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Criterion
Paper illustration of an eight-panel idea sheet with varied sketches beside a timer set to eight minutes.
Innovation
Crazy 8s
Design sheets and interface cards connect to jointly written pseudocode with highlighted unresolved questions.
Architecture
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)
A paper-based illustration representing Brainstorming with its core stages and visible working result.
Innovation
Brainstorming
Paper illustration of the Lotus Blossom working structure.
Innovation
Lotus Blossom
Purposedifferent
With only a few minutes available and a still-fuzzy solution search, the method forces a wide range of variants. It produces fast sketches before the first idea can settle in, making different directions directly comparable and open to further development.ARID examines how well developers can work with a technical design. It focuses on a part of the system that can still be revised, between the architecture overview and the detailed specification.When a team faces an open question with many obvious directions, the method first creates breadth instead of premature commitment. It separates idea flow from evaluation and makes lines of thought visible, creating a pool for selection and further development.When a central question feels too large, the method breaks it into neighboring topic fields with their own depth of ideation. It holds structure and openness at the same time, so adjacent perspectives don't get lost. This grows an idea space out of a core problem.
Complexitydifferent
LowMediumLowLow
Timedifferent
8-15 min2–4 h review as a planning range; preparation and evaluation additional30-60 min45-90 min
Participantsdifferent
1-10Designers, developers as users, and facilitation4-123-10
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop
Outputdifferent
Sketch Set, Idea Shortlist, Direction OptionsPrioritized development tasks, Jointly produced code or pseudocode, Observed difficulties and open design questions, Proposed design revisionsIdea pool, Theme clusters, ShortlistLotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist
Tagsno overlap
BrainstormingSketchingSpeedDivergenceDesign sprint
ArchitectureEngineeringFeedbackValidationTasks
BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence
BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop
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