What needs to be finished first
A concrete challenge or How-Might-We question exists that is open enough for many ideas but narrow enough to keep focus.
All participants share a basic understanding of the problem or domain, ideally through a prior research session or briefing.
What needs to be ready before start
Whiteboard or digital board (Miro, FigJam); sticky notes in one color for ideas; markers; timer; challenge question clearly visible.
One facilitator to hold the rules and timer; 4-12 participants from different functions; optionally a scribe for notes or combinations.
Challenge question; domain context (1-2 slides or briefing document); examples of good and bad idea stickies; constraints that ideas must not violate.
30-60 min
Put the challenge at the top of the wall. Make the rules visible: 1) quantity before quality, 2) wild ideas welcome, 3) build on ideas, 4) no criticism. Set the timer to 15 min ideation. Lay out the sticky notes.
The one question this method answers
What range of solution ideas can we generate for the challenge before we converge and choose?
Marker: Phase
| Step | Duration | Action | Hint |
|---|---|---|---|
1Phase 1: Briefing and rules | 5-10 min | Read the challenge aloud and recap the context (3-5 min). Explain the four brainstorming rules and post them on the wall. Show example stickies. | Simply reading the rules is not enough. If someone breaks them (criticism, veto), redirect to the rule immediately. Otherwise the method tips over. |
2Phase 2: Solo warm-up | 5 min | Each person writes first ideas alone on sticky notes (at least 5). Silence. Do not share yet. | Starting solo avoids anchor bias from loud voices. If you start in plenary right away, you get groupthink. |
3Phase 3: Group ideation | 15-25 min | Place stickies on the wall and briefly describe them. Others build on them ('Yes-and' stickies). The facilitator keeps the pace high and pushes for wild variants. | If energy drops, offer a new prompt variant ('How would Apple solve this?', 'What would be the most absurd solution?'). Provocations create leaps. |
4Phase 4: Cluster and review | 10-15 min | Group similar ideas. Consolidate duplicates. Add a label per cluster. If there are too many clusters, narrow them down to 5-8 main themes. | Affinity mapping is for condensation, not evaluation. Evaluation comes in the next phase. |
5Phase 5: Converge (voting or shortlist) | 10-15 min | Use dot voting (3-5 dots per person) or a structured discussion. Mark the top 5 or top 3 ideas. Name an owner per top idea for follow-up detail work. | Voting is not a decision. It is a preselection for detailing. The final decision comes later from the decider with criteria. |
What comes out at the end
Brainstorming board (photo or export) with all ideas, clustered themes, and the top selection; shortlist as a separate list with owner and next step (prototyping, experiment, detailing).
Create a separate snapshot per session with date and challenge. If the shortlist is later discarded or expanded, link it in the follow-up document. Compare versions for repeated challenges across sessions.
Compact working template for Brainstorming with context, input, output artifacts, and next step.
Generates many ideas quickly in a judgment-free space.
When and for what do we use this method?
Which data, observations, decisions, or materials are available?
Short notes along the runsheet.
Owner, date, and success signal.
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Concrete filled scenario, fictional example
Challenge (HMW): "How might we get solo tax advisors to experience an aha moment in the first session?"
Participants: 7 people (Product Triad + Sales + Support + 2 designers)
Output: 67 idea stickies in 20 min ideation
Recognize symptoms and steer against them
"That won't work because ..." stops the idea flow and quantity collapses.
State the no-criticism rule explicitly and repeatedly. The facilitator interrupts immediately. Park skeptical voices in a separate "risks" column, not in discussion.
Two or three people produce 80% of the ideas and the rest stays quiet.
Use a solo phase first, add a brainwriting element, and do round robin with one idea per person. Make sure every voice gets space.
The challenge is effectively a solution question ('How do we build feature X?'), so the ideas are redundant.
Reformulate the challenge as an open HMW question about outcome, not solution. 'How do we help users with Y?' instead of 'How do we build X?'
100 ideas are generated, nobody chooses, and everything stays open.
Plan a convergence phase as mandatory. Brainstorming without a shortlist is just busywork. Vote or let the decider choose in the same session.
Ideas come from completely different mental models and cannot be compared.
Run a briefing or research walkthrough before brainstorming. At minimum, surface a shared persona, pain points, and constraints.
Done signals checkable in under a minute
Go to the profile for purpose, similar methods, and sources or continue to the next method in the catalog.