What's Better than Brainstorming?
This article was first published on Lean Startup Labs . In the innovation process, one of our earliest activities is ideation, i.e. collecting many ideas so we have several viable alternatives for solving the problem. A common practice is to schedule a brainstorming session where team members with different skills and backgrounds can generate a free flow of dozens of ideas. The team will then curate a short list of what they believe to be the most promising ideas. However, there can be problems with brainstorming. The sessions are often dominated by the two or three loudest voices in the room. Groupthink can drive the focus of the discussion toward one particular theme at the expense of other better possibilities. As a result, this widely-practiced group exercise can completely miss the boat on “outside-the-box” ideas. And despite best efforts, it’s not uncommon to get into arguments about feasibility as ideas come up. Even when the ground rules say “all ideas are good,” i...