Projects and operations
Template: documentation from a brainstorming session
A template for capturing the result of a brainstorm, with all the ideas, the ones taken forward, and the ones rejected with a reason.
BRAINSTORM: [topic]
[date], [__.__]–[__.__] | [place]
Facilitator: [name]
PARTICIPANTS
[Name, name, name]
THE QUESTION
[What we were looking for ideas about, in one sentence.]
CONSTRAINTS
[What the ideas have to stay inside: budget, time, technology, law.
Write them down BEFORE the brainstorm, not afterwards.]
ALL THE IDEAS
[No judging here. Everything that came up, grouped by theme.]
1. [Idea]
2. [Idea]
3. [Idea]
TAKEN FORWARD
| # | Idea | Why | Next step | Owner | Due |
|---|------|-----|-----------|-------|-----|
| 1 | | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | |
REJECTED, WITH A REASON
- [Idea]: [why not now. Write "not now" rather than "no" where it
really is about timing.]
PARKED FOR LATER
- [Idea]: [when it might be relevant again]
Documented by: [name]How to use it
- Write the constraints before the brainstorm. A brainstorm without constraints produces proposals that have to be rejected for reasons everybody knew in advance, and that drains the energy.
- Keep all the ideas separate from the judging. If the two are mixed, people become careful, and then the exercise has lost its point.
- Give reasons for the noes. That is the part that means the same idea does not have to be discussed from scratch again in the autumn.
- Take two or three forward. Twelve ideas to be explored means in practice that none will be.
See also
Workshop for longer working sessions with several exercises, and review meeting for retrospectives.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, with a reason. Ideas rejected without documentation come back in six months and get discussed from scratch. The list of noes is often worth more than the list of yeses.
Write as you go without judging, and do the judging as a separate step at the end. If the two are mixed, people become careful about proposing anything, and then the exercise loses its whole point.
Two or three. A brainstorm that ends with twelve ideas to be explored ends in practice with none of them being explored.