Brainstorming is a group technique to try and come up with solutions to a problem.

Its goal is to produce a lot of ideas.

Pros:

• Often is fun.
• Gets people to work together.
• Gets people involved into the process.
• Improves teamwork.

Cons:

• Not guaranteed to do anything.
• No evidence that that it will produce better results than individual thinking.
• Can lead to “social loafing”.
• Will only work if people participate.

Rules for Brainstorming

1. Don’t be critical. Criticism can also disengage people and is counterintuitive to an environment where you are trying to generate new ideas.
2. Welcome unusual ideas. You may not be able to implement an idea, however a “crazy” idea may have good underpinnings.
3. Quality will lead to quality. A large number of ideas will lead to a good solution.
4. Looking at the problem with a new perspective. Can you simplify an existing application? Can an application for one demographic be migrated to another one? Can on application be used for another task?
5. Suspend assumptions. Business models and customer demographics can change.
6. Combine new ideas. Building better and new ideas from associated ideas.

Brainstorming Process

• Before Brainstorming
• Make a question that is going to gave to solved.
• Make sure that the question is not too vague and solvable.
• When you call the meeting
• 5-7 people is a good size for a group.
• Provide a time limit (usually 30 minutes)
• Set a goal for the number of ideas — usually 50-100 is okay.

During The Meeting

• There needs to be a leader
• There needs to be someone who transcribes the meeting.
• There typically is not a structure for the meeting.
• It is good for whomever is recording the ideas to repeat and confirm them.
• Management is not encouraged to attend.
• One form of brainstorming involve a form of evaluation where the group members vote for the best idea, and rank the best ideas on a set of criteria.
• Another type of brainstorming, visual brainstorming, includes prototyping a physical object.