a type of divergent thinking, where people try to come up with multiple solutions to one problem. This is only useful at certain times (Putman & Paulus, 2009). Often, we need to do the opposite: come up with one solution by bringing together multiple pre-determined answers.

Sometimes, it can be beneficial for individuals to brainstorm on their own before coming together to share their ideas as a group (in education, we call this the think-pair-share method).

Brainstorming is a powerful tool that can be used to generate new ideas, solve complex problems, and make better decisions. By understanding the process, techniques, and benefits of brainstorming, individuals and organizations can unlock their creative potential and drive innovation and growth. While it is not without its challenges, careful planning, facilitation, and participation can help avoid these pitfalls and lead to successful and productive brainstorming sessions.

Al-Samarraie, H., & Hurmuzan, S. (2018). A review of brainstorming techniques in higher education.  Thinking Skills and creativity ,  27 , 78-91.

Litchfield, R. C. (2008). Brainstorming reconsidered: A goal-based view.  Academy of Management Review ,  33 (3), 649-668.

Putman, V. L., & Paulus, P. B. (2009). Brainstorming, brainstorming rules and decision making.  The Journal of creative behavior ,  43 (1), 29-40.

Paulus, P. B., & Kenworthy, J. B. (2019). Effective brainstorming.  The Oxford handbook of group creativity and innovation , 287-386.

Paulus, P. B., Kohn, N. W., & Arditti, L. E. (2011). Effects of quantity and quality instructions on brainstorming.  The Journal of Creative Behavior ,  45 (1), 38-46.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

2 thoughts on “Brainstorming: 10 Examples, Techniques, and Benefits”

Hi dear Thank you for your useful contents. How can I have PDF files of these Examples, Techniques, And Benefits or every thing about problem solving techniques and examples? my best regards Alireza Khorasani

Send me an email and I’ll get it sent out to you! Best, Chris.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• Product overview
• All features
• Latest feature release
• App integrations
• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• asana-intelligence icon Asana AI
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Capacity planning
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• Permissions
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Project intake
• Resource planning
• Product launches
• View all uses arrow-right icon

• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Inspire & Impact Collection |
• 29 brainstorming techniques: effective ...

29 brainstorming techniques: effective ways to spark creativity

Bright ideas don’t come as easily as flicking on a light. 

When it’s up to one individual to dream up a solution, it can be time-consuming and cause a lot of pressure. And when it comes to a group of people tasked with solving a problem, ideas might clash. Not to mention, everyone has a preferred method for their creative madness, making it difficult to get every team members’ wheels turning in the same direction.

That’s where brainstorming techniques come in. These techniques provide structure for brainstorming sessions, ignite creativity across all brainstormers, and ensure your ideas come to fruition. And luckily, there are lots of effective brainstorming techniques to choose from. 

What is brainstorming?

Here’s a general brainstorming definition: it’s an approach taken by an individual or team to solve a problem or generate new ideas for the improvement of a product, organization, or strategy. 

No matter your preferred method, most brainstorming techniques involve three steps:

Capture ideas

Discuss and critique the ideas

Choose which ideas to execute

Every brainstorming technique also involves the same ingredients. All you need is an individual or group of people, a problem to solve or an opportunity to address, and time. 

Brainstorming challenges

The golden rule of all brainstorming sessions is quantity over quality. The more ideas you have, the better your chances are that one will be worthy of execution. For these reasons, especially in group brainstorming sessions, be sure all team members check their criticisms at the door and let it be known that the only bad ideas are no ideas. 

Of course, not every brainstorming session will go off without a hitch. Some common brainstorming challenges include:

Unbalanced conversations, sometimes due to extroverts dominating discussions

The anchoring effect, meaning brainstormers cling to the first few ideas shared and don’t move on to others

Awkward silences, which often occur when participants are not prepared 

Perhaps you’ve experienced some of these uncomfortable brainstorming sessions yourself. Thankfully, there are plenty of tried-and-true, and also some unorthodox, brainstorming techniques and tools that tackle just these issues.

Analytic brainstorming techniques

When you need to look at an idea from all angles or vet a problem thoroughly, analytic brainstorming techniques might be worth implementing. Consider the following brainstorming methods and tools to generate and qualify ideas.

1. Starbursting  

A visual brainstorming technique, starbursting should be used once you or your team of brainstormers has homed in on a single idea. To begin starbursting, put an idea on the middle of a whiteboard and draw a six-point star around it. Each point will represent a question:

Consider every question and how it might pertain to your idea, such as, “Who will want to buy this product?” or, “When will we need to launch this program?” This will help you explore scenarios or roadblocks you hadn’t considered before.

Best for: large group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly

2. The five whys, a.k.a. why analysis

Similar to starbursting, the five whys brainstorming technique helps you evaluate the strength of an idea. Challenge yourself to ask “why” questions about a topic or idea at least five times and consider what new problems you surface—and, importantly, note how you can address them. To help organize your thoughts, consider using a flowchart or fishbone diagram in hand with this brainstorming technique.

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, vetting ideas thoroughly

3. SWOT analysis

You might be familiar with SWOT analysis as it relates to strategic planning , and you might also be surprised to know that this concept can also be applied as a brainstorming exercise to help qualify an idea. The notion? Discuss the following aspects of your topic to determine whether it’s worth executing: 

Strengths : how does the idea dominate or stand out from competitors?

Weakness : are there any flaws in the idea that could jeopardize its execution?

Opportunities : what else can you capitalize on based on this idea?

Threats : what are potential downfalls that could arise if the idea is launched?

4. How Now Wow  

The How Now Wow brainstorming technique is all about categorizing ideas based on how unique they are and how easy they are to implement. Once you’ve collected several ideas, either individually or from team members, talk through where they fall in the How Now Wow spectrum:

How ideas are ideas that are original but not executable. 

Now ideas are unoriginal ideas that are easily executable.

Wow ideas are never-been-pitched before ideas that are also easy to implement.

Obviously, you want as many “Wow” ideas as possible since these are executable but also because they might set you apart from competitors or dispel monotony in a company. To help organize your ideas, consider using a matrix of four squares with difficulty weighted on the Y-axis and innovation on the X-axis. 

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, homing in on an executable solution

5. Drivers analysis

Just as the name implies, driver analysis is a brainstorming technique that analyzes the drivers or “causes” of a problem. To use this brainstorming technique, simply keep asking yourself or your team of brainstormers: “What’s driving [insert problem]?” and then, “What’s driving [insert answer to the previous question]?” Similar to why analysis, the deeper you dig into a problem, the more well-vetted it will be and the more confident you will be in executing solutions for those problems. 

6. Mind mapping

Another visual brainstorming technique, mind mapping addresses the anchoring effect—a common brainstorming challenge where brainstormers fixate on the first ideas instead of coming up with new ones. Mind mapping does this by using the first idea to inspire other ideas. 

You’ll need a large piece of paper or whiteboard to do this. Begin by writing down a topic and then drawing lines connecting tangential ideas to it. This essentially helps you paint a picture of your topic at hand and what might impact its execution or even expedite it.

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, visual thinkers

7. Gap filling, a.k.a. gap analysis

When you’re struggling with how to execute an idea, that’s where gap filling comes in—to address the obstacles standing in your way. Begin by starting with a statement of where you are and then a statement of where you want to be. For example, “Our company creates smart watches; we want to expand our portfolio to also include fitness trackers.”

It’s worth writing these out on a large piece of paper or a whiteboard for all of your brainstormers to see, perhaps using a flowchart or mind map to do so. Then, list obstacles that are preventing you from getting where you want to be and work through solutions for each of them. By the end of your brainstorming session, you should have a clearer plan of how to get where you want to be. 

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, visual thinkers, honing in on an executable solution

Quiet async brainstorming techniques

Best for businesses that are crunched for time or teams with more introverted individuals, these quiet brainstorming techniques allow brainstormers to contribute ideas on their own time and often anonymously. Look to the following methods to get your creative juices flowing, especially for remote teams with frequent virtual meetings .   

8. Brainwriting, a.k.a. slip writing

A nonverbal and in-person brainstorming technique, brainwriting addresses the brainstorming challenge of unbalanced conversations head-on. That’s because it requires participation and teamwork from every brainstormer, beginning with each person writing down three ideas relating to a topic on three separate slips of paper. Then everyone passes their ideas to the right or left and their neighbor builds on those ideas, adding bullet points and considerations. 

The slips of paper continue to be passed around the table until they’ve made it all the way around. Then, the brainstorm facilitator can digest all of the ideas themselves, or the brainstormers can discuss each idea out loud and determine what’s worth pursuing. Pro tip: limit this brainstorming technique to no more than 10 people to not be overwhelmed with ideas or time constraints.

Best for: group brainstorms and introverted team members

9. Collaborative brainwriting

You can think of collaborative brainwriting like a herd of cows grazing in a field, except it’s brainstormers grazing on ideas throughout a week, anonymously jotting down thoughts or ideas. Oftentimes a brainstorming facilitator will kick off this technique by posting a large piece of paper, sticky notes, or sharing a cloud-based document to jot down a few brainstorming ideas.

From there, team members can build off of those ideas on their own time and anonymously provide feedback. Be sure to set a clear deadline of when the brainstorming session closes to ensure all brainstormers have an opportunity to chime in.

Best for: individual brainstorming 

10. Brain-netting, a.k.a. online brainstorming

Great for remote teams, brain-netting is essentially a place for a team to brain dump their own ideas, whether that’s a Slack channel, Google Doc, or your project management tool . 

The notion is that brainstormers can add ideas whenever inspiration strikes and that the list will be ever-evolving. Of course, the team leader might want to inform their team of brainstormers of any important dates or deadlines when they need solutions to a problem. They may also want to hold a meeting to discuss the ideas. All brainstormers’ identities can be left anonymous even in the meeting. 

Best for: group brainstorms, introverted team members, remote teams

11. SCAMPER  

The SCAMPER brainstorming technique encourages brainstormers to look at an idea from different angles and it uses its acronym to inspire each lens: 

Substitute : consider what would happen if you swapped one facet of a solution for another.

Combine : consider what would happen if you combined one facet of a solution with another.

Adapt : consider how you could adapt an idea or solution in a new context.

Modify : consider how you can modify an idea to make it higher impact.

Put to another use : consider how else you could leverage your idea.

Eliminate : consider what you could remove from the idea or solution so that it’s simplified.

Reverse effective : finally, consider how you could reorganize an idea to make it most effective . 

When used in a group brainstorming session, you might want to use templates to track responses or pair the SCAMPER method with a brainwriting session to encourage all brainstormers to evaluate ideas from every angle. 

12. Lightning Decision Jam

Known as LDJ for short, the Lightning Decision Jam brainstorming technique requires 40 minutes to one hour to complete. What will you have by the end? Tangible results and buy-in from an entire team of brainstormers. 

This brainstorming technique is great for remote team alignment . It all begins with writing down positives about a topic or what’s working regarding the topic, then writing down negatives and identifying what needs to be addressed most urgently. This is followed by a few minutes of reframing problems as questions, then brainstorming solutions for those problems. 

Finally, your team uses a matrix to determine how high impact and how high effort your solutions are to decide which ideas are worth pursuing. For a more robust explanation of LDJ, watch this video by design agency AJ&Smart, which created the brainstorming technique. 

Best for: group brainstorms, remote workforces, tight deadlines, honing in on an executable solution

13. The idea napkin

Similar to LDJ, the idea napkin is essentially a brainstorming template that distills a broad topic into tangible solutions. How it works: Every brainstormer has an “idea napkin” that they commit one idea to, beginning by writing down their idea, as well as an elevator pitch for it. 

The idea napkin also includes a column for who the idea is targeting—meaning who you’re solving a problem for (customers, teammates, etc.)—and a column noting what problems your idea addresses. Brainstormers can fill out their napkins ahead of or during a brainstorming session, each is expected to present or share them. The final ideas will be placed on an impact and effort matrix to determine which are worth pursuing. 

Best for: group brainstorms, honing in on an executable solution

Roleplaying brainstorm techniques

Drama lovers rejoice! These roleplay brainstorming techniques encourage brainstormers to figuratively walk in someone else’s shoes or put on their hat—or six hats, in one instance—to address a problem or dream up ideas from a new perspective. An added benefit of this? When brainstormers take on a personality that’s not their own, it lowers inhibitions since it’s technically not their point of view being brought to the table.

14. Six thinking hats

This brainstorming technique requires a minimum of six brainstormers to wear imaginary hats—hence the name— that require them to look solely at an idea from one specific angle. For instance, one brainstormer might be wearing an impact hat and only concern themselves with the impact of an idea and another might be wearing a constraints hat and only looking at the constraints of an idea. 

You can pick and choose which angles are most important to your organization. And by the end of the group discussion, the whole brainstorming group should be able to hang their hats feeling confident about the ideas you’ll pursue.

Best for: group brainstorms (six or more people), introverted team members, vetting ideas thoroughly

15. Figure storming

Ever heard the phrase, “What would Abe do?” That’s pretty much the premise of this brainstorming technique in that brainstormers take on the identity of a famous or prominent figure, whether that’s a leader or celebrity, and put themselves in their brain space and how they’d approach an idea. 

This helps teams look at a topic through a different lens and, in the case of group brainstorms, alleviates any nervousness that brainstormers will put out bad ideas. Because they’re not putting out their ideas—they’re sharing someone else’s. So go on and give yourself a new job title for the day.

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, extroverted team members

16. Role storming  

Role storming is similar to figure storming in that brainstormers take on different personalities to dream up ideas, but with one dramatic twist—brainstormers act out those ideas. 

Generally, brainstormers are asked to take on the role of an average person who will be affected by the idea or solution in question, whether that’s an employee, client, or another party, and they act out a scenario that could stem from the idea to help them decipher what problems might arise from it. Consider this brainstorming technique for more extroverted teams. 

Best for: group brainstorms, extroverted team members

17. Reverse brainstorming

Reverse brainstorming is grounded in a little bit of chaos. It encourages brainstormers to play the role of disruptors by brainstorming problems first and then solutions. To kick off the brainstorming questions, a team leader will usually ask, “How do we cause [insert problem]?”

Once your team has listed the causes, they’ll have a new and different perspective for coming up with solutions to problems. 

Best for: group brainstorms, idea generation, problem-solving

18. Reverse thinking

Reverse thinking is a bit of a mashup of the figure storming and six thinking hats brainstorming techniques. It encourages brainstormers to merely ask themselves, “What would someone else do in this situation?” Then, it prompts them to think through why that person’s solution would work or not and if your current solution is more effective. 

Best for: group brainstorms, extroverted team members, vetting ideas thoroughly

Group brainstorm techniques

Most brainstorming techniques can be applied to groups of brainstormers, but these specific brainstorming techniques promote (and some even require) participation from everyone. When facilitated well, group brainstorming techniques not only yield more ideas but they can also:

Boost team morale through lighthearted brainstorming games and by involving participation in every step of the brainstorming process

Promote creative thinking, especially when brainstormers are given time to prepare their ideas and  a structured approach to solve problems

Bring more diverse ideas together, thanks to the unique perspective each brainstormer has and their individual strengths

All this to say, group brainstorming techniques are all about putting people’s heads together. 

19. Eidetic image method

The eidetic image method is grounded in setting intentions, and it begins with group members all closing their eyes to do just that. For example, if a company is setting out to design a new smartwatch, the brainstorming facilitator would encourage all brainstormers to close their eyes and quietly meditate on what smartwatches currently look like. 

Then the group would discuss and close their eyes once more and quietly imagine new features to add to the device. They’d all open their eyes and discuss again, essentially layering on the possibilities for enhancing a product. This brainstorming technique is ideal for revamping or building on an existing product or solution. 

Best for: visual thinkers, creating an idea anew

20. Rapid ideation

Great for teams that get sidetracked or have difficulty staying focused in meetings, the rapid ideation brainstorming technique encourages brainstormers to race against a clock and come up with as many ideas as possible—and importantly, not take themselves too seriously. This can be done by having brainstormers shout out ideas to a facilitator or write them on a piece of paper. You might find that some of the same ideas keep popping up, which likely means those are worth pursuing. 

Best for: extroverted team members, tight deadlines

21. Round-robin brainstorming

Participation is required for the round-robin brainstorming technique. Everyone must contribute at least one idea before the entire group can give feedback or share a second idea.

Given the requirement that everyone must share an idea, it’s best to allow brainstormers time to prepare ideas before each round-robin brainstorming session. This brainstorming technique is great for introverted team members and also for larger groups to ensure everyone can contribute. Moreover, the round-robin brainstorming technique also promotes the notion that the only bad idea is no idea. 

Best for: introverted team members and developing a surplus of ideas

22. Step-ladder brainstorming

Ideal for medium-sized groups of five to 15 people, the step-ladder brainstorming technique prevents ideas from being influenced by the loudest brainstormers of a group. 

Here’s how it works: A brainstorming facilitator introduces a topic to their group of brainstormers and then dismisses all but two brainstormers from the room. The two brainstormers left in the room discuss their ideas for a few minutes and then one brainstormer is welcomed back into the room and shares their ideas before the original two brainstormers divulge their ideas. 

Brainstormers are added back into the room one by one, with each new brainstormer sharing their ideas before the rest of the group divulges theirs, and so forth. Once the entire brainstorming group is back in the room, it’s time to discuss the ideas they’ve built together, step by step. 

Best for: introverted team members, vetting ideas thoroughly, honing in on an executable solution

23. Charrette

You might want to book a few rooms for this one. The charette brainstorming technique helps break up a problem into smaller chunks and also breaks up your brainstormers into separate teams to address them. 

For instance, you might reserve three rooms, write a topic or problem on a whiteboard, and have three sets of brainstormers walk into those rooms to jot down their ideas. Then, the sets of brainstormers rotate rooms and build off of the ideas of the group that was there before them. Consider it effective teamwork at its best.

Best for: vetting ideas thoroughly, honing in on an executable solution

More brainstorming techniques

For more unconventional approaches to get your individual or your team’s wheels turning, consider adding some of these brainstorming techniques to your arsenal of ways to ideate. 

24. ‘What if’ brainstorming

A very off-the-cuff brainstorming technique, “what if” brainstorming is as simple as throwing out as many “what if” questions surrounding a topic as possible, similar to the rapid ideation brainstorming technique. For instance, “what if this problem occurred in a different country,” or, “what if this problem occurred in the 1800s?” 

Walking through the scenarios might help spur new obstacles pertaining to your problem. Essentially, the “what if” brainstorming technique helps your team evaluate all the possibilities.

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, creating an idea anew, vetting ideas thoroughly

25. Change of scenery  

It’s no secret that physical surroundings can impact your team workflow and even creativity. When your brainstorming session is in a rut, consider relocating to another location, perhaps a park, a walking meeting, or even a coffee shop.

Being in a new setting might spur new ideas and even loosen up your brainstormers so that they’re more open to sharing ideas and helping you achieve quantity over quality.  

Best for: individual and group brainstorms, creating an idea anew

26. Random word picker

As this name implies, this brainstorming technique is a little random. Begin by tossing words into a hat and then pull them out and discuss how they relate to your brainstorming topic at hand. You may want to use a template to keep track of your thoughts and any new ideas the word association sparks.

To further organize your thoughts, consider pairing this brainstorming technique with word banking, meaning categorizing random words together and then drawing associations between their category and the brainstorming topic. 

Best for: group brainstorms, creating an idea anew

27. Storyboarding

Turns out, storyboarding isn’t only for television and film. You can also apply this as a brainstorming technique, meaning illustrating or drawing a problem and possible solutions. Consider it another way to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, especially those your solution impacts. It’s also a means to visualize any roadblocks you might experience when executing a solution. 

Best for: individual or group brainstorms, problem-solving, vetting ideas thoroughly

28. Wishing

Wishing is as simple as it sounds: You just wish for the solution you want to build. Think: “I wish our company was carbon neutral,” and then think of the possible ways in which you could achieve this, as well as areas that might be impossible to address for this. This will help uncover obstacles you might face and maybe even shed light on what you’re capable of overcoming. 

Best for: individual or group brainstorms, creating an idea anew

29. Crazy eights

A short and fun brainstorming technique, crazy eights delivers on quantity by encouraging brainstormers to think quickly using a template that has eight boxes and only eight minutes on the clock to sketch out eight ideas. Once the timer stops, the group discusses their ideas. 

For a larger group, consider having each brainstormer narrow in on only three ideas and give them a longer time limit of six minutes to sketch them out in more detail.

Best for: group brainstorms, visual thinkers, developing a surplus of ideas

8 tips for a productive brainstorming session

No matter which brainstorming technique is right for you and your team, consider the following best practices to brainstorm most effectively . Of course, it all begins with the brainstorming facilitator and how they set the tone for the session.

1. Allow time to prep 

A brainstorming facilitator isn’t the only one in a brainstorming session who needs time to prepare for a meeting . They also should give brainstormers some context ahead of the session, such as in the form of a meeting agenda , to get in the correct mindset for the brainstorming session. 

At least one day is standard but as little as two to 10 minutes is useful. Moreover, brainstorming facilitators should also have a few ideas in their back pocket for any creative ruts that might creep in.

2. Set a clear intention

The more context you can provide brainstormers from the get-go, the more fruitful ideas they can produce. For instance, clearly spell out what types of ideas you’re looking for. Whether it’s quickly executable ones or ones that are entirely pathbreaking, identify specific targets to address. 

Additionally, be sure to let brainstormers know of any constraints you or your organization is operating under, including project timelines or budgets, so they’re generating executable ideas.

3. Invite new teammates and ideas

When the same people brainstorm together over and over, they can tend to produce the same ideas over and over. For this reason, consider introducing new people to your brainstorming session to shake up the usual and lend a fresh perspective—and hopefully fresh ideas—to your brainstorming topics. Invitees can be colleagues from different departments, customers or clients for a focus group, or an outside consultant.

4. Promote inclusivity

Every brainstorming session should be considered a safe space to share ideas—even unconventional ones. Remember, the only bad ideas are no ideas, and any idea shared shouldn’t be shot down or judged. In addition, the brainstorm facilitator should ensure every brainstormer is treated equally and given the same amount of time to talk. This might mean setting a timer for each brainstormer to talk and acknowledging those who are dominating conversations. Likewise, every brainstormer should be open and curious to ideas.

5. Think out of the box

Creative thinking begins with not taking ourselves too seriously. Just as you encourage inclusivity, encourage imperfections and out-of-the-box thinking, too. This could include anything from fun team building games to unique icebreaker questions. Hey, even a bevy of silly ideas to build off of is better than no ideas at all. Brainstorming techniques like wishing can encourage team members to open up.

6. Amplify creativity with music

Similar to how a change of scenery can inspire new ideas, even a little background music can promote creativity. Consider putting some on for your brainstorming session, and for the best results ensure it’s:

Instrumental

In a major key

On a fixed tempo and volume

7. Mix and match brainstorming techniques

Just as brainstorming techniques aren’t necessarily one-size-fits-all, they also aren’t all one-type-fits-every-session. Be prepared to pivot your brainstorming technique depending on what your group of brainstormers is most receptive to and also how many ideas you're juggling. 

8. Execute your ideas 

Coming up with bright ideas is great. But they’re pretty useless unless you effectively execute them. While some brainstorming techniques build the execution process into them, others might require you to follow up with brainstormers using project templates to map out a plan using creative solutions. 

Brainstorming is about quantity over quality

When done right, a brainstorming session shouldn’t feel like a chore but rather an opportunity to create something together, especially when your brainstorming technique supports different styles of thinking and expression. 

And whether you're operating as an individual or on a team, there’s something uniquely satisfying about seeing your ideas come to fruition. Get the creative ideas flowing, then customize your workflow management tool to turn those ideas into action. 

Related resources

How to give and take constructive criticism

4 ways to establish roles and responsibilities for team success

Listening to understand: How to practice active listening (with examples)

Unmasking impostor syndrome: 15 ways to overcome it at work

43 brainstorming techniques and games for creating new ideas

Finding new and innovative ideas is a vital part of the growth and success of any team or organization . While brainstorming techniques are rightly perceived as creative and exciting , it’s important to find a framework and idea-generation process that empowers your group to generate meaningful results. 

Innovation is important for many businesses, but what brainstorming activities might you use to help make true innovation a reality? Find out in this collection of effective brainstorming techniques!

Design your next session with SessionLab

Join the 150,000+ facilitators 
using SessionLab.

Recommended Articles

A step-by-step guide to planning a workshop, 54 great online tools for workshops and meetings, how to create an unforgettable training session in 8 simple steps.

• 18 Free Facilitation Resources We Think You’ll Love

In this post, we’ll explore a host of effective brainstorming techniques in categories such as creative exercises and visual idea generation games, all of which can be used to help your group brainstorm be more effective and gratifying for all involved.

We’ll also explore talk about the benefits of group ideation and share some examples of brainstorming sessions that utilize these methods. Let’s get started! 

What are brainstorming techniques?

Brainstorming is a process of enabling people to think freely and creatively when trying to come up with ideas, solutions, or sharing knowledge.

Brainstorming techniques are proven activities and frameworks for coming up with lots of ideas quickly. They’ll often include steps to shift perspective, facilitate team collaboration and refine initial ideas into something even better.

Some examples of brainstorming activities include classic mind mapping and brain writing where you quickly try to generate as many ideas as possible.

Teams often use these techniques to generate creative ideas to tough problems and to explore possible solutions . They can also be used as part of more in-depth brainstorming workshops where team members then refine and choose ideas to put into action.

Some of the core concepts of brainstorming include: reserving judgment, go for quality over quantity, listen to all ideas, and think outside of the box in the pursuit of radical new ideas and creative solutions. Bring these concepts and a proven technique to your session and you’re already on the route to success!

If you’re finding your team with a problem they don’t know how to solve, a technique that encourages creative thinking might be just the ticket! Use these activities as part of a complete workshop process to refine those ideas into something actionable.

In SessionLab, it’s quick an easy to create an effective agenda for a brainstorming workshop in minutes. Drag and drop blocks in the session planner to create your structure. Add timing for each item to ensure you stay on time. Color-code your blocks to get an instant sense of your learning flow.

Core group brainstorming techniques

Brainstorming has been around as long as individuals and teams have tried to find creative and innovative solutions, or come up with new ideas or products. Whether a group is ideating on how to solve an organizational problem or generate ideas for new features or initiatives, getting people together to quickly ideate and come up with something new is time well spent.

In this section, we’ll first explore some of the core techniques that have been used time and again to create meaningful results and great ideas.

Popcorn Brainstorming

One of the classic brainstorming techniques, chances are you’ve done a popcorn brainstorm already. It’s been used by everyone from school teachers to CEOs to generate ideas and create energy around new initiatives – much like the popping of corn in a microwave!

Start by posing a question or problem statement and invite participants to take a minutes silence to think on it. Once the minute is up, start a timer and invite everyone to contribute ideas out-loud and build on each other’s ideas too. Have a single person take notes and encourage quality over quantity: no evaluation, no criticism or discussion yet – just rapid ideation!

Brainstorming – Popcorn and Round Robin   #idea generation   #brainstorming   Simple, classic brainstorming with two variants. Popcorn – where participants speak out-loud and Round Robin – where participants work in silence and pass their ideas to the next person in turn. 

Round-Robin Brainstorming

A tried and tested idea generation technique, Round-Robin Brainstorming provides a little more structure and ensures everyone in a group can contribute to a brainstorm by ensuring the discussion isn’t dominated by the loudest voices. 

In this group method, seat everyone in a circle and hand them an index card. In silence, everyone writes an idea on their index card before passing it to the person to their left. Each participant then writes an idea based on their neighbour’s card and passes that along.

The result is a more relaxed session that encourages a combination of idea development and co-creation while ensuring everyone is heard. Perfect for teams with big personalities!

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is a tried and tested technique that teams often using when planning new initiatives or solving problems. It also happens to be a great tool for generating new ideas while also taking into account potential problems and opportunities.

The act of brainstorming around your weaknesses or threats can result in innovative solutions and ideas you might not have otherwise come up with. Try using each point of the process as a jumping off point for ideation or explore a topic from each of the different angles for best results.

SWOT Analysis   #project planning   #strategic planning   #environmental analysis   #planning   #issue analysis   #online   #remote-friendly   A SWOT Analysis is used in project planning, strategic planning and other processes where agreement is needed about the current situation of a project, team, department or organization. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Brainwriting

No single person is as smart or as creative as a group. With the brain writing technique, tap into the ideas and approaches of multiple collaborators and co-create effectively.

Start by writing down the topic or area for which you’ll be generating ideas. Have all team members silently write down an idea related to the topic on a card and then, pass that idea to the person to their right. The receiving player reads the card and then adds an idea inspired by the original OR enhances the original idea before passing the card along.

By asking participants to grow and improve on one another’s ideas, Brain writing helps a group ideate effectively and come up with better ideas. You can even bring this to an online brainstorming session by using an online whiteboard and have participants pass post-its to the working spaces of their partners.

Brainwriting   #gamestorming   #idea generation   Some of the best ideas are compilations from multiple contributors. Brainwriting is a simple way to generate ideas, share them, and subsequently build on them within a group. Access to multiple hands, eyes, and minds can yield the most interesting results.

Question storming

Sometimes, shifting perspective and starting from a different angle can generate the best ideas. Q-Storming, or question storming invites participants to brainstorm questions, rather than solutions.

After rounds of gathering qualifying data and assumptions, ask your group to think of all those questions that they still have which might help the team think the matter through. This approach can be really useful at finding ideas your team might not have considered and ensuring that what you come up with is truly going to solve the problem at hand.

Walking Brainstorm

Brainstorming methods come in many forms – you might have a quick-fire session that encourages excitement and verbal exchanges. Alternatively, you might find your group will create better ideas by working together in a more relaxed, introvert-friendly manner.

Walking Brainstorm is designed to help large groups work on idea generation dynamically but without creating scenarios where only the loudest participants are heard. 

Create a space where different topics or questions are spread on posters/post-its around a room or virtual space. Silently and individually, each participant is encouraged to walk around and visit each question/topic in turn and add ideas to each. By moving around and working individually, this method helps create a more reflective, dynamic ideation session and can also help ensure group-think doesn’t set in! 

Walking Brainstorm   #brainstorming   #idea generation   #remote-friendly   This introvert-friendly brainstorming technique helps groups of any size to generate and build on each other’s ideas in a silent but dynamic setting. As the participants keep moving, the exercise is ideal to kick-off a full day workshop or re-energize the group after lunch.

For those who prefer a more organized approach to idea generation, mind mapping is a great activity for creating ideas quickly and effectively. 

Begin by writing the key topic in the center of a piece of paper or in an online whiteboard. Invite participants to brainstorm related topics and ideas by adding branches to the central idea and create new nodes or elements. As a facilitator, you’ll want to group ideas by color and also amend the thickness of the branches to show the strength of various ideas and concepts. 

When you’re done mind mapping, the result will be a diagram that visually represents your ideas and makes it clear how the various parts interrelate – a great resource for idea development or for future sessions!

Mind map   #idea generation   #concepts   #create   #issue analysis   #design   A mind map is a diagram used to represent a number of ideas or things. Mind maps are methods for analyzing information and relationships.

Brain Netting

The concept of brain netting is to not only take your brainstorming online, but to use online tools and virtual spaces to make the session a truly engaging experience. 

The key is to use an online tool that the group is familiar with, can co-create in easily and which works both synchronously or asynchronously. Using an online whiteboard or shared document for brain netting means participants can contribute in both a live online workshop as well as in their own time. This is a unique benefit of online brainstorming, and it’s one we’d recommend taking advantage of with your team!

We’d especially recommend using an online tool that supports easy commenting, images, videos and links – encourage your group to use whatever assets best communicate their ideas!

Six Thinking Hats

Exploring a problem or idea from multiple perspectives is a great way to generate new ideas and inform your brainstorming process. In this brainstorming activity, start by explaining the six different hats and that at various points, each person will wear the different hats to explore your chosen topic. For example, the green hat is for creative thinking while the white hat is all about information and facts.

Invite the group to start with the blue hat, which is to control the process and then move between hats to explore, define, ideate, identify risk and gather information around a topic in a sequence. By asking the group to all wear the same hat at the same time, you can ensure your brainstorm moves forward while also ensure all perspectives are explored.

The Six Thinking Hats   #creative thinking   #meeting facilitation   #problem solving   #issue resolution   #idea generation   #conflict resolution   The Six Thinking Hats are used by individuals and groups to separate out conflicting styles of thinking. They enable and encourage a group of people to think constructively together in exploring and implementing change, rather than using argument to fight over who is right and who is wrong.

Rapid writing

Different teams and workshops need different approaches to generating fresh ideas. While a carefully structured approach can be effective, using quick-fire brainstorming techniques like Rapid Writing can help create a sense of energy, urgency, and get heaps of ideas out quickly.

For this method of brainstorming, start by setting a timer and encouraging your participants to get as many ideas out as possible within that time limit. Remember that at this stage in the idea generation process, there is no such thing as a bad idea and by quickly ideating without being critical, your group can be creative without prematurely shutting down possible ideas. Be sure to collect all the ideas and share them without judgment at the end, whether you’re brainstorming online or in person!

Lotus Blossom

Some of the most effective techniques are those that encourage free-thinking and rapid ideation while also having some rules that can keep things structured. Lotus Blossom combines these concepts while also creating a great visual representation of your brainstorming activity. 

Lotus Blossom helps facilitate idea generation by working out from a central concept and adding eight additional themes or ideas inspired by the first on sticky notes. Once you have those eight ideas, you then invite participants to take each of those and add another eight and effectively blossom them around the original. By clustering ideas in this way, this ideation method also creates a visual resource you can come back to later and follow the brainstorming process from start to finish.

Lotus blossom   #concepts   #create   #design   #idea generation   The lotus blossom method is a creativity exercise. It is a framework for idea generation, starting from one central theme. Eight conceptual themes grow out from the main theme and each of them are used as central theme to generate 8 more themes. Explore!

Starbursting

Complete freedom without an ideation framework isn’t always the best way to find and develop ideas. Structured techniques like Starbursting can help guide a team through more effective idea generation and ensure all key elements are considered at an early stage.

To begin, create a six-pointed star on a large piece of paper or online whiteboard. At the tip of each point of the star, write down the words Who, What, Why, Where, When and How. Invite the group to brainstorm ideas and questions related to each of these points in turn.

At this stage, the group only needs to brainstorm questions in each of these sections, leaving answers until later, though creating follow-up questions can also be helpful in effectively ideating on your central concept or problem.

When ideating on solutions to problems, it’s very easy to come to the table with underlying assumptions that can affect the course of the idea generation process. You can avoid this potential pitfall by using The 5 Whys to go further and deeper in a very simple, group-friendly manner.

Kick-off by working as a group to create a problem statement that you’ll work on solving. Once you have a concise statement, ask the group why you have this problem and discuss the answer. After working together to form a cohesive answer, ask the group why you have the problem again. By repeating the process, you and your team can dig deeper and find the root cause of the issue and move past the first, most obvious ideas.

The 5 Whys   #hyperisland   #innovation   This simple and powerful method is useful for getting to the core of a problem or challenge. As the title suggests, the group defines a problems, then asks the question “why” five times, often using the resulting explanation as a starting point for creative problem solving.

Creative brainstorming techniques 

All brainstorming is creative. Generating ideas and finding solutions often asks groups and teams to find new ways of looking at things but in this next section, we’ll look at techniques that aim to approach the ideation process from a unique or especially creative starting point.

If you’re finding your typical exercises aren’t yielding results or want to try something new, creative games like those below can create space for innovation. Let’s dig in!

Imagie-ination

Words are often our primary tool when it comes to starting a brainstorm or kicking off an idea generation workshop. While these kinds of techniques are tried and tested, it can also be useful to try something different that can unlock your team’s creativity. 

With Imagie-ination, you’ll use images to help your group generate ideas that go beyond the norm. First, collect an assortment of images for your brainstorm and write down a simple description of the topic you want to generate new ideas around. Have each participant select an image and then come up with as many ideas as they can for how the image relates to the topic. 

After the first round, you’ll then cluster ideas together and find an image and title to best illustrate those clusters. This kind of clustering and titling can help refine the ideas your team has generated and move them towards action – a great outcome for any brainstorming session!

Imagie-ination   #idea generation   #gamestorming   Images have the ability to spark insights and to create new associations and possible connections. That is why pictures help generate new ideas, which is exactly the point of this exercise.

Bad idea brainstorming

Idea generation is at its best when groups are encouraged to add their ideas without being self critical or overthinking. Often, individuals involved in ideation can put pressure on themselves to offer only great ideas and so don’t contribute everything that comes to their minds.

Use this brainstorming technique to help free your group’s creativity and encourage them to come up with the absolute worst ideas they can in relation to a central topic or problem. Like reverse brainstorming, this brainstorming technique is a great way to find alternative routes to more creative ideas. Just be sure to use a swot analysis to figure out what should make it into reality!

Bad Idea Brainstorm   #brainstorming   #creative thinking   #idea generation   Name all the bad ideas to make room for good ones. Coming up with the perfect solution right off the bat can feel paralyzing. So instead of trying to find the right answer, get unstuck by listing all the wrong ones.

Brainstorm questions instead of solutions

Our first instinct when it comes to problem-solving can often be to jump straight to giving answers and finding solutions. Though this can be effective, when it comes to generating creative ideas, a different tact can be more effective. 

With this reverse brainstorming game, challenge participants to offer questions instead of solutions so they can respond to a central concept creatively and from a new angle. If you’re finding your group can become blocked when generating ideas, it might be that your existing questions or frameworks aren’t sufficient. By taking a new ideation approach, you can unblock your team!

Brainstorm questions instead of solutions   #questions and answers   #brainstorming   When we are given a problem our reflex is to find answers. But it can be difficult to leave the comfort zone and to come up with creative answers. This exercise will encourage to think out of the box.

Stakeholder Round Robin Brainstorm

Bringing together groups of different stakeholders with their own areas of expertise is a great idea whether you’re brainstorming or finding solutions. That said, it’s worth noting that in these kinds of mixed groups, participants will be coming from different places and have different priorities and approaches to idea generation. 

Start by creating a flipchart or whiteboard space for each stakeholder’s perspective and writing this at the top. Give each stakeholder two minutes to brainstorm on the central idea from their perspective and add those to their flipchart before then inviting each participant to move to the next one and brainstorm from this different perspective. By using this round-robin brainstorming exercise, you can help the group understand the perspectives and insights each member brings to the table while also generating fresh ideas as a result!  

Backcasting

A simple change in perspective can have a massive impact on how your team approaches solving a problem. Backcasting is a simple but effective brainstorming exercise where a team is invited to work backwards from an ideal future state in order to come up with concrete actions they can take today.

Start by listing your long term goals in a time frame of 1-20 years. Then work backwards from that state to today, listing every action necessary to achieve that goal state. Collect insights on what difficulties might come up, what steps your team needs to take and what resources you might need in order to brainstorm effectively and find a new way to reach your team’s long term goals!

Backcasting   #define intentions   #create   #design   #action   Backcasting is a method for planning the actions necessary to reach desired future goals. This method is often applied in a workshop format with stakeholders participating. To be used when a future goal (even if it is vague) has been identified.

Walking Questions

A brainstorming technique with a What if learning style, Walking Questions is a great way of encouraging group members to share knowledge, ask questions to personal problems, and explore a topic dynamically. 

Best used at the end of a training session or workshop, each participant writes a question they have on the top of a sheet of paper then hands it to the person to their right. The person receiving the paper then writes any ideas or answers they have underneath and passes it to the next person.

By the end, the original piece of paper will be returned to the owner filled with ideas and answers from the entire group. It’s a great way of generating ideas from a group quickly and efficiently and of utilizing everyone’s expertise in a structured way. Give it a go! 

Walking questions   #what if learning style   #idea generation   #learning   This is a great facilitation technique to answer open questions of trainees with a “What if” learning style. It prevents the facilitator from answering all questions herself. With this method trainees can:  close knowledge gaps find solutions for personal problems imagine themselves using their new knowledge in future and prepare themselves for obstacles

Guided Imagery

Coming up with new ideas doesn’t always have to be boisterous! You can also get the creative juices flowing in a relaxed way by tapping into mindfulness and imagination with this method.

Start by inviting participants to close their eyes and get comfortable. Next, progress through a guided meditation designed to inspire creativity. Afterward, ask your group to reflect on what came up for them in the meditation and use this as the basis for further brainstorming!

Guided Imagery   #idea generation   #creativity   #online facilitation   #reflection   This can be used for idea generation especially when the group is stuck.

Headlines from the future

Starting from the desired outcome and working backward with a reverse brainstorming technique can be a great way to solve a problem. Thinking into the future can also be inspiring in a way that encourages free thinking and big ideas – a great result for any brainstorming workshop.

In this idea generation game, ask your group to imagine it’s twenty years in the future and that your project or organisation has been a huge success. Invite each participant to draft a headline and sketch an image for a New York Times feature of this reality. Encourage big, bold ideas and debrief by discussing any common themes or ideas before moving onto idea development as a team! 

Headlines from the Future   #creative thinking   #design   #idea generation   #creativity   Get inspired today by a world 20 years away. Sometimes it helps to start from the end. This exercise will help you align with your team on an audacious vision for your project – one that you can work backward from.

Brainstorming techniques for problem solving and refining ideas

When you want to go beyond initial brainstorming and generate more refined ideas, the following complex idea generation techniques can effectively guide you through the process.

These activities combine brainstorming with idea evaluation, idea selection, and then going into concept development to help you come up with the best options. Let’s dig in! 

25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Group ideation can be tricky to manage, and not all techniques are up to the task of managing creative input from large groups effectively. 25/10 Crowd Sourcing is a fantastic exercise that not only invites big, bold ideas, but can ensure everyone takes part in generating ideas as a group.

After first inviting participants to write a big, bold idea on an index card, start a timer and invite the group to move around the space and exchange cards without reading. Stop the timer and ask each person to read the idea and give it a score from 1 to 5. Repeat five times so that each idea has a score out of twenty-five and then find and share the top ten ideas with the group.

Group brainstorming techniques with a mix of blind scoring and sharing can be especially useful in avoiding bias and encouraging bold ideas – especially useful when ideating in large groups!

25/10 Crowd Sourcing   #idea generation   #liberating structures     You can help a large crowd generate and sort their bold ideas for action in 30 minutes or less! With 25/10 Crowd Sourcing , you can spread innovations “out and up” as everyone notices the patterns in what emerges. Though it is fun, fast, and casual, it is a serious and valid way to generate an uncensored set of bold ideas and then to tap the wisdom of the whole group to identify the top ten. Surprises are frequent!

3-12-3 Brainstorm

Brainstorming is often associated with fast ideation and energetic idea generation sessions. While many standard techniques can be slowed down and run in different ways, there can be obvious benefits to maintaining energy and proving the value of short working bursts to your ideation group. 

The 3-12-3 Brainstorm technique taps into the power of speed to generate great ideas and can help a team generate, develop, and present ideas in just less than twenty minutes. By combining speed and structure, this ideation method can help a group pressed for time use the session effectively, and we love how much ground can be covered by a group with this exercise!

3-12-3 Brainstorm   #gamestorming   #idea generation   This format for brainstorming compresses the essentials of an ideation session into one short format. The numbers 3-12-3 refer to the amount of time in minutes given to each of three activities: 3 minutes for generating a pool of observations, 12 for combining those observations into rough concepts, and 3 again for presenting the concepts back to a group.

Mash-Up Innovation

Some of the best ideas come from taking existing ideas and putting them together. Brainstorming that takes advantage of what your group already knows and loves can really supercharge the idea generation process and this creative exercise is a perfect example of that.

In Mash-Up innovation, first ask your group to brainstorm around three different topics or areas and add them to a shared space or whiteboard. Next, organize your participants into small groups who will spend the next twelve minutes combining and mashing up as many of the elements as possible to make even better ideas. After a short idea presentation, you can even take your group through an idea development stage to really make the most out of this activity. You’ll be surprised at what comes out!

Mash-Up Innovation   #hyperisland   #innovation   #idea generation   Mash-ups is a collaborative idea generation method in which participants come up with innovative concepts by combining different elements together. In a first step, participants brainstorm around different areas, such as technologies, human needs, and existing services. In a second step, they rapidly combine elements from those areas to create new, fun and innovative concepts. Mash-ups demonstrates how fast and easy it can be to come up with innovative ideas.

Large group brainstorming can be dynamic, exciting, and productive but without structure and strong facilitation, it can also become disorganized and frustrating. 1-2-4-All is a classic idea generation process that not only helps ideas find space to allow idea development but also ensures the entire group can contribute to the session. 

Start by inviting silent self-reflection on a shared challenge or question before then moving to pairs, foursomes, and then entire group ideation. One of the many benefits of this brainstorming technique is that everyone gets a chance to contribute freely and share their ideas in a structured way. In groups where conversation can become dominated by strong personalities or not everyone gets a chance to speak, this method is well worth employing. 

1-2-4-All   #idea generation   #liberating structures   #issue analysis   With this facilitation technique you can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance. Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified. No buy-in strategies needed! Simple and elegant!

One will get you Ten

Ideas most often spring from other ideas, and the sharing and co-creation of ideas during a brainstorm or idea generation workshop is where the magic really happens. This technique uses the sharing of ideas between teams as a central concept and it’s a great way of having participants communicate and learn from one another’s ideas meaningfully. 

After first generating ideas solo and as a team, this ideation game asks team members to pair up with members of another team and share ideas. Each member then returns to their own team and presents two ideas – one of their own, and one from the other team – while the rest of the team guesses whose is whose. It’s interesting to see how participants package and present generated ideas and find ways to improve them organically as part of a rapid ideation.  

One will get you Ten   #thiagi   #idea generation   #team   If I give you a dollar and you give me a dollar, we both end up where we began. But if I give you an idea and you give me an idea, we end up with two ideas each, benefiting from a 100 percent return on our investment. In One Will Get You Ten, we leverage this principle so that you and all other participants receive a 1000 percent return on your investment on ideas.

The Creativity Dice

When approaching the idea generation process it can be tempting for a team to go with what’s worked in the past and get locked into what appears to be working. Games that challenge the status quo and challenge teams in ways they don’t expect can be especially effective when generating ideas. 

The Creative Dice is a brainstorming technique that encourages participants to work in three minute bursts and work on either specification, investigation, ideation, incubation, Iteration or integration based on a roll of the dice. By moving between different modes, this method prevents premature closure of one line of ideation and keeps the session energized and engaging. What’s more, the non-linear thinking can help with idea development too!

The Creativity Dice   #creativity   #problem solving   #thiagi   #issue analysis   Too much linear thinking is hazardous to creative problem solving. To be creative, you should approach the problem (or the opportunity) from different points of view. You should leave a thought hanging in mid-air and move to another. This skipping around prevents premature closure and lets your brain incubate one line of thought while you consciously pursue another.

Affinity Map

Using brainstorming techniques to get a large number of ideas together quickly and efficiently is a great first step to developing new solutions or solving problems. But what to do once you’ve generated lots of ideas and want to work on idea development? Affinity Map is a great method for organizing your group’s brainstormed ideas and for both seeing and challenging existing patterns.

Starting with a simple brainstorm, Affinity Map asks that the group collectively organizes the ideas into columns or groups based on relationships. By doing this idea clustering as a group, your team can take ownership of the idea generation process and discover patterns of thinking together! It’s a great way of identifying and improving a group’s natural inclinations while also creating meaningful ideas.

Affinity Map   #idea generation   #gamestorming   Most of us are familiar with brainstorming—a method by which a group generates as many ideas around a topic as possible in a limited amount of time. Brainstorming works to get a high quantity of information on the table. But it begs the follow-up question of how to gather meaning from all the data. Using a simple Affinity Diagram technique can help us discover embedded patterns (and sometimes break old patterns) of thinking by sorting and clustering language-based information into relationships. It can also give us a sense of where most people’s thinking is focused

Fun brainstorming games

Brainstorming is often a fast-paced and engaging process that results in a group having fun. Creative brainstorming games that help participants have fun while generating ideas are also effective ways of loosening folks up and getting into new ways of thinking. If you’re finding your group stuck

In this section, we’ll look at brainstorming games that intentionally take a fun angle as a means to create better ideas.

Energy, fun, and creativity go hand-in-hand, and brainstorming techniques that encourage these items and generate ideas quickly and effectively – especially with large groups!

In MindSpin, teams of 3-5 participants are challenged to write as many ideas as they can in two five-minute rounds. Whenever a person writes an idea, they slam it down on the table. If they cannot think of one, they can take an idea from the person on their left and hopefully be inspired to write an additional card they also slam on the table. Remember that this brainstorming game is designed to be fast and loud while getting creative juices flowing. Encourage all participants to really slam their ideas down and keep things moving!

MindSpin   #teampedia   #idea generation   #problem solving   #action   A fast and loud method to enhance brainstorming within a team. Since this activity has more than round ideas that are repetitive can be ruled out leaving more creative and innovative answers to the challenge.

Figure storming

One potential difficulty when generating ideas is that not everyone feels comfortable sharing or holds back their ideas for fear of judgment. Creative brainstorming is all about removing restrictions or hesitation, and enabling your group to ideate freely – figure storming is a great method for achieving this!

Start by asking the group how a famous person, fictional character or well-known creative would approach the problem or topic at hand. You might ask how Albert Einstein, Elizabeth Bennett or Barack Obama might think about the ideas or concepts at hand. By inhabiting a different person’s perspective, not only can teams and individuals access new ideas, but they can also do so free of judgment. Also, it can be great fun to invite Atilla the Hun or Cleopatra to your creative exercises!

Flip and Rip

Images can often unlock our creativity but when using them to generate ideas, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start. This visual brainstorming technique places some rules on how a group will both source and use images, and can encourage some really creative ideas!

Start by giving participants two magazines or image sets each. Then, invite each person to tear our whatever images stand out to them or grab their attention. Next, give them a problem statement and encourage them to find the connections between the problem and their chosen images. These unexpected connections between visuals can then be used as the foundation for further ideas! Plus, who doesn’t love the sound and feeling of tearing paper!

Flip and Rip   #idea generation   #problem solving   #creativity   #online   Creativity through pictures and images

Forced Connections

An important part of the ideation process is giving your team permission to be silly and bring ideas to the table without fear of judgement or inhibitions. Empowering your team to be creative without limiting themselves can massively affect the effectiveness of your brainstorming and so it’s worth spending time to unblock your participants early.

Assemble a collection of random objects or images and invite participants to choose two or more items and brainstorm how they might be used together or connected in some way. Encourage out-of-the-box thinking and unusual ideas by bringing a collection of odd items to the table and you’ll be surprised at all the ideas your team can generate!

The Thing from the Future

Science fiction and speculative thinking about the future has long been a great source of ideas. In this brainstorming exercise, invite groups to co-design their ideal future by creating tangible objects with their imaginations.

Begin by sourcing a heap of prototyping materials and craft supplies. Invite participants to imagine an ideal future state and create an object that has time travelled back to the present. After spending some time creating strange and wonderful objects, participants then present them to the group and tell stories about the objects to inform future strategies and ideas.

If you’re looking for a fun, practical exercise to bring to your brainstorming session and encourage creative thinking, this activity is a great choice!

The Thing from the Future   #imagination   #storymaking   #idea generation   #issue analysis   Help a group to time-travel and tap their imagination by fictional objects. With tangible objects and the stories your participants make up w/ them you’ll get so much richer inputs and context to inform joint visioning / strategizing: The future doesn’t look that far away when you can pick it off the shelf.

Making Lemonade

Sometimes, the best ideas come from moments of adversity or struggle. This brainstorming exercises leverages the power of positive thinking and attempting to make the best of a bad situation to generate creative ideas.

Start by sharing a couple of negative scenarios that might radically change something in the world. For example, everyone in the world has a cold, it rains constantly or we lost all our customers over night.

Next, ask your group to take something that appears negative and aim to reframe it to be as positive as possible while coming up with ideas of how that change might actually have a positive impact. Rain every day? That might be the end of drought and a boom to umbrella sales!

Making Lemonade   #creative thinking   #creativity   #design   #idea generation   Try on a relentlessly positive, can-do attitude before tackling the big stuff. The proverb goes “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Practice the art of positive thinking to unlock creative ideas. Use this as a warm-up before brainstorming or to energize your team meetings.

Visual brainstorming techniques

Visual brainstorming is a great way of helping your teams out of creative roadblocks and encouraging fresh ideas. When words fail, images can enliven, invigorate and inspire your process. In this section, we’ll look at some great brainstorming techniques that focus on drawing or creating visual responses when ideating. Let’s take a look! 

Brainstorming shouldn’t stop when you have your first good idea. Fast iteration and refinement can help your group discover better ideas and develop ideas in record time. With 6-8-5, you can encourage your team to move from brainstorming to idea development in just a few minutes, and by asking participants to draw, you can keep things flowing easily!

Start by inviting your group to sketch 6-8 ideas in response to a central question or topic in five minutes. Encourage your team to be rough and not to worry about finesse at this stage – remember that the first stage of brainstorming works best when it’s free and unrestricted!

After a quick round of presenting ideas, go through the sketching process again and encourage idea development or ideas that have come out of group sharing. The result will be a heap of ideas and sketches you can move forward with too! 

6-8-5   #gamestorming   #idea generation   Part of the reason we end up with under-developed ideas is that we stick with the first good idea we have — rather than taking the time to explore complementary approaches. 6-8-5 is designed to combat this pattern by forcing us to generate lots of ideas in a short period of time. The activity can then be repeated to hone & flesh out a few of the best ideas.

Four Step Sketch

Visual brainstorming techniques can be great right at the start of the process but they can be equally effective later on when it comes to idea development. In this exercise pulled from the design sprint playbook, take your group through a structured ideation process that encourages reflection, quick sketching and a completed idea too.

Begin by reviewing any existing materials or outputs from earlier exercises before then having your group do a round of Crazy 8’s, where they create eight sketched variations on their idea. At this stage, you then invite participants to finesse their idea and create a final polished sketch to share with the team. By mixing reflection, ideation and development, this brainstorming technique offers a structured path towards better ideas!

Four-Step Sketch   #design sprint   #innovation   #idea generation   #remote-friendly   The four-step sketch is an exercise that helps people to create well-formed concepts through a structured process that includes: Review key information Start design work on paper,  Consider multiple variations , Create a detailed solution . This exercise is preceded by a set of other activities allowing the group to clarify the challenge they want to solve. See how the Four Step Sketch exercise fits into a Design Sprint

Drawing Together

Visual thinking is a powerful tool for any creative process or brainstorming workshop. This brainstorming game asks teams to tell stories about a personal or group challenge personal by expressing themselves with just five simple symbols drawn on paper. After a first draft, participants are then invited to refine their stories with colour, size and placement before the group interprets them.

By expressing themselves in a novel way, participants can exercise their creative muscles and consider new ways to express ideas nonverbally.

Drawing Together   #skills   #liberating structures   #visual methods   You can help people access hidden knowledge such as feelings, attitudes, and patterns that are difficult to express with words. When people are tired, their brains are full, and they have reached the limits of logical thinking, you can help them evoke ideas that lie outside logical, step-by-step understanding of what is possible. Stories about individual or group transformations can be told with five easy-to-draw symbols that have universal meanings. The playful spirit of drawing together signals that more is possible and many new answers are expected. Drawing Together cuts through the culture of overreliance on what people say and write that constrains the emergence of novelty. It also provides a new avenue of expression for some people whose ideas would otherwise not surface.

Brainstorming games for warming up

Generating ideas and thinking creatively isn’t always easy. Finding ways to energize and prepare your group for brainstorming with simple and fun warm-ups can help ensure the success of the workshop or session and introduce key idea generation concepts too.

While these creative games don’t necessarily create ideas in themselves, they are a great way to get teams ready for the next step. Let’s take a look!

When it comes to warming people up for an idea generation workshop, simple is best. With Draw Toast, you can introduce your group to visual thinking, working memory and systems thinking, all through the prism of a simple warm-up that works well online or offline!

For this creative exercise, invite your participants to illustrate how to make toast with a sketch or diagram without using any text. Afterward, share observations and insights as a group and outline the fact that there is no right or wrong diagram, and that differing and unique approaches to a problem or concept are all valid and useful. Not only is this a fun, fast brainstorming technique, but it prepares a group for the next stages of idea generation too!

Draw toast   #problem solving   #opening   #design   #gamestorming   #idea generation   You can use the Draw Toast exercise to introduce people to the concepts of visual thinking, working memory, mental models and/or systems thinking. This also works as a nice warm-up exercise to get people engaged with each other and thinking visually. Plus, it’s fun!

The Paper Clip Method

Even established and successful groups have preconceptions about brainstorming or how to generate ideas. Warming up a team by introducing the power of brainstorming practically can prevent stumbling blocks later on and ensure everyone is on the same page when approaching the brainstorming process.

The Paper Clip Method is a creative exercise that challenges your group to brainstorm all possible uses for a paper clip. After some silent brainstorming, debrief by sharing what the group has come up with and highlight how the group has cumulatively come up with a greater quality and quantity of ideas than any single person could.

The paper clip method   #sharing   #creativity   #warm up   #idea generation   #brainstorming   The power of brainstorming. A training for project leaders, creativity training, and to catalyse getting new solutions.

Apple-Drawing Ideation

Learning how to approach creative brainstorming as a group is a worthwhile way to kick-off your idea generation workshop. In this simple creative game, split your participants into groups and invite them to take it in turns to fill a grid with drawings of apples, with the challenge that no apple can be the same as another. 

When the time is done or the grid is full, debrief and highlight some of key concepts for effective brainstorming including the fact quantity is a precursor to quality and that we should try to build on the ideas of others. This brainstorming game is flexible by design  and you can use it with something other than apples for a more practical application: e.g., draw 30 logos, write 30 taglines, draw 30 new cars.

Apple-Drawing Ideation   #hyperisland   #innovation   #idea generation   The purpose of this simple exercise is to demonstrate three key principles useful for creativity and idea generation: quantity is a condition for quality; building on the ideas of others; the ideas we come up with are usually all the same. The format is simple, with small groups standing and drawing apples. At the end of the exercise, the whole group reflects and draws out learnings and reflections.

Activities to support a brainstorming workshop

We’ve covered everything from fast and fun creative games to in-depth brainstorming techniques, but what about if you’re looking for ways to improve or kick start your brainstorming process? Preparing for a brainstorming workshop with research on inspiration collection can really help your team make the most of the upcoming session.

In this section, we’ll look at some techniques and methods you can use to inform, enable and improve your group brainstorm and bring better quality ideas to the table! 

Rapid Research

Like all effective workshops, idea generation sessions generally want to limit the number of participants in the room to ensure productivity. That said, ideas and insight can come from anywhere in an organisation and this brainstorming technique can tap into the expertise of people outside of the room.

Start by asking participants to think of a colleague or peer outside the room and call them to get a perspective on the topic or question at hand. For remote teams, you can arrange quick calls or use Slack or other tools to get quick and useful feedback. After collecting input, bring the group back together to share and document insights. You’ll be surprised at how quickly and effectively you can get a wide variety of useful information!

Rapid Research   #hyperisland   #innovation   #idea generation   A simple exercise that complements exploratory, discursive, and creative workshops with insights and opinions from outside. Use this exercise when brainstorming ideas, developing a new product or service or creating a strategy or plan that will include others. Participants phone a co-worker and ask them questions relevant to the task. This quickly generates meaningful input from a range of “outside” perspectives. Often, participants will be surprised at how simple it was to solicit this input and how valuable it is to the process.

Lightning Demos

No idea is wholly original. Brainstorming is all about taking existing ideas and learning from others while also bringing our own insights to the table.

With this activity, you and your group will look for inspiration from how other organizations, products or thought leaders have solved or approached the problem or topic at hand. Invite participants to spend a little time gathering 2-3 examples before then presenting ideas back to the group. By the end of the exercise, you’ll have a set of ideas you can use as the basis for further discussion or idea development.

If you’re working online, collect demos in an online whiteboard and even explore the possibility of gathering inspiration before the workshop if your team has a busy schedule.

Lightning Demos   #design sprint   #innovation   #idea generation   This is an exercise to inspire your team with products or services that they think they can use as inspiration for their concepts in the next phases of their design sprints.

The Medici Effect

Great ideas can often come from sources outside of your own industry or field. The Medici Effect is inspired by Frans Johansson’s book The Medici Effect, which explores how game-changing ideas and breakthroughs can occur when concepts and ideas from one area are applied to another and used as the basis for innovation.

In this exercise, invite participants to find examples of how individuals from other fields have achieved their goals and come up with great ideas. Think of successful scientists, creatives, business owners, musicians, entrepreneurs, educators etc. have found success and what inspiration you and your team might take from them. If working online, encourage participants to include images, links and quotes so you can create an inspiration wall for further exploration of the problem you are trying to solve!

Brainstorming session templates

Are you looking to run a workshop or meeting where you need a complete group process to come up with ideas and turn those into actions? 

Check out the brainstorming session templates below to see how to build upon an initial brainstorming session with appropriate idea selection and prioritization tools to arrive at sound group decisions.!

Ideation Workshop

In this one-day workshop template, follow an entire ideation process from start to finish, going from brainstorming and idea generation through to idea development and pitching. Tap into concepts such as disruptive cases, future tech & trends and opposite thinking to create innovative ideas and empower your team!

One Hour Brain Sprint

Have imited time for group brainstorming? Try the One Hour Brain Sprint to generate ideas quickly and effectively, all while avoiding unproductive discussions and the pitfalls of some brainstorming approaches.

One-hour Brain Sprint

Remote Problem Solving Workshop

Want to solve problems with your remote team? This virtual workshop template includes several stages of ideation and development and provides a great example of how you might utilize lightning demos and research as a basis for experimental ideas and solutions.

Remote problem solving workshop

What are the benefits of group brainstorming ?

While the primary measure of success for a brainstorming workshop will be the quantity and quality of ideas generated, the benefits of this kind of session can go much further.

Establishing an ideation mindset and encouraging creative thinking will benefit your organization in the long term, and finding new ways to push your team in the direction of generating effective ideas has positive effects for your whole organization. Let’s see some of the benefits that can come from bringing team members together for a brainstorming session.

Encourage creativity 

Creative games and exercises can yield instant results when it comes to creatively engaging a team and generating ideas but beyond that, regular brainstorming can help participants be more creative in their regular work and find methods of finding new ideas and solutions that work for them. Being creative is a wonderful way to engage a group and getting out of a regular workflow can be the key that unlocks innovation.

Inclusive, easy-to-understand activities

Brainstorming is a simple group activity that is easy to understand and contribute to. Whatever skill level or competency a person has, the first stage of the idea generation process is something that can be involved in with little overhead or difficulty. This can have massive value in helping a team come together toward a shared goal in an inclusive and simple way!

Diverse ideas

Relying on certain teams or individuals to generate ideas alone can lead to stagnation. By pooling together a diverse group of people to contribute to generating and developing ideas, brainstorming can be a great way to find innovative approaches and diverse ways of thinking. Every point of view you bring to the table is another way of approaching the issue and the results generated by diverse groups are often more robust and multi-facted than those made in a silo.

Quantity of ideas

When it comes to brainstorming techniques, quantity often comes before quality. In order to find great ideas, a group first needs to flush out as many ideas as possible and share before moving onto idea development. The best brainstorming exercises encourage the creation of large amounts of ideas in a short period of time, providing a great foundation for the next steps! 

Get past creative blocks

Problem solving or idea generation can go around in circles if a team isn’t given the freedom to think creatively and approach things from a new angle. Brainstorming methods like those featured here are great ways to unblock a team’s creative and find new ways to approach stalled conversations.

Improve team morale

Brainstorm sessions are often fun and energetic by their nature, and games and exercises that focus on idea generation allow for everyone to contribute and feel heard as part of their team. These kinds of idea generation activities can really help bring a team together and improve team morale too – everyone wants to take part in developing new ideas and being creative!

Get project buy-in

Involving participants across departments and specialties early in the process by inviting them to contribute to generating and developing ideas can not only lead to great ideas but also ensure that a project is followed through on. Get buy-in early by involving stakeholders in early brainstorming sessions and help that creative energy continue throughout your project!

Kickstart projects with energy

The opening stages of a project can determine the tone for the rest of it, and by kicking off your projects with a fun, energetic brainstorming workshop, you can ensure everyone is energised for the work ahead. Try creative games to help your team approach the project with a sense of creativity and experimentation and use brainstorming techniques that see proven results to help move a team forward effectively.

Brainstorming sessions made simple

An effective brainstorming session means creating a balanced agenda of activities and group discussions while keeping everyone engaged.

With SessionLab, you  drag, drop and reorder blocks  to build your step-by-step agenda.

Your session  timing   adjusts automatically  as you make changes and when you’re done, you can  share a beautiful printout  with your colleagues and participants.

Explore  how facilitators use SessionLab  to design effective workshops that create results or  watch this five minute video  to see the planner in action!

Over to you

Brainstorming can be simple or complex, visual or virtual, but whatever method you choose to use, the results should be the same – great ideas. Finding new ways to facilitate innovation is something we’re passionate about here at SessionLab, and we hope you find the above brainstorming techniques useful! 

Did we miss anything? Are there any great brainstorming or idea generation methods you’d like to add? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

James Smart is Head of Content at SessionLab. He’s also a creative facilitator who has run workshops and designed courses for establishments like the National Centre for Writing, UK. He especially enjoys working with young people and empowering others in their creative practice.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Going from a mere idea to a workshop that delivers results for your clients can feel like a daunting task. In this piece, we will shine a light on all the work behind the scenes and help you learn how to plan a workshop from start to finish. On a good day, facilitation can feel like effortless magic, but that is mostly the result of backstage work, foresight, and a lot of careful planning. Read on to learn a step-by-step approach to breaking the process of planning a workshop into small, manageable chunks.  The flow starts with the first meeting with a client to define the purposes of a workshop.…

Effective online tools are a necessity for smooth and engaging virtual workshops and meetings. But how do you choose the right ones? Do you sometimes feel that the good old pen and paper or MS Office toolkit and email leaves you struggling to stay on top of managing and delivering your workshop? Fortunately, there are plenty of great workshop tools to make your life easier when you need to facilitate a meeting and lead workshops. In this post, we’ll share our favorite online tools you can use to make your life easier and run better workshops and meetings. In fact, there are plenty of free online workshop tools and meeting…

How does learning work? A clever 9-year-old once told me: “I know I am learning something new when I am surprised.” The science of adult learning tells us that, in order to learn new skills (which, unsurprisingly, is harder for adults to do than kids) grown-ups need to first get into a specific headspace.  In a business, this approach is often employed in a training session where employees learn new skills or work on professional development. But how do you ensure your training is effective? In this guide, we'll explore how to create an effective training session plan and run engaging training sessions. As team leader, project manager, or consultant,…

Design your next workshop with SessionLab

Join the 150,000 facilitators using SessionLab

Sign up for free

Brainstorming: 24 Techniques for Effective Brainstorming [+ How-to]

Home » Brainstorming   | 🕑 

Gust de Backer

June 25, 2024.

👉🏻    Workshop    /    Keynote    /    Consultancy

Every company does brainstorming , but some companies are better at it than others….

So why is that?

I’m going to show you:

• What different brainstorming techniques there are.
• How to prioritize brainstorm ideas.
• And how to be creative during your brainstorming sessions.

Let’s start..

Table of Contents

What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a technique for working with a group to find creative ideas for a specific problem.

In short, brainstorming is a method to creatively solve a problem . In this, it is important that everyone has a good understanding of what the problem is in order for people to brainstorm accurate solutions.

Do’s and don’ts

Why is brainstorming important?

Creative thinking shows us that there are multiple solutions to a problem and multiple ways to look at a problem.

People are often stuck in their ways of thinking because of the patterns they see, which is extremely bad for innovation.

Creative thinking helps to challenge our assumptions, discover new things, see from new perspectives and keep us mentally sharp.

24 brainstorming techniques

Brainstorming is not about the quality, but about the quantity of ideas.

You’re going to come up with as many ideas for a problem as possible, possibly with a group of people, for a set amount of time.

There are 24 methods you can use to make brainstorming more effective:

1. Brainwriting / Purge

Each member of the group has a certain amount of time to write down all his/her ideas. This has two main advantages:

• Introverts get a chance to share their ideas.
• It ensures that no one or two ideas dominate the brainstorming.

The result is a wide range of ideas that would not have surfaced if a few ideas had been discussed from the beginning.

2. The 5 Why’s Analysis

The 5 why’s analysis has become popular because Toyota used it as a standard process for root-cause analysis.

By asking “why?” 5 times in response to an answer you will get to the root of the problem or solution which allows for a broader perspective and better dialogue.

3. Starbursting

The starbursting technique pushes you to think about the who, what, where, when, why and how of an idea. Place your idea or problem in the center of the star diagram and at the ends put the questions:

4. Mind mapping

You place your problem or idea in the center of the board and start adding to it with new parts:

This also directly ensures that there is structure and that everything is broken down into certain topics.

5. Rolestorming

Try to imagine yourself as another person, it may be someone familiar or someone you know from your immediate environment.

If you can imagine yourself to be another person, ask yourself again how that would solve your problem?

6. Gap filling

See what situation you are in now (ready state) and see where you want to go (target state). Then ask yourself the question, how do we go from the ready state to the target state? What is needed for that?

The gap filling way is a good brainstorming technique to get from A to B.

7. Brain-netting

Using online software, write down ideas that belong to a particular problem or issue.

This is especially useful in preparation for a brainstorm so that people have enough time in advance to think about possible solutions without a lot of email traffic.

8. Round robin brainstorming

In round robin brainstorming, there is one person responsible for bringing up a question or several questions…

In this process, everyone must answer one at a time. In doing so, no feedback may be given or a second idea shared until everyone has shared his or her idea.

This brainstorming technique is ideal for medium to large teams where there are introverted team members or where there is a poor balance of creative input.

Tip : If someone shares an idea that has already been, give that person time to come up with a new idea.

9. Rapid ideation

Parkinson’s law shows us that we spend as much time on our work as we have available

Putting a time limit on brainstorming can increase the quality of the brainstorm. This allows team managers to maximize productivity and results.

Especially for teams with little time, who have little desire for meetings, or who are easily distracted, Rapid Ideation can be a good brainstorming technique.

10. Reverse brainstorming

Brainstorming sessions are often aimed at solving a problem. Reverse brainstorming sessions are aimed at causing problems.

Instead of asking “how can we solve this problem?” you ask “how can we make [problem] happen? From the answers you get, you can start to find solutions to possible problems that a concept or idea might pose.

Thinking of problems first ensures that the team then has a better perspective in solving the problems.

11. Stepladder brainstorming

In stepladder brainstorming, a problem is presented to the group where all but one or two people must leave the room….

The one or two people must then share their ideas after which a third person may enter the room to share his or her ideas, then a fourth, then a fifth and that until everyone has been.

The advantage to this brainstorming technique is that it does not involve thinking as a group, but allows everyone to share their own individual unique ideas without being influenced by the group.

12. SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis is not directly a brainstorming technique, but it can provide additional perspective during brainstorming.

SWOT stands for:

• Strengths : what are the strengths?
• Weaknesses : what are the weaknesses?
• Opportunities : where do the opportunities lie?
• Threats : what are the threats?

The SWOT analysis can also be the basis of brainstorming on how to assess a concept.

13. Eidetic image method

In the Eidetic image method, the group starts by closing their eyes to illustrate the current product in their minds…

Then they can start discussing what it looks like, close their eyes again and start visualizing what an improved version would look like, what features it would contain, what color it is, how big it is, etc.

This brainstorming technique works best when improving an existing product or solution.

14. Change of scenery

If you are constantly brainstorming with the same people in the same space, it can feel like repetition, which is obviously not good for inspiration.

By regularly changing the scenery or space and perhaps also the team composition, it is possible to tap into new sources of inspiration.

15. Drivers analysis

In the drivers analysis brainstorming technique, you focus on the causes of a problem.

Ask yourself or your team of brainstormers, “What causes [problem]?” and then “What causes [answer previous question]?

The deeper you can go the more likely you are to find the root of a problem.

16. Collaborative brainwriting

With this method of brainstorming, there is no need to dedicate a specific session to it….

For example, a facilitator hangs up a large sheet in an office with a problem-statement and possibly already some brainstorming ideas and everyone can contribute ideas in his or her own time.

This way everyone can contribute anonymously, just make sure it is clear to everyone when the deadline is to contribute.

17.  SCAMPER

The SCAMPER brainstorming technique helps brainstormers look at a problem from multiple perspectives, SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for:

• Substitute : evaluate what would happen if you swapped one facet or solution for another.
• Combine : evaluate what would happen if you combined one facet or solution with another.
• Adapt : assess what would happen if you placed one idea or solution in a different context.
• Modify : think about how you could change an idea or solution to make even more impact.
• Put to another use : think about how you could still use your idea in other ways.
• Eliminate : assess what can be removed from your idea or solution to make it simpler.
• Reverse effective : finally, you can look at how you can reorganize an idea to make it more effective.

During a brainstorm, it is helpful to use a SCAMPER template:

18. The idea napkin

The Idea Napkin brainstorming technique allows a broad topic to be broken down into tangible solutions.

Each brainstormer has an ‘Idea Napkin’, on which they write one idea and an elevator pitch of that idea. They also write down who they are trying to solve a problem for and what problem they are solving.

When everything is written down, the idea is for everyone to present their ‘Idea Napkin’ to the others, then all ideas are prioritized on an impact and effort matrix to determine which ideas are worthwhile:

19. 6 thinking hats

In the 6 thinking hats brainstorming technique, you need at least 6 people who are going to wear thinking hats. These different ‘thinking hats’ are going to allow them to look at a problem or idea from one specific angle.

There are 6 different thinking hats:

• Blue hat (Conductor’s hat) : manage the decision process, ask for summaries and come to conclusions.
• Green hat (Creative hat) : the green hat comes up with creative ideas and thinks in terms of possibilities.
• Red hat (Hat for the heart) : go out of your feeling and instinct, you don’t necessarily have to think logically.
• Yellow hat (Optimist’s hat) : with the yellow hat you look at problems with an optimistic view, you see advantages in everything.
• Black hat (Judge’s hat) : the black hat is very critical and sees problems in everything, it is important to see risks and dangers quickly.
• White hat (Fact hat) : neutral and objective, shares lots of statistics and facts.
• + Royal hat (Owner hat) : guides the brainstorm, looking for the balance between subjectivity and objectivity.

This brainstorming technique is useful to get an overall picture of one or more ideas.

20. ‘What if’ brainstorming

The ‘What if’ brainstorming technique is a good technique to bring out all possible solutions to a problem.

By asking questions like “What if this problem occurred in the 1800s?” or “What if our president would have to solve this issue?”.

By approaching it this way you can look at the problem and the solutions from different angles.

21. Random word picker

You pick a random word or animal and start brainstorming about how the word or the characteristics of the animal can help you solve your problem.

This brainstorming technique is really about getting new ideas in a creative way.

22. Storyboarding

Storyboarding is a brainstorming technique where you start sketching the problem and possible solutions. In doing so, you are going to visualize different parts of the problem and the solution which works extremely well for physical challenges.

23. Wishing

You start by wishing for something ‘I wish our company would make 10 million euros in profit’ and then you start thinking about how you can achieve this.

Try to set really ambitious goals, this ensures that you start thinking bigger and you will encounter other problems and solutions.

24. Crazy eights

In the crazy eights brainstorming technique, each participant is given a template with 8 empty boxes. The timer is set for 8 minutes during which time each participant must fill the boxes with 8 sketches of possible ideas. Repeat this process so that they can build on each other’s ideas.

How do you prioritize ideas?

There are several ways to prioritize ideas:

1. Dotmocracy

To prioritize ideas, it is possible to give all participants X number of stickers that they can divide on the ideas they have.

You can be creative with this by handing out different colored stickers to also vote on ideas that absolutely should not be implemented or perhaps an order in the ideas based on the colors.

2. How Now Wow

The How Now Wow technique is more about categorizing ideas based on how unique they are and how easy they are to accomplish.

After a team has written down ideas, they can be prioritized in the How Now Wow matrix:

• How ideas : original but difficult to implement.
• Now ideas : unoriginal and easy to execute.
• Wow ideas : unique ideas that are easy to execute.

Obviously, you want to have as many “Wow” ideas as possible because they are unique from the competition.

3. Impact-Effort Matrix

The impact-effort matrix allows you to determine the ratio of effort to results and then prioritize the best ideas:

You can write down where an idea belongs on the matrix or you can give points to ideas and use those points to determine where an idea will be placed.

4. I.C.E. / P.I.E.

ICE and PIE are well-known prioritization frameworks; they are acronyms that stand for…

• Impact : what is the potential impact if the idea works?
• Confidence : how confident are we that the idea will work?
• Ease : how easy is it to set up this idea?
• Potential : how potential is this solution to our problem?
• Importance : how important do we think solving this problem is?
• Ease : how easy is it to implement this solution?

From these scores you can get an average, it is also possible to add a multiplier to certain parts of ICE or PIE that you think are important.

5. Feasibility, Desirability and Viability Scorecard

These 3 pillars are topics on which you can rank an idea:

• Feasibility : is it actually achievable?
• Desirability : how much would we like this solution?
• Viability : how confident are we that this will work?

This is very similar to the ICE / PIE framework, but the questioning changes a little bit.

MoSCoW is a very well known prioritization framework, it is widely used to set up requirements for a particular thing and prioritize them.

MoSCoW is an acronym that stands for:

• Must have : What really needs to be in it?
• Should have : what should actually be included?
• Could have : nice to have, is nice to add, but has no priority.
• Would have / Will not have : we’re not going to do anything with this for now.

7. Multi-criteria Decision Making

In multi-criteria decision making, you write down what you think is important about a solution and prioritize different ideas based on that:

8. The Value Matrix

Also called the Value and Effort matrix, this involves weighing the costs against the benefits:

How to brainstorm effectively?

How do you set up the brainstorm effectively?

The better the problem statement is the better the brainstorming will go. It is easier to focus ideas on a situation when that situation is enormously clear.

By just starting to do anything you will probably not find the desired solution. Make sure you have a clear agenda with times when you want to do something exactly. It is also important to make clear in advance what the desired end result of the brainstorm is.

Each brainstorming technique fits a different type of situation, evaluate which brainstorming techniques exist and choose some to come up with solutions from multiple angles.

By just talking and thinking about ideas a lot will be lost, document the ideas so they can be looked back at later.

Not every idea has the same potential to be used, therefore it is important to choose which ideas can be taken up, which ones will be interesting at a later date and which ones can be thrown in the garbage can.

Make sure you have time available in the coming period to start working on good ideas.

What is creativity in brainstorming?

Creativity is the ability to think outside of traditional ways and come up with new, original ideas, methods or objects.

It is often thought that the left part of the brain is for creativity and that the right part of the brain contains analytical ability:

In creativity, it is about the networks between the different parts in the brain. There are 3 types of networks that are important here:

• The executive attention network : allows you to maintain your attention and focus.
• The imagination network : allows you to daydream or imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes.
• The salience network : allows you to identify certain things based on old information stored in your brain.

A video that goes into some detail here:

What types of creative thinking are there?

At work, there are several types of creative thinking you may encounter:

• Divergent Thinking : a brainstorming session where you write down as many solutions as you can think of.
• Convergent Thinking : gathering facts and finding the most used and complete solution to the problem.
• Inspirational Thinking : focus on the best-case scenario to find a new solution to a problem.
• Lateral Thinking : reorganize information to come up with creative solutions to move from the ready state to the target state.
• Aesthetic Thinking : solutions that we actually like, with a focus on structure, knowledge, composition, color and shape.

What is critical thinking in brainstorming?

A critical thinker does not simply assume ideas and assumptions, but will always be looking for more ideas, arguments and insights to get the full picture.

Critical thinkers will identify, analyze and solve problems in a systematic way rather than thinking from intuition or instinct.

A critical thinker is able to:

• Make the connection between ideas and in them determine how important and relevant arguments and ideas are.
• Recognize, build and evaluate arguments.
• Find errors and inconsistencies in reasoning.
• To approach problems in a consistent and systematic way.
• Reflect on his own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Discover your creativity

You are now armed with knowledge to set up the best creative brainstorming sessions….

I’m curious, what do you think is the best brainstorming technique?

Let me know in a comment.

P.S. Want more help? Send an email to [email protected]

Frequently asked questions about brainstorming

A design sprint is a limited-time process that uses design thinking. The goal is to find an answer to a critical business question or a specific problem within that limited timeframe.

During a design sprint, design thinking is used.

To lead a brainstorm session it is important that you understand the problem, that you set a clear agenda, that you use the right brainstorm techniques and that you stimulate new ideas and don’t criticize ‘bad’ ideas.

First come up with a clear problem-statement, then choose matching brainstorm techniques, plan a clear agenda and at the end prioritize the outcomes of the brainstorm session.

There should be a purpose for the brainstorm, it should be with others, you should stimulate each other’s ideas, there should be no criticism of ideas, and make sure there is enough creativity.

Before brainstorming, the right questions should be asked, this can be done using Starbursting. Starbursting asks questions such as: how, what, where, when, who and why.

I try to help business surpass their growth ceiling with my content.

Sounds interesting?

Let’s connect on LinkedIn!

Business Strategy | Change Management | Digital Marketing | Growth Hacking | Marketing and Sales | Organizational Culture | Scrum | Team Management

Gust’s Must-Reads 👇🏼

• TAM SAM SOM
• Value Proposition
• Decision Making Unit
• Product-Market Fit
• North Star Metric
• Market Research
• Customer Development
• Growth Hacking
• Brand Identity
• Customer Journey
• Account-Based Marketing

Business-Driven Marketing (BDM): 8 Steps to Drive Business Impact [+14 Templates]

Is your marketing not delivering the growth for your Scale-Up that it should? Companies spend an average of 9.5% of annual sales on marketing. Yet you feel you're missing out on sales. That you're not getting the maximum growth out of your Scale-Up. You lack knowledge...

Automate ~30% of Repetitive Marketing Tasks with AI: 5 Easy Steps [+ 7 Expert Prompts]

Did you know that marketing teams waste an average of 33% of their time on repetitive tasks? This leaves less time for strategy and creativity. Meanwhile, your competitors are increasing their efficiency with AI. The rapid developments make you feel like you're on a...

Customer Journey Map (2024): How-to & Examples [+ Template]

The Customer Journey is the process your customers go through with your company. This then covers the first to last interaction someone has with your company. Many companies do not have a map of how their customers orient, what they care about or when the company...

Thank you, Khaled!

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Submit Comment

Experiment Canvas

You have successfully subscribed, proven (marketing) management tactics 12x / year.

✔  Discover the secrets of successful companies.

✔  Make better decisions and avoid bad choices.

✔  Never miss out on any growth for your company.

Function Owner C-Level Manager Marketer Sales Student

Thank you! You have successfully subscribed.

How to Facilitate a Brainstorming Session

Start collaborating with Mural today

Brainstorming is an essential tool for problem-solving, but it can be difficult to do effectively without guidance. In this post, we'll provide a guide to conducting an effective brainstorming session, using brainstorming methods and techniques that have been proven to work in traditional office, hybrid, distributed, and remote settings.

An important factor in every brainstorm is keeping an open mind. Be intentional about creating an environment where ideas can flow freely and participants can think outside the box. Remember, it’s about the quantity of ideas that your team can produce within the session — it’s not the time for criticism. 

Finally, remember that brainstorming is a team activity — and that means everyone involved in the brainstorming meeting. Use this guide to get all stakeholders engaged in generating ideas, and build on each other's ideas to create even more possibilities.

What is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is a creative problem-solving technique with the goal of generating as many new and innovative ideas to solve a problem or challenge. Brainstorming often takes place in an informal, relaxed setting, where participants are encouraged to share their thoughts freely, build upon the ideas of others, and explore a wide range of possibilities.

Brainstorming can be done individually, but it is often more effective when done as a group. Group brainstorming allows for a greater variety of ideas to be generated, and it also helps to prevent people from getting stuck on one idea. 

In order to brainstorm effectively, it is important to create an environment of psychological safety , where all ideas are welcomed and no one is afraid to speak up. The best brainstorming sessions are those in which participants feel free to share any and all ideas, no matter how crazy or outlandish they may seem. Only by brainstorming freely can the best solutions be found.

Key benefits of brainstorming

Because it's an open-ended activity that celebrates original thinking, brainstorming has many benefits within any organization.

Creates a pool of diverse ideas

When you brainstorm, you allow your mind to explore all sorts of possibilities without judgment. This can help you to come up with ideas that you may never have thought of before, or considered too tangential to be of benefit. Brainstorming is a great way to get your creative juices flowing , expand your thinking, and generate as many new ideas as possible.

Helps clarify your thoughts

In a collaborative brainstorming session, you are forced to articulate your thoughts clearly and concisely. This can help you to better understand your thoughts and ideas, as well as those of others. Sharing ideas can also help to identify any gaps in your thinking and to clarify your overall objectives.

Encourages innovation

One of the goals of brainstorming is to free yourself and your team from what you already know or what has been done before. This can help you to come up with truly innovative and original ideas. Brainstorming is a great way to push yourself out of your comfort zone, think outside the box , and leverage the different perspectives from your other team members.

Enhances problem-solving skills

When you brainstorm with your team, you can look at problems from different angles and perspectives that may lead to unforeseen solutions. This can help you to identify the right problems to solve and overcome obstacles that might otherwise seem insurmountable. Brainstorming is a great way to find new ways around old problems.

Facilitates teamwork and collaboration

When you brainstorm with others, you have the opportunity to build on their ideas and to create something even better than either of you could have created on your own. Brainstorming is a great way to collaborate with others, foster team-building, and craft unique solutions. 

How to conduct a brainstorming session in 5 steps

To run an effective brainstorming session, you'll need to think through the preparation, environment, process, and follow-up. Here's how to set you and your team up for success.

Step 1: Prepare for the session

In the words of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” One of the most important components of crafting a successful brainstorming session is establishing expectations. 

Create an agenda

While the brainstorming session itself is meant to be free flowing and exploratory, it’s vital to set boundaries and define the problems as clearly and specifically as possible so that the outcomes inform actionable next steps. 

One aspect of preparation is creating an agenda. This should include time for a warm-up or ice breaker in order to make participants feel comfortable and ready to share their ideas. 

Next, set aside time to outline the problem you’re trying to solve, and handle any questions up front so that everyone can begin the session with a shared understanding. 

Once you’ve set the stage, it’s time to brainstorm! Use a guided method for best results (more on that below). Again, set aside an amount of time for the brainstorming exercise so that you’ll have space to come together and build next steps and bring everyone together for an energy check-in at the end of your meeting.

Related: How to Create Effective Meeting Agendas

Create a shared space for the brainstorming session

A central component of a brainstorming session is a shared space. In the past it was very common to bring everyone together in the same room and use physical sticky notes on a whiteboard to record and organize ideas. These days, however, it’s not always possible to share a physical space — but your brainstorming can be just as effective. 

In fact, there is evidence that virtual or online brainstorming is more effective than traditional, in-person brainstorming.

Regardless of your work environment (whether you’re in person, hybrid, or remote), using an online whiteboard or collaborative digital platform like Mural makes it easy to conduct your brainstorming session, as well as organize and analyze your ideas so that you can quickly build action items. Some items to consider include:

• Structuring your session and presentation so that everyone is aligned, feedback is more meaningful, and your brainstorming is more effective (does your setup have a visual component so that it’s easy to follow along and ideas can be quickly categorized?)
• Broad engagement and participation (how does your chosen format help ensure that everyone is contributing to the discussion?)
• Capturing, saving, and organizing all your ideas (how will you use your brainstorming results to inform your next steps and create a path to solving the problem?)

Invite the right stakeholders

Another critical brainstorming tool is a diverse group of people. The more perspectives you have in the room, the better. Carefully consider who needs to be involved in order to cover as many angles as possible, so that your ideas and solutions are thoroughly thought out and not vulnerable to blind spots. 

Pro-tip: Help the whole team get engaged by empowering the introverts of the group to contribute in your brainstorms

Choose the right tools

Using the right tools in a brainstorming session is critical for capturing and organizing the brainstorming creative process. Having a dedicated space to ideate within is critical. Mural has dedicated tools and functionality to run a well-structured brainstorming session from anywhere. Combine individual brainstorming with group ideation by enabling Private Mode, keep everyone on task by setting a timer, and gather better feedback with anonymous voting.

Make sure you bring all these tools together with the most important aspect of a successful brainstorming session: a facilitator. Effective facilitation can keep the brainstorming sessions moving, guide the discussion, and make sure everyone feels heard. If you're brainstorming on your own, set a time limit for yourself and make sure to stay focused. 

Step 2: Define your brainstorming topic

Before you get started, it's important to define the right topic to brainstorm. The problem should be specific and clearly outlined, and it should be one that can be solved with a creative solution. Describe the problem in terms that all stakeholders can understand, and ensure that any questions are answered either before the session or as you describe the problem within the context of the meeting. 

Brainstorming topic examples:

• How can we increase conversion rates on our landing pages?
• How can we make sharing easier inside our product?
• What is the most important feature we should add to our product?

Related: 25 brainstorming questions you should ask to generate better ideas .

Step 3: Set ground rules, give context and establish parameters, and define key terms

With your topic outlined, it’s time to establish the parameters and scope of the brainstorm, as well as define key terms. Again, the more you can do to ensure that everyone enters the session well informed and with a shared understanding of the problems and goals, the more productive your meeting will be. 

Examples of ground rules:

• Quantity over quality: Remind your participants that the goals will include collecting as many ideas as possible
• No judgment: Don’t criticize your colleagues’ ideas, and ask for clarification before giving feedback 
• Everyone’s ideas count: Make your brainstorming session visual, so that everyone can more easily participate and ideas can be organized into themed categories 

Related: Simple Ground Rules for Brainstorming

Step 4: Start brainstorming!

When you're ready to begin, leverage your chosen brainstorming framework to help guide your team and get the most out of your session.

Choose a specific approach

Having established an agenda, a shared space, a topic, and ground rules for your brainstorming session, the next phase is to determine the best method. Structure boosts creativity, so the more clearly you outline your strategy and tactics, the better your results will be. 

Also, there are specific methods that are ideally suited to particular scenarios.

For example, if you’re trying to set up a brainstorming session that tackles a new problem that has a lot of associated variables, a mind map brainstorm is likely to be the best technique.

Using the mind map technique, you begin by placing the core problem you’re trying to solve in the center, and then build outward as you brainstorm all of the variables and related ideas. These can be organized by their level of influence. 

If instead you’re looking to have your teammates build upon one another’s ideas so that the results are as collaborative as possible, then the Round Robin technique may be the best option.

With the Round Robin approach, team members are asked to not only contribute new ideas, but also build upon the ideas of their colleagues, resulting in multi-layered suggestions and (likely) more holistic solutions. 

Related: Brainstorming Techniques for Better Idea Generation

Step 5: Explain the next steps and action items

When the brainstorming component of your meeting has come to an end, it’s time to bring everyone back together and analyze your findings so that you can craft constructive next steps. 

Using a shared digital space and online sticky notes makes it easier to collate and organize your ideas — color coding, tags, and groupings help visualize different themes or categories that can form the basis for solutions. With all your ideas at hand, you can begin the process of assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and establishing metrics for future analysis. 

The bottom line: brainstorming should be collaborative and fun

Brainstorming is a great way to generate creative new ideas, clarify your thoughts, think outside the box, build on the ideas of others, and overcome obstacles. And, when done right, it should be fun, too. 

How to run a successful brainstorming session:

• Prepare for the session — create an agenda and define a shared space
• Define your topic — be as clear and specific as possible
• Set ground rules so that everyone is comfortable and knows how to participate
• Use a proven brainstorming technique
• Organize your ideas, define and assign next steps

By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that your brainstorming sessions are effective and productive. With the right preparation, environment, process, and tools, you and your team can create something truly special.

Brainstorm better with Mural

With a suite of features and tools built specifically for collaboration and brainstorming , Mural is the best way to engage with your team,  visualize and organize your ideas, and craft actionable next steps. 

Get started today with a Free Forever plan , invite unlimited visitors to your brainstorming murals, and see how our templates and guided methods can lead to better brainstorming and enable your team to find the next big idea.  

{{mural-teamwork-assessment="/cta-components"}}

Related blog posts

25 Brainstorming Questions to Generate Better Ideas

8 best practices for successful asynchronous brainstorming

What is brainstorming? Definition, guide, and methods

Related blog posts.

How to Collect Feedback from Stakeholders Effectively

Visual collaboration: What it is & how to get started

What is the difference between traditional project management and Agile?