Make your brainstorming better with this technique


Illustration by Chloe Cushman/National Post

Everyone knows companies have to become more innovative, but how? Most people have no idea how to be creative on demand, and brainstorming, management’s go-to tool of the past 50 years, is aging fast. A Google search for the phrase “Brainstorming is broken” yields 25,000 results.

But what if brainstorming could be made to work?

At an exclusive training session last week in Toronto, a dozen young entrepreneurs learned a new way of brainstorming derived from “design thinking,” which purports to put human experience at the centre of all activity. After watching these entrepreneurs up their game in just a few hours, I believe this approach can make your next brainstorming session a winner.

The entrepreneurs in this session were winners of the Spin Master Innovation Program, a contest that seeks out Canada’s most innovative startups. Co-founded by Toronto toy company Spin Master Ltd. and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, the program gives each winning business $50,000 in financing (repayable), a custom mentorship program, and a two-day bootcamp. Day 2 was spent learning customer-centered brainstorming from Deloitte innovation coach Fei Yu.

Yu started the day by noting that design thinking isn’t about pretty pictures: it’s a different way of thinking, based on customer needs. Traditional thinking, she says, might ask: “What can we sell to customers?” Design thinking would ask: “What job does our customer need to accomplish?” Breaking out of fixed mindsets is the first step to surfacing new ideas.

The “Design Thinker” system taught by Yu was created by IDEO, a Palo Alto, Calif. design firm known for designing the Apple III and Apple’s first computer mouse. It differs from older brainstorming techniques by employing design tools such as storytelling, prototyping and experimenting to test good ideas sooner.

Yu asked us to solve the following problem: Just 40% of homeowners in the fictitious town of Los Verdes recycle; Mayor Johnson is looking for ways to raise that participation rate. Divided into five teams, the young entrepreneurs are eager to begin, but Yu slows us down. The first step, she says, is to “Define the Challenge.” Should we be trying to boost the participation rate to 50%? Or to increase all sustainable behaviours among the citizens of Los Verdes?

Yu suggests the second approach. Innovation is about putting tasks into larger contexts, she says; this creates scope for creativity. Besides, you often find your answer one level up from the problem you’re trying to solve.

The next step in design-influenced innovation is observation. To reduce bias, you must learn how real users behave when they want to solve the problem you’re trying to help with. Often this means following people to their homes and offices. Yu handed out two booklets showing “a day in the life” of Jennifer, a dedicated environmentalist, and Chris, a self-absorbed non-recycler. Participants chewed over this data for insights: Why does Jennifer drive to work? Why does Chris recycle paper but not pop cans? Yu had us rate each insight based on three criteria: How Authentic is it? How Non-Obvious? How Revealing?

Now the real brainstorming began. IDEO’s ground rules: Encourage wild ideas; defer judgment; stay focused on the topic; be visual; go for quantity — set a goal for the number of ideas you hope to generate, and then surpass it. “The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas,” Yu, quoted U.S. scientist Linus Pauling.

After capturing 150 ideas on sticky notes, Yu asked us to select the best. Her criteria: Which ideas are the most inspirational? Which are the most “connected” to the problem? Which are most relevant to the original challenge? Each group picked a favourite idea.

But what to do with ideas once you have them? This is where brainstorming usually fails. Design Thinker pushes practitioners to develop cheap, quick ways to test their ideas. Yu asked each group to devise an experiment that can be conducted in a day for less than $100. It’s a classic design trope: constraints help us get things done.

Yu gave each team 90 seconds to present its experiment. To help them communicate, she taught them to use storyboards — a classic device in advertising where you use rough sketches to convey complex ideas. Each team would prepare a four-frame storyboard to depict the problem, solution, and how it would work.

We found communicating through pictures is a key filter for enhancing our ideas. Even childlike scrawls with stick people proved powerful tools for conveying complex details. They also make it easier for everyone to remember each solution later when the ideas are discussed and voted on.

In the end, everyone won. The entrepreneurs formed back into company groups to use these techniques to solve a challenge in their own businesses. I was surprised how fast they embraced their new tools. And I could see how drawing the solutions helped turn new ideas into concrete tasks.

Montreal-based Miriam Groom will use her new insights to target a new test market for her service connecting Canadian employers with skilled workers overseas. George Phu of Mississauga, Ont., developed a new pricing model for his event-planning service, GrandezVous.

Then there were the three co-founders of Immune Biosolutions, a producer of antibody products from Sherbooke, Que. “We’re scientists,” insisted president Frédéric Leduc. “We’re used to learning by observation, being objective, and testing hypotheses.” Whether you side with science or design, it’s great to know there are better ways to innovate.

