Brainstorming online

Brainstorming; a method that has been discussed for ages. Alex Osborne is credited with “inventing” the creativity technique around 1930’s.

“It is easier to tone down a wild idea than to think up a new one.“- Alex Osborne claimed.

Brainstorming is method of thinking up solutions, ideas or new concepts. The idea is to go for quantity in idea generation and leave the criticism out of the discussion. Idea evaluation is a later stage. However, here I’m not interested in discussing the method further but to rather discuss the helpful tools that exists, and don’t exist for this exercise.

In student projects, research projects, live industrial projects I’ve had the ability to see, and coach, teams with purpose of generating ideas in order to solve problems, come up with new products, services or solutions. It is quite easy to see that brainstorming (and closely related creativity techniques) works pretty well in geographically close teams , i.e. you can put the team in the same room for the session.

The problem is that a lot of todays businesses are global, and teams need to be global, hence physical meeting requirements should be reduced to a minimum (I do know that social aspects play a role so of course it’s good to meet once and a while). The past couple of years we have made efforts in setting up global teams that have a purpose of doing product innovation. We’ve done this primarily together with Stanford University, and their Center for Design Research division. The purpose being in research to see the needs of the teams and how to support them with tools and methods. The teams competition is often parallel teams, locally situated. The fun part is that this globally dispersed teams often outperforms the local teams, reasons can be pure motivation since the challenges are many; cultural differences, social differences, time zone difference etc.

So, so, back to brainstorming support.

I’ve tried several tools (and methods), and some of them stick while others fade away. There are ambitious tools and there are really lightweight solutions out there. Still, I see the need for a tool that support the way of work we see happening in industry today and that will be predominant in the future. This tool should be at the hands of the product development teams.

The tool should support:

• Synchronous and asynchronous work mode
• Build on other ideas
• Facilitation
• Reporting
• Idea management
• Image upload
• Hyper linking
• Personalization of work area
• etc…

The idea for tool will now move into the Garage for work.

Why idea management?

Idea management, in my view, is the deliberate process of recognizing that you have ideas, and also the will to take them further. I think that out of a bunch of ideas might come something that could be beneficial for someone else, or even for me. By treating this as a process, and dealing with ideas accordingly, I think more ideas will come “into play”, i.e. be transformed into solutions.

Of course, some ideas may stand out as “better” than others on the ideation stage (my Driveway), while some may stand taller being worked with (my Garage), and some may just slip through to the final stage (my Garage sale) without making lots of noise. However, giving the ideas the same attention (The Idea Garage Process) might raise the possibilities of both early and late bloomers. It is always hard to spot the winners on the market before the solution do hit the market…

Also, it is important to turn the thinking into actions once and a while since it is then that you realize, and reflect upon a lot of things.

Confucius (Chinese philosopher & reformer, 551 BC – 479 BC) said:
I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand.

…and was he right or was he right! You learn by doing!

Also, Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969, A speech to the National Defence
Executive Reserve Conference in Washington, DC on Nov. 14, 1957) once said that “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything”.

He had realized that although you do not always follow your plans, it is important to plan (or practice, train) in order to be prepared for the unexpected.

We do live in the “knowledge era” and Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790, US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer) also coined an interesting phrase:
“An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.“

People claim that we live in the fastest era ever, still, the quotes above do carry some wisdom relevant also today.