Brainstorm 🧠
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I'm regularly tasked with coming up with ideas— both for my clients and for my own projects. It can be a struggle. But when things align, it's one of the most rewarding aspects of working in a creative field.
How is it that when we sit down to intentionally come up with a new idea, for hours at a time, we often walk out of the brainstorming session with absolutely nothing of substance? And yet, when we least expect it, that most special idea comes upon us like a bolt of lightning from heaven, seemingly out of nowhere.
Generating ideas on demand is hard.. but it's not impossible.
Let's talk about brainstorming. 🧠
TLDR
4 rules for successful brainstorming
All ideas are good ideas
The crazier the better
Pick a number and exceed it
Bring more people in
There are no bad ideas
If you're brainstorming by yourself, it's time to turn off that internal filter. Don't critique yourself. Be a stream of consciousness and let everything surface as a potential idea. Sometimes, that idea you tell yourself is no good ends up being the spark for several other valid ideas. Now is not the time for editing. Just put it all out there.
If you're brainstorming in a group, make sure to hold back any judgement of other people's ideas. Group brainstorming sessions should be open to any ideas, however "dumb" or bad. And if someone else starts making comments about how, "That won't work," or, "We can't do that," remind them of this rule. Keep all ideas, no matter how bad, and you'll pare them down later. Brainstorming sessions are not the finished product, and all ideas are welcome.
Even crazy ones
Embracing pie-in-the-sky, ludicrous ideas is an important part of brainstorming. Get crazy! Now's the time to come up with the wildest, far out, nutty concepts. Reign it in later. Starting down that crazy path can lead to the idea that makes the cut. If you don't allow yourself to go there, you'll never know what could have been.
Quantity not quality
When starting out a new brainstorming session, pick a number of ideas as a benchmark to hit. Then exceed that benchmark. You'll most likely start out slow, and wonder if you'll ever get to that number. But as you get closer, you'll find that the ideas just start flowing and you'll overshoot your goal. Having that goal acts as just a little more incentive to keep going when you feel like there are no more ideas.
Bounce ideas off others
Brainstorming in a vacuum is hard. Even if you have no one to bring into an actual brainstorming session, try running the ideas you come up with off others. Even talking about an idea with someone else gives you a different perspective on it.
And if you're lucky enough to have a group while brainstorming, you'll find you riff off other people's ideas easily. Something someone else says will often spawn a chain of ideas in your own mind.
More tools and tricks for successful brainstorming
Ironically, as a technophile, I find that software can get in the way of free-flowing thoughts, and opt to stay analog when brainstorming. But here are a few things that can help while coming up with your next big idea.
Drink more coffee ☕️ (or tea if that's your thing)
Play some music 🎵 (or change up the genre)
Draw on a whiteboard 📝 (or in a sketchbook)
Visual Thesaurus (if it's a naming session)
InVision Moodboards (great for sharing ideas)
Hit reply to tell me what you're doing to come up with ideas. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Thanks for reading! 🙌
Until next week,
Craig