Brainstorming: 5 techniques to find the right idea

by Abdul Rimaaz Abdul Rimaaz Business Consultants UK

An effective brainstorming allows you to find the right idea for your business: find out on the blog which are the 5 best techniques to encourage creative thinking for marketing purposes

Finding the right idea for your business isn't always easy. A particular methodology aimed at encouraging creative thinking is that of the so-called brainstorming , an English term that has become very popular in recent years also in Italy, not only in the field of Marketing.

Many talk about brainstorming, but not everyone knows the most effective techniques of this methodology , capable of helping those who have a business to stand out from the competition by finding particularly performing creative solutions.

This guide explains in detail what brainstorming is and how to do it effectively thanks to 5 techniques that are particularly useful for finding new Marketing solutions.

What is brainstorming and what is it for

Brainstorming is a creative thinking technique popularized in the 1950s by advertising executive Alex Faickney Osborn .

Specifically, the brainstorming methodology involves group work aimed at identifying new ideas useful for solving problems and developing an effective marketing plan . On a more practical level, brainstorming consists in organizing a meeting focused on a specific problem , in which each participant is free to propose solutions of any kind to the problem, even bizarre and apparently not very logical. During the meeting, no solution is censored or discarded , since the criticism and selection process is postponed to a later date, once the session is over.

The 5 most effective brainstorming techniques

Now that it is clearer what brainstorming is and what it is used for, it is time to analyze in more detail what are the most effective techniques, thanks to some examples of brainstorming.

Classic brainstorming

As we have already mentioned, the purpose of brainstorming is to select the best idea for your business from a very wide range of proposals.

One of the most useful tips to make a "classic" brainstorming really effective is to create an environment capable of encouraging and supporting the contribution of each participant , who must feel free to propose their own personal solution to the problem without fear of being judged.

The other suggestion to make brainstorming fruitful is to define in detail the problem to be solved in such a way that all possible solutions, even if proposed in an atmosphere of absolute freedom, are relevant.

Reverse brainstorming

Unlike classic brainstorming, reverse brainstorming, as can easily be deduced from the name, turns the point upside down: after having precisely defined the problem to be solved, in fact, the participants in the session are called to find solutions to the opposite problem , that is diametrically opposite to that introduced at the beginning, from gaps identified following the analysis of competition to problems in communication or in other sectors. The solutions found will inevitably have a negative effect on the original problem, but it will be enough to reverse the ideas to make them applicable.

The great advantage of this method is that it allows you to see the problem from an opposite perspective, so as to understand it better.

The 6-3-5 method

The 6-3-5 method introduces some stakes in the brainstorming aimed at neutralizing the possible inconveniences generated by the context of freedom in which this particular methodology is developed. This particular methodology, in fact, has the advantage of avoiding that the discussion derails from the central theme or that it is dominated by one or two predominant voices over the rest of the group.

The " 6 " equals the ideal number of participants in the brainstorming session, to which a seventh element is added with the task of moderating the various interventions.

“ 3 ” is the maximum number of solutions that each participant can propose in each session.

The “ 5 ” indicates the minutes associated with the different phases of the brainstorming.

Brainstorming in round robin mode

To overcome the problem that the brainstorming session is polarized on the contributions of one or two participants, there is another method: the round robin . This methodology serves to make sure that everyone proposes their own personal solution to the problem: each participant has to write his idea on a sheet of paper and pass it to another participant, who in turn has to add his contribution and continue to pass the paper, for a predetermined number of "rounds". In this way everyone has a say and the idea proposed by one participant can serve as a starting point for another, who can improve it up to the most effective solution.

The rolestorming

Traditional brainstorming brings with it some inconveniences: we often stop after finding an apparently effective solution or do not share some ideas because they are considered too out of the box or because their own personality is "crushed" by that of the other participants.

The rolestorming serves to circumvent all these negative factors: this brainstorming methodology introduces in the session a role for each participant, which serves to direct his way of relating to the problem. With this type of brainstorming it is easier to observe the problem from a different point of view than your own and, therefore, to identify possible solutions that, otherwise, would not have even been considered.

Source: Brainstorming: 5 techniques to find the right idea