5 Effective Brainstorming Techniques For Your Next Ideation

The concept of brainstorming brings together an approach to solving problems by thinking laterally. People become encouraged to express their own individual ideas. While some of the ideas can seem crazy, a lot of them can be seen as creative and ultimately a solution to a problem. Some ideas could also create other ideas. This is a great way to get your brain to think on a broader scale.

What you want to do is create an environment that is calm and relaxing. Try to eliminate the assumptions of a problem's many limits. If you are new to brainstorming, then you will be glad to know about our 5 effective brainstorming techniques for your next ideation.


1. Brainwriting

Brainwriting is a technique that involves the generation of idea separation based on the discussion. The responsibility of the team leader is to present a topic, then the team writes down their individual thoughts.

This will eliminate a process known as "anchoring" and allows all members to share their individual ideas to the group. This also allows team members to give more thought into their idea, this will help all of your team members who are introverted . Using this technique is great for certain teams that become influenced by the first idea that comes up.

Having individual team members think on their own, without feeling distracted allows the generation of concepts that may not otherwise be brought up. Individual uses of brainstorming like the brainwriting technique will open new avenues of ideas.


2. Figuring Storming

Putting yourself in other's shoes is a great example of figuring storming. When you are thinking about your idea, think of what other people might say about it. This could open up many different ideas. Figuring sharing is more successful among groups that develop similar ideas for every new project.

After the topic is given simply ask, what would the president of the United States think or do? When you involve a third person, you are able to expand the ideas that may otherwise be limited. Using this technique allows the team members to have more than one point-of-view.

3. Starbursting

Starbursting focuses more on forming questions rather than supplying answers. With this technique, the leader challenges members to generate as many questions as they possibly can about a certain topic.

The leader can start the session by asking team members some questions regarding a particular topic. Then, the team members list questions that deal with the WH-questions: the who, what, when, where and why (and how).


During the session, there is no need to encourage the team members to answer any of the questions as they go. Let them concentrate on thinking up as many questions as possible. Depending on the scope of the session, you can further starbursting sessions to let the team members explore the answers later.

With this technique, instead of asking for answers, listing questions stirs up new questions. This will help everyone gauge a new idea. It’s a good technique to use in helping the teams to see the full scope of a project.

4. Rapid Ideation

If you are limited on time but need to think of ideas fast, then using rapid ideation is a good way of how to use brainstorming to your benefit. This technique works by receiving information from the team leader ahead of time regarding certain topic information. A time limit is then set where members must then write down all of their ideas concerning the topic by using all available mediums. Members should only write down what comes to mind.

What makes this technique so great is that you can easily customize the ideas that your team members give. Team members can use several mediums while writing their ideas like whiteboards, pencils, pens, and even post-its. Whatever you can get ahold of that'll get your creative side to start functioning on overdrive.

Normally, for rapid ideation to work, the time limit should be no more than 45 minutes long. But, it can be longer if your topic is complex in nature. If you notice that your team members get distracted a lot, then you might want to implement this technique as soon as possible.


5. The Stepladder Technique

The stepladder technique was first utilized in 1992 and encourages all team members to contribute their own individual ideas prior to hearing any influential ideas.

Leading a meeting or a brainstorming session using this technique starts by the topic being shared by the team leader to the entire group. After the topic is shared, two team members remain in the room. The two team members begin to discuss both the topic and ideas.

Afterward, a member is added to the group where they share their idea before the other two shares their idea. This process is repeated until all original members are back together.

The stepladder technique is very useful for teams that have members who are influenced by other members. This is also a great way to let any shy members contribute their ideas to the group without worrying about other people intimidating them.

So, if you want to utilize a mature brainstorming technique that combines a group and individual, then the stepladder is a technique that works great for all group sizes. But keep in mind that if your groups exceed 15 members, your brainstorming session will take longer.

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