I used to hear this a lot: “brainstorming sessions are pointless”
PMs.
Engineers.
Various stakeholders.
🙄
I get it.
Poorly run brainstorming sessions look something like this:
You sit in a room.
Someone throws out "crazy ideas".
Half the team checks their phones.
The other half nods politely at whatever the loudest person says.
Then you walk out with more confusion than when you walked in.
We've all been there. And it sucks.
It sucks more when you're the one facilitating it, you look at the engineers in the room, and they're completely zoned-out.
When I got into UX, I used to sit in those kinda sessions.
We'd spend 2 hours to generate ideas. Ideas we could've Googled in 5 minutes. But no, we had to waste 5 people's time with this kind of "collaboration".
2 hours for 5 people. That's 10 (total) hours!
I don't think great products come from committee thinking. They come from structured creative chaos.
So what does structure creative chaos look like? What does a effective facilitated session include?
I'm gonna teach you how I run a 30-minute brainstorm that actually works. One that does bore the socks off your colleagues.
Step 1: Frame the problem (5 min)
Don't start with solutions. Start with suffering.
Instead of: "Users don't complete onboarding"
Try: "Users feel like idiots 2 minutes into setup"
Make it human. Make it hurt a little. Make it the worst case scenario because it's in our biological nature.
Get negative and watch even the most poker face colleague be engaged with a list of potential shitstorms that could occur.
Step 2: Idea sprint (10 min)
Set a timer. Use Crazy 8s (fold paper into 8 squares, sketch 8 ideas in 8 minutes).
We always want to stick to the golden rule: quantity over quality.
Go absolutely nuts.
I mean it. I like to make it a mini-game, and call out the person will the most ideas, so folks get competitive.
Typically the first 2 ideas will be meh. Ideas 3-4 will be better. But idea 6 is probably super whacky.
Keep going. Have prompts. Brainstorm out loud so participants can riff off it.
Step 3: Cluster and expand (10 min)
Huddle as a team. Ideally, around a whiteboard.
Affinity diagram that shhhh and group similar ideas. Look for patterns. Give them a theme or name Ask folks to clarify. Draw connections. Rearrange on the fly.
Find the weird outlier that makes everyone go "hmm..."
That's what you're looking for.
Step 4: Reality check (5 min)
Ask the room:
- Does this solve the actual problem?
- Can we build it?
- Does anyone care?
If you don't know, jus parking lot the idea.
Keep the yeses. Kill the rest.
~
Add more time if you have a bigger group or a really complex problem. ~30 minutes is usually enough for a team of 3-4.
Don't think that creativity will strike like lightning while you're singing to Tay Tay in the shower.
Creativity isn't magic.
Creativity is a muscle.
And like any muscle, y'all need the conditions for it grow strong 💪
The structure is key here:
- The time limit forces action
- The problem framing aligns thinking
- The reality check keeps you (and everyone) honest
Plus, quiet designers finally get heard and loud stakeholders can't hijack the process (if you're comfortable with telling them to STFU politely).
I've used this method with my teams, in my community workshops, and onsite with clients (think huge name + budgets that I'm literally shaking on the inside).
And it worked every damn time.
I break down each step in more detail (plus there's a video on how I run these sessions) ↓
