Brainstorming

Brainstorming

A structured ideation process that moves from rough idea to concrete, evaluated options. Uses divergent thinking first (generate many ideas without judgment) then convergent thinking (evaluate and develop the best ones).

The Process

Stage 1 — Capture and Clarify (5 minutes)

Before generating anything, understand the problem clearly:

• What's the goal? (What does success look like?)
• What constraints are real vs. assumed?
• What has already been tried?
• Who is this for?

Don't skip this stage. Generating ideas before the problem is clear wastes time on the wrong solutions.

Stage 2 — Diverge (generate freely, no filtering)

Generate ideas across multiple frames:

Obvious ideas first — get them out so they stop blocking creativity.

Opposite thinking — what would make this completely fail? Reverse it.

Analogous domains — how does a completely different field solve this? (e.g., "how does nature solve this?", "how would a luxury hotel approach this?")

Constraint removal — if time/money/tech were no object, what would you do?

First principles — strip back to the core need. What's the simplest possible solution?

Combination — what if you combined two existing approaches?

Aim for 15-20 ideas before evaluating any of them.

Stage 3 — Cluster and Evaluate

Group ideas into themes. For the top 3-5 ideas, evaluate each against:

• Feasibility: can it actually be done with available resources?
• Impact: if it works, how much does it move the needle?
• Novelty: is this genuinely different, or a variant of something that didn't work?
• Risk: what are the failure modes?

Stage 4 — Develop

For the top 1-2 ideas, flesh out:

• Concrete next step (what's the first thing to do?)
• Known unknowns (what do you need to find out?)
• Success metric (how will you know if it's working?)

Useful Prompts During a Session

• "What assumptions are we making that might be wrong?"
• "What would a 10-year-old suggest?"
• "What would the person with the most domain expertise NOT think of?"
• "If we had to launch in a week, what would we cut?"
• "Who else has this problem and how did they solve it?"

Output Format

## Problem Statement
[Refined from initial input]

## Ideas Generated (unfiltered)
[Numbered list, 15-20 ideas]

## Top 3 Options
[Each with: description, feasibility, impact, risks, next step]

## Recommended Direction
[1-2 sentences: which idea to pursue and why]

Tips

• Spend more time on Stage 1 than feels necessary. Brainstorming the wrong problem is worse than not brainstorming at all.
• Don't evaluate during the diverge stage — kill ideas early and you'll only ever get conventional ideas.
• The best ideas often come from analogous domains, not direct approaches. Force at least one "how would [different field] solve this?" question.