Rapid Software Prototyping

“Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate profits.” Edward de Bono

What is Brainstorming?

A method often used in the context of usability engineering or user interface design, brainstorming, sometimes also referred to as Creative Thinking, Thought Showers or Lateral Thinking, is a process by which individuals or groups can generate alternative ideas or solutions for a specific topic or problem. The term brainstorming was coined by Alex Faickney Osborn in the late 40s and early 50s and popularized in his 1953 book, Applied Imagination: Principles and procedures of creative problem-solving. Brainstorming, a group creativity technique, focuses on generating as large a quantity of ideas as possible with the quality of ideas further down the hierarchy of importance. Brainstorming has two phases of activity with the first, the nurturing phase, being the generation of ideas and the second, the analytical phase, evaluating them.

What are the benefits of Brainstorming?

Brainstorming is not only useful in identifying a wide range of ideas and solutions to problems but also in facilitating group cohesiveness and ownership of ideas. Brainstorming allows to generate many ideas in a relatively short time and requires few material resources. Although some studies have shown that individuals working alone can generate more and better ideas by working alone rather than working as a group, brainstorming can help a group to collectively gain a better understand of the problem space. Other benefits of brainstorming include boosting morale, enhancing work enjoyment and improving team work.

How to conduct Brainstorming

Before the session starts, decide on the question or topic that will be tackled by the group during the brainstorming session. The question should be neither too narrow nor too broad. For example, brainstorming on which font works best on a heading is too narrow and brainstorming on how to make customers happy might be to broad. An example of a more appropriate question might be “What service for mobile phones is not available now, but needed?” If a problem is too big it should be broken down into smaller components tackled by their own lead questions. Before the brainstorming session begins one should have a plan on how to record and keep track of the generated ideas. Various methods may be used ranging from a white-board to post-it notes. Whatever materials you decide on, be prepared and have enough for the session. Adequate breaks and refreshments should be offered to counter brainstorming fatigue.

What are the ground rules of Brainstorming?

Reducing social inhibitions among group members, stimulating idea generation and increasing the overall creativity of the group are end-goals of brainstorming. In order to achieve these there are four basic rules in brainstorming. The first, as a means of enhancing divergent idea production, is to focus on the quantity of ideas produced. By spreading as wide a net as possible the idea is to increase the likelihood of producing a radical and effective solution. Secondly, withholding criticism until a later stage is crucial as criticism may become a bottleneck hindering the flow of creativity. Thirdly, in order to generate a sizable list, unusual ideas should be encouraged by suspending assumptions and looking at the topic from new perspectives. Fourthly, improving on and combining ideas to make better ideas should be encouraged. Clarification of ideas is OK but should be brief and to the point in order to spend as much time as possible generating ideas. Go over the ground rules with participants before the session begins.

Considerations when choosing participants for a Brainstorming session

When choosing participants for a brainstorming session one should aim for enough heterogeneity among the group in order to cultivate diversity in ideas. Conversely bringing in too many outsiders who are unknown to a team may result in the group taking a long time to achieve a comfort level. In the context of user interface design, participants are generally involved in the design of a product. Hence, good candidates are potential users of a product and other stakeholders such as experts in the field for which the product is intended. Although brainstorming can be done individually, the ideal size of a group ranges between five and twelve. If the number of participants is too large (i.e. larger than 12) one should split the group into smaller groups.

Other considerations when conducting Brainstorming sessions

A facilitator with good interpersonal skills is crucial in making the most of the brainstorming session by keeping the focus on the topic, including the whole group in the session and motivating participants. The facilitator should be monitoring, recording ideas and enabling participants to come up with ideas, rather than come up with ideas himself.

Analyzing Brainstorming sessions

After gathering a large number of ideas they must be analyzed. Similar ideas are combined, impractical ideas are discarded and, even, new ideas may be generated. Affinity diagrams are one method of doing so. An affinity diagram, developed by the Japanese anthropologist Jiro Kawakita in the 1960s, is a tool used to organize large numbers of ideas and data into groups and further sub-groups for review and analysis. This is done by recording each idea on cards and notes and those most similar are grouped together until there are no more cards left. The same process is repeated within the groups. After forming these, the brainstorming group chooses the best ideas by voting or ranking the items on several criteria. Another method of analyzing brainstorming data is by using a decision matrix. A decision matrix, is a quantitative method that uses the ideas generated from a brainstorming session and a set of criteria (i.e. cost, form factor etc…) for rating the ideas. The matrix is especially useful for looking at large numbers of decision factors and assessing each factor’s relative importance. Participants score each item and the ideas with the highest average rankings are generally considered further. Other ideas can be stored in a database for future reference or for further sessions.