Innovation of the Week: Brainstorm Lite

Posted by: meikah | 30 March 2007 | 4:30 am

If you’re the kind of person who gets things done by writing your every task on post-its, then Brainstorm Lite may just be your kind of thing, too.

Over at ZDNet.com, Marc Orchant talks about a new innovation and accordingly a better version to sticky notes.

Brainstorm Lite (Mac only) which is a perfect replacement for sticky notes in a brainstorming technique I use frequently in meetings and coaching session. It is a digital version of the sticky notes that allows you to define the brainstorming time period and capture each participant’s output as an OPML, RTF, or text file which can easily be imported into a mind mapping tool, spreadsheet program, or word processor for aggregation, clustering, and labeling.

Here’s how it works:

1. Give each participant a sticky notes pad and a medium tip black marker
2. On a white board (best) or an easel pad, write the question or topic you’re brainstorming
3. Define a short time period (five minutes is usually more than enough) and have everyone write as many ideas as possible - you’re after quantity, not quality at this point. All ideas are good - the crazier the better. Encourage everyone to write as quickly as they can and keep each though to a few words (hence the marker and not a pen or pencil). Write big!
4. At the end of the time period, everyone slaps their notes on the white board and reviews all of the ideas. Again, time box this review – two to three minutes is usually enough. During this review, anyone can add a few additional ideas if something they see inspiresthem.
5. Now ask everyone to collectively participate in clustering similar ideas together into groups. Encourage discussion and debate.

Continue reading…

Brainstorm Lite sounds really cool, but it is only available to Mac users? Also, some people might still prefer the colorful sticky notes.

 Filed under: Team Dynamics, Innovation Update, Technology | |