Product Tools – Brainstorming

Introduction

Brainstorming is the act of coming up with new ideas/solutions for existing opportunities/problems. During the process, free thinking and open communication should be encouraged — an open and innovated environment is the ideal landscape for an effective brainstorming session.

How do I Brainstorm?

There are many ways to Brainstorm — two of the ways I use more often than not are Mind Mapping and SCAMPER. Nonetheless, here are a few other methods you may want to implement.

The 5 Whys Method

This method has you ask “why” five times to get to as specific an idea as possible. The idea behind this approach is to dig beyond the surface, i.e. what if what you know about something is a symptom of a larger problem? By asking “why” over and over again, you make a conscious effort to see if the symptom is actually the root issue or not.

Rapid Ideation

In this approach, instead of the team verbally communicating ideas, each person writes out one or more ideas they have within a set period of time. This is particularly useful if you have a subset of your team being more outgoing and dominating of a conversation, as it gives the more reserved members of your team an opportunity to contribute their ideas to the mix.

Reverse Brainstorming

The idea with this method is that instead of starting with a problem and thinking up solutions to that problem, you instead ideate on the problem instead of the solution. This helps you and your team to anticipate future obstacles and blockers that could arise as you work towards implementing a solution to the problem.

Conclusion

Brainstorming is an exercise I recommend you and your team regularly practice. Too often, individuals may get stuck on a particular train of thought and not allow much, if any, opportunity to explore other trains of thought (because “this one thing I thought of is so good, that we should just do that and not waste time with anything else”). Perspective is an incredibly useful tool for product managers and the teams that develop and maintain a product because, like nearly anything else in life, it doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion, a second set of eyes, or a second look at what great ideas might be hiding under your nose.