BrainStorming

Like always we will keep this simple

I love using this great requirement gathering technique, it is beautiful and very practical but it all depends on what requirement you are trying to gather. But l can tell you one thing for sure ‘this technique is extremely effective; in short it is ‘terrific’.

When to Use It

This great technique (I call it great because it has made life easy for me on several occasions) should and can be used when the need is to generate or gather lots of new ideas (some guy calls it free-wheeling divergent ideas) and solutions. It is a quick way of grabbing list of possibilities.

Example

• When trying to identify range of new products
• Seeking ideas on how to reorganize the team or the business
• Developing list of criteria
• Thinking of an idea for the name of a new business

How to prepare

• Define the area of interest (please, please and please, this has to be very clear and concise there should be no ambiguity) 

• Determine time limit for the exercise, the larger the group the more the time (please note that it will be a big punishment to ask adults to seat for hours or a day doing this, they may get tired after a while and shut down, so timing is extremely important. You can plan for breaks at intervals and having refreshments is a great idea)

• Decide the number of participants (ideally 6 to 12) who represent a range of background and experience with the topic. When inviting individuals to the session, consider people with different backgrounds and degrees of expertise. Sometimes a fresh outlook comes from someone who isn't considered an expert or close to the problem. (If you are doing this in an organization be careful about mixing management levels. Often in the presence a senior-level manager, people either will be reluctant to participate or will completely overdo it).

• When you are sending invites to the participants, include a brief explanation of the problem and its history. This will help them prepare ahead of the session 

• Establish the criteria for evaluating and rating the ideas (this is so very important that without it you may not get the full benefit from this technique, but not to worry l will give you the most commonly used criteria and you can develop yours if you want and can)

Below are the commonly used criteria, which l also use most times:

Criteria	Meaning
Excellent	Definitely will work and can be implemented immediately
Interesting	Will possibly work or may require further analysis to decide if it will work. Needs more investigating. May work in the future
Useless	Will not work

Conducting the Session

When you have everybody seated and ready ‘to-go’

• Distribute a copy of the rules of brainstorming before the session begins. The rules are: 
• Criticism of ideas isn't allowed
• All ideas, no matter how wild, are encouraged the more ideas, the better
• Every participant should try to build on or combine the ideas of others

• Write the objective of the session where everyone in the room can see it. Put it in a question form, starting with either "How can we…?" or "What can be done to…?" For example, "How can we better understand the needs of our customers?" or "What can be done to improve the quality of this product?" 

• Like l mentioned earlier, in a long session, take plenty of breaks so that people can continue to concentrate

• Please ensure that no one criticizes or evaluates ideas during the session. Doing this may introduce an element of risk for group members when putting forward an idea. This stifles creativity and cripples the free running nature of a good brainstorming session.

• The participants can write their ideas on the small colored ‘stick it’ papers and stick them on the board or they can be saying them while the facilitator writes them down on the board

Concluding the session

• Create a condensed list of ideas, (grouping similar ideas together) combine ideas where appropriate, and eliminate duplicates. 

• Using the pre-determined evaluation criteria, discuss and evaluate the ideas 

• Rate the ideas. There are many techniques that can be used to prioritize the ideas, e.g. multivoting. 

• Distribute the final list of ideas to appropriate parties. 

• Close the session by thanking the participants (let them know they have been a wonderful bunch) and describing what will happen to the ideas.

Contributors are needed for this blog, (guest posts) if you have anything that you know will add value or that someone can learn from and you are willing to share with others, please contact me via ucheagu@gmail.com

Contributors will be acknowledged in their articles.