Innovation begins with an idea. How could we make something new or something that exists even better? There are new things being invented every day. In such a competitive environment, every business should be constantly brainstorming new ideas to become more competitive, more efficient, and provide more value to the customer.

But how can you brainstorm effectively, and how can it fuel innovation in business? Let’s find out as we explore and analyze 5 different brainstorming methods and the best situations to apply them.

What is Brainstorming?

We’ve all brainstormed ideas before, but what exactly is brainstorming? It’s a way to solve problems creatively, encouraging people to come up with a large variety of ideas. When you brainstorm, you’re pulling from your unique experiences and perspective in order to create a new product, process, method, or idea.

It’s a structured approach designed to promote innovative thinking, and it is incredibly helpful in a business environment.

How is Brainstorming Helpful for Innovation?

Innovation and creativity are really important in order for a business to grow or remain relevant. You have to constantly think of new ideas, and brainstorming enables you to think of new products, marketing campaigns, and much more. Here’s how it can help:

1. Product Planning: Brainstorming sessions can help create unique features, enhancements, or entirely new product ideas. New, cutting edge technology and constant innovation are what made companies like Apple so successful. Brainstorming helps ensure your products or services remain cutting-edge and meet the evolving needs of your customers.
2. Product Creation and Development: When turning an idea into a tangible product, brainstorming helps with refining concepts, addressing potential challenges, and optimizing the design and functionality of your products. It helps
3. Marketing Campaigns: Creativity is the lifeblood of marketing. Brainstorming can be a breeding ground for innovative and compelling campaign ideas that capture the attention of your target audience.
4. Business Strategy: Strategic planning relies on innovative thinking. Brainstorming can identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and formulate growth strategies that set your business on a path to success.

(To Learn How to create a SWOT analysis for your Business Strategy, click here)

Types of Brainstorming Exercises

There are 5 brainstorming methods that are used For each method, we’ll look at how to conduct it, its pros, cons, and when it’s most useful.

1. Traditional Brainstorming

Traditional brainstorming is what you would typically think of as brainstorming. A group of people gather together to come up with and bounce ideas off of one another.

How-To:

1. Gather a group together for the brainstorming session
2. Define the topic
3. Encourage the group to come up with ideas relevant to the topic. Group members say their ideas out loud.
4. Record all ideas without judgement

Pros: Encourages participation, fosters creativity, and generates a large volume of ideas.

Cons: Risk of idea repetition/groupthink, more vocal group members get more time, and lack of structured focus.

Most Useful When: Exploring initial concepts or seeking a diverse range of ideas.

2. Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is good for structuring content and seeing relationships between subjects. You start with a main word/topic and write relevant words/subtopics that branch out from it.

How-To:

1. Put the main idea, subject or focus down in the center of a piece of paper. Draw a circle around it.
2. Think of ideas for “subtopics” that relate to the main subject. Write those around the main circle, and draw circles around those. Connect the subtopic circles with the first circle.
3. Break these subtopics down further with supporting details, and repeat the process, connecting these details to the subtopics they relate to.

It ends up being an organized web of words all relating to your topic.

Pros: Promotes visual thinking, highlights connections, and helps with organizing complex ideas.

Cons: May not be suitable for all topics/projects, can become too intricate.

Most Useful When: Structuring ideas, revealing relationships, and breaking down complex problems. Mind mapping is used a lot in creating and organizing content in blogs.

3. Brainwriting

Brainwriting is a silent method of brainstorming in a group. People have the opportunity to share their ideas and build upon the ideas of others without speaking to each other. The group comes together in the end to talk about the ideas that were generated.

How-To:

1. Gather into your group, and give each person a piece of paper and something to write with.
2. Decide on the topic, idea, or problem to be solved
3. Set a time limit
4. Each person writes down their ideas on how to solve the question or problem.
5. When the time is up, they pass their paper to the next person who then reviews the ideas and adds to them. 
6. Once the papers have reached everyone at least once, the team shares all the ideas.

Pros: Encourages quieter team members to contribute, reduces the influence of dominant voices.

Cons: Can be time-consuming, and not ideal for rapid idea generation.

Most Useful When: Fostering diverse contributions and ensuring everyone’s ideas are heard

4. Six Thinking Hats

This is a method designed to get you to look at an issue from multiple perspectives. Each “hat” your group wears correlates to one of 6 views, and it forces each person to consider that viewpoints.

How-To:

1. Gather in your group
2. Agree on the topic being discussed
3. Agree with a hat to wear first
4. Take notes
5. Wear another hat, and repeat until all of the hats are worn

Pros: Encourages various perspectives, reduces conflict, and guides structured thinking.

Cons: Requires clear guidelines, and may feel fake to some participants.

Most Useful When: Analyzing ideas from multiple angles and minimizing/challenging biases.

5. SCAMPER

The SCAMPER method is a good choice for brainstorming when you already have a basic idea, but you need to refine it further. You have to look at the idea from 7 different angles. SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Minify, or Magnify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate or Elaborate, Reverse.

How-To:

1. Gather in your group
2. Agree on the process or idea being looked at and ask the following questions
3. Substitute- Can one process be substituted for another? Are there any alternative solutions to the issue?
4. Combine- Can two or more of these ideas/processes be combined together?
5. Adapt- Can the ideas be adjusted/tweaked?
6. Modify, Minify, or Magnify- Can it be changed in a way that it encourages innovation? Is is scalable?
7. Put to Another Use- Can we use existing materials/resources to solve new problems?
8. Eliminate or Elaborate- What can be removed to improve?
9. Reverse- What would it look like if we changed the order of the process?

Utilizes a set of prompts to examine and modify existing ideas (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse).

Pros: Encourages idea transformation, generates innovative adaptations, good for processes.

Cons: Not great for generating new ideas.

Most Useful When: Revising or optimizing existing concepts and processes, can be difficult to follow with certain ideas.

Last Minute Tips

Here are some last minute tips to keep in mind when brainstorming for your business:

• Trial and Error: Brainstorming is a creative process, and you should use whatever methods you are most comfortable with. Experiment until you find what is best for your situation.
• Define clear objectives: Understand what you want to achieve from the brainstorming session. It’s easy to get off topic, and defining clear objectives will help everyone stay on-track and they’re all on the same page.
• Encourage diversity: Include individuals with varied perspectives and backgrounds (if possible). A different perspective may find a different solution.
• Foster a judgment-free zone: Ensure all participants feel comfortable sharing their ideas. There is no such thing as a bad idea, and outside-the-box thinking should be encouraged. The only thing judgement does is limit creativity.
• Set time limits: Keep the session focused and prevent it from dragging on. This is especially important when using more vocal methods, such as traditional brainstorming.
• Document and evaluate after the session: Record all ideas and assess their feasibility and relevance. In the idea generation phase, there is no such thing as a bad idea, but not all ideas will be possible.

Conclusion

Brainstorming has many benefits to your business. It can help you create new products, increase sales of old ones, and come up with processes that make your business more efficient. Brainstorming has many forms beyond the scope of this post. Try out a few on this list, and maybe try to make a method of your own!