Creativity is an essential part of business. Whether it be marketing, advertising, product development, etc. those creative juices are essential for brainstorming how to move your business or idea forward. So, how do you get your brain in gear? You may have a genre of music you like to listen to, or a snack you like to eat while working. You may also use one of these techniques to brainstorm, or if you don’t, maybe give them a try!
Individual Brainstorming Techniques
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis is a more traditional business technique to help you understand where your business and solution sits within a marketplace. Using this technique allows you to consider multiple angles of your big idea by analyzing your business or idea by considering potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can be related to the product, your team, business model, etc.
Mind Mapping
Mind mapping is a great way to organize your thoughts. You start by drawing a central circle for your main project, and from there branch out! Use lines, symbols, colors, images, and words to connect that main project to other information. Go on to make second branches and thirds. The map will allow you to keep the ideas that relate to each other connected.
Reverse Brainstorming
Instead of brainstorming solutions to your problem, you brainstorm actual problems. We have a natural ability to see problems easier than seeing potential solutions. Use this to identify hurdles your team might face when working on a project. It’s a brainstorm session to find all the ways a plan could fail (and then you can go through and think about how to prevent that from happening!)
Iowa State Students brainstorming ways entrepreneurship and business skills they have learned can benefit the community in Kampala Uganda.
Brainstorming Techniques for Groups
KinoSol has experienced some great teamwork and group brainstorming within the KinoSol team, and students studying abroad! Group brainstorming can improve individual creativity. Get your team together to expand on your big idea. Or if you don’t have a team quite yet, gather up some friends and family to get the process started!
Ladder
Start with two people and allow them to discuss the problem or topic at hand, then add a third person, and a fourth and keep adding people until your whole group has contributed. This should let each group member share their best ideas. It also helps the group build on each other’s ideas.
Brainwriting
Allow each team member to write down two or three ideas they have on a paper. Then pass the papers around the table and let everyone add onto your idea. Once everyone has added to every idea the team can discuss them. Think of this like a written game of telephone where instead of repeating what’s there you get to add to it to make it even better!
Brain Netting
An online brainstorming session! If your team is split up across the United States, other countries, or working from home via a global pandemic, a good way to still produce good teamwork is by using an online platform. Going digital allows everyone to write their ideas whenever and wherever they have a lightbulb moment. The rest of the team can follow up on that idea and add to it online. You can work together by sharing documents and hosting video calls with each other.
KinoSol has been using online platforms such as Google Drive and Airtable to record our ideas. Our team can make comments, changes and updates on ideas easily, and with everyone having access it’s easy to stay in the loop on updates!
Change of Scenery
At KinoSol we appreciate the lunch get-togethers to discuss ideas! Physical space can impact an individual’s creativity, feelings, and overall work. If the same group of people brainstorm in the same place all the time, these brainstorm sessions can become repetitive and boring. Often switching up the environment can help people think differently. Taking your team outside their normal office, to the park, out to eat, or to a different room can help get new ideas flowing!
These are just a few brainstorming techniques that you can use as you work to solve a problem and launch your big idea! Hopefully they can help get your creativity juices flowing and put you on the right path and empower your Big Idea! For more help brainstorming, check out the Launch Impact courses!