How can you encourage creative thinking during a product development brainstorming session?

1 Define the problem and the goal

Before you start brainstorming, you need to have a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to solve and the goal you are aiming for. This will help you focus your ideas and avoid getting sidetracked by irrelevant or unrealistic suggestions. You can use tools like problem statements, SMART goals, or SWOT analysis to define the problem and the goal in a concise and measurable way.

2 Set some ground rules

A brainstorming session should be a safe and supportive space where everyone can share their thoughts without fear of judgment, criticism, or rejection. To create such an environment, you need to set some ground rules that encourage openness, respect, and collaboration. For example, you can ask your team to avoid negative comments, listen actively, build on each other's ideas, and avoid interrupting or dominating the conversation.

3 Use different techniques

Creative thinking can be stimulated and more diverse, original ideas generated through a variety of techniques. Brainwriting is a popular option, in which participants write down their ideas on a piece of paper and pass it to the next person to add more ideas or comments, allowing everyone to contribute and see different perspectives. SCAMPER is another acronym for seven ways to modify an existing product or idea: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, or Reverse. Mind mapping is a visual technique that helps organize and connect ideas in a hierarchical and nonlinear way; it starts with a central topic and then branches out to subtopics, keywords, images, or symbols. Colors, shapes, or icons can also be used to make the mind map more appealing and memorable.

4 Challenge your assumptions

One of the biggest obstacles to creative thinking is sticking to your assumptions and preconceptions. These can limit your options and prevent you from seeing new opportunities or angles. To overcome this, you need to challenge your assumptions and question your beliefs. You can use tools like the 5 Whys, the Six Thinking Hats, or the Lateral Thinking method to dig deeper into the root causes, the different aspects, or the alternative scenarios of your problem.

5 Test and refine your ideas

After you have generated a lot of ideas, you need to evaluate them and select the most promising ones. You can use criteria like feasibility, desirability, viability, or novelty to rank your ideas and filter out the ones that are not suitable or viable. Then, you need to test and refine your ideas by creating prototypes, getting feedback, or conducting experiments. This will help you validate your assumptions, identify flaws, and improve your solutions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?