If you’re searching for a way to make generating ideas a whole lot faster and heaps more fun, then this could be just what you’re looking for!
Denise Tung recently introduced me to a new brainstorming technique call Brain Writing and it’s a winner! So far at Pollenizer it’s helped me identify new…
- Partnership opportunities
- Taglines for new businesses
- Customer acquisition opportunities
- Revenue models… and more!
Here’s how it works:
- Sitting side by side, each person has 60 seconds to add as many ideas as they can for each topic.
- At the end of 60 seconds, each person moves to the next question (rotate questions clockwise around the group). Option: Allow 10 seconds reading time to avoid duplications.
- Keep going until you’ve each added ideas on every topic. Next? We vote!
- To vote, each participant gets one dot sticker for each topic.
- Participants get 10 minutes to vote for their favourite idea (so if there are 10 topics, you’ll give each participant 10 stickers).
- Tally up the votes, then read out the top 2 ideas per topic.
You can see here what the results looks like:
What you’ll need:
- If you have 10 participants, you’ll need 10 topics (one for each person to get started).
- Print the topics on A3 paper.
- Pens for writing.
- Small dot stickers for voting.
- Some blu-tak (so you can stick the results on the wall for the voting session).
Tips:
- This works best with 5-10 participants.
- Participants should sit close together (eg. around a table).
- Ask questions or set topics like ‘List ways we could acquire customers for [company]’ or ‘Where would you expect to see [product] sold?’.
- The entire exercise should take about ½ hr.
What type of brainstorming techniques do you use? Let us know!