A Monday Exercise for Jump Starting Innovation

One of my favorite brainstorming teams would meet on Monday at lunch. We would get together every two weeks. The meeting always started with the same question.

What bothered you over the weekend that you want to solve today?

All the participants would proceed to share the pain point(s) they experienced. It might have been something they saw at a mall or a movie theatre or while out on walk. They may have noted a stronger “What if” thought. Or wondered “Hmm, why aren’t they doing X this way?”

The key is to gather these problems in a no filter approach.

It was simply a problem statement collection exercise. There’s no revenue analysis, market surveys were not required. No slides, for that matter.

Collect as many pain points as possible.

The moderator of the meeting would go around the room, jotting down these on simple spreadsheet. No one else could use devices. No screen sharing. It’s just a polling exercise around the room. After about 15 minutes, we would then pause before proceeding to the next stage.

Selecting the problem to solve.

This was selecting the strongest pain that wasn’t solved. In other words, the best opportunity to go after as a team. Usually, the group would quickly determine that. If there was a deadlock, the moderator would call rank and select the problem for the group.

After that, we would brainstorm different approaches to solve the issue at hand.

Depending on the problem, we would devote anywhere from 15 - 20 minutes to sometimes a full hour. The moderator aims to keep the group energy high peppering with questions if the team is stuck. We are trying to keep the ball rolling. When things get to a standstill i.e. when all creative juices have stopped, we move to the next problem. Along the while, the moderator would note the key ideas generated that will help the product.

What makes Mondays so special?

We are outside of our work on weekends and get a natural pause among our chores, meeting people, and relaxing. Subconsciously, we can get to a state of pause and wonder. Issues identified in this state are worth spending a bit of time. Before we get too involved with the other work items, filing them is worth addressing.

But we only selected one or two to solve. What about the rest of the pain points?

That is your pain point bank. If a problem wasn’t picked during one meeting, we can bring it up during the next. We also don’t forget things that bother us. Quite often, the team will remind of something worth spending time on. Else, you have the moderator for that too.

Is that it?

Yes, keep it simple. The most important thing is to instill this as a habit. Our meetings were recurring and at lunch, which people should not skip :)

Try it and you will look forward to these meetings.

Happy Ideating!

Hemang.