[MUSIC] In the last video, we talked about rapid visualization, and why it's an important element of ideation. In this video, well put those skills to use and teach you how to lead an effective brainstorm. A successful brain storm is not an ad hoc exercise. It must be thoughtfully planned and executed in order to get actionable results. There are three key elements to a successful brain storm, a place, a plan, and people. First you need to identify and or create a place that maximizes the team's creativity. When you think about choosing a location, consider selecting an environment where people will feel relaxed, a place where social hierarchies are not at play. So not in someone's office. Find a room where sound is relatively isolated so people's conversations can be boisterous and lively without disturbing others. We want a space where there's room enough to spread out and collaborate, one that inspires a different way of thinking. So not at your desk and not in your office. Supplies we suggest bringing for your brainstorm include bold markers which can be read from a distance, sticky notes, half sheets of paper, and tape. You'll also want to think about a large wall or a clear panel where the ideas can be posted for everyone to see and interact with. The next step is to make a plan. You want to clearly define your objectives in advance. What do you hope to achieve? How can this group of people help? Use a How Might We statement to frame the session and offer your team some inspiration. Need a quick, five minute warm-up activity to get people active and engaged. For example, conduct a simple, fun brainstorm on an individual topic other than the one that you are going to solve. This gets people in the right frame of mind. The notion of time is critically important to a successful brainstorm. An individual session should last no more than 30 minutes. You will need to sense the energy in the room and be prepared to adjust accordingly. Brainstorming is like popping popcorn, it's slow to start. But eventually gets going fast and then towards the end, it slows down again. Call it quits before the popcorn burns. We found conducting these sessions in the morning maximizes the alertness and energy of the team. We also recommend coming into the session with some individual pre-work in order to hit the ground running. This pre-work may include reviewing the problem statement, prior research, and even the rapid visualization of a quick idea to share with a larger group. Finally, think about the people you want to include. You need to invite a diverse group of people who bring different perspectives to the problem. They may represent key stakeholders from various business groups like marketing, R&D, design, engineering, manufacturing, or operations. Mostly, they should be great at generating ideas and willing participants. Fresh perspectives are important, and it's okay to invite people who have no expertise. The focus of this session is to create possibilities over probabilities. This requires an optimistic mindset and the discipline not to be judgmental. So let's see what this looks like. The team is exploring ideas around the future of the library, and how it could change. Notice how there are no bystanders. Everyone in this session is actively involved in the brainstorming process. Everyone also appears to be well rested and ready to go. Antonio is leading the brainstorming session. He brought supplies and a warm-up activity. Now that they're ready to begin brainstorming, Antonio presents the first How Might We statement, for he and Brandon to brainstorm around. In this case the team is brainstorming around the question, how might we transform the traditional public library into a hub for youth creativity? Notice how they are both visualizing their concepts with a simple sketch and verbalizing them as they put them up. That way they can build on each other's ideas. Antonio had an idea that built upon one Brandon originally posed. Notice how Brandon's idea seemed to spark Antonio's thinking, and help him generate another idea. Brandon just posed an outrageous solution. Antonio's excited about the idea, even though it seems implausible. By doing this, Antonio is encouraging more out of the box thinking. Notice what isn't happening. Neither Brandon nor Antonio has critiqued any of the solutions that have been generated. Notice there are no devil's advocates in a brainstorming session. There will be plenty of time to decide whether or not an idea has merit or is technically feasible afterwards. A brainstorm is neither the time nor place. Healthy environments for innovation involve lots of conditional language, such as, I wonder... What if... Could we? At this point, things are starting to die down in this session. Antonio could now transition to a new question to brainstorm around, which allows for a different approach to another facet of the subject and stimulate more ideas, or maybe it's time to step back and look at what we've got. It's always wise to do shorter sessions and pivot, with fresh prompts whenever the energy starts lagging. For example, you might continue the brainstorm with a question such as, how might we make libraries more inviting to older folks? Or, what if we had to relocate libraries to outer space? Let's take a look at this session here and wrap it up. Wow, there are lots of ideas on the board. Of course, they're flying at different levels. Some are small kernels of ideas, while others are large and rather conceptual. Not all of them are great ideas in isolation, but the team wasn't focused on quality, they were focused on quantity, generating a lot of ideas in a short period of time, that they can sort and categorize later, selecting the best ones to merge or move forward. The brainstorm is a collaborative cycle that enables creative thinking. Don't let people have discussions or evaluate ideas, encourage the team to think expansively, and save critique for a designated time. Ideas will build off each other, so slow starts are okay. Let's take a look at the physical outcome of the brainstorming session. Here are a few of the ideas. Notice how they are captured, each one has a word or two to name the concept, a simple sketch, and maybe a little detail. The goal is to have enough context to know what the idea is after the brainstorm is over. These aren't bulleted lists or short stories. They're simple, but explanatory. Step back to organize what was created. Encourage discussion by finding themes and identifying gaps that will move the team forward. You are essentially doing the same thing you did in the design research phase, looking for patterns and seeing where the energy is. Consider how well the concepts meet the needs and pain points identified by your users. Consider ways of combining discrete ideas and concepts into a broader solution that might work as a system for a broader experience. With that, you can begin to develop a user story, which we will cover in the next video, on storyboarding. [MUSIC]
