How often do you find yourself truly brainstorming?
I am not talking about the Curly from The Three Stooges kind of brainstorming. I am talking about honest to goodness, group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems. Did you know that there are actually some rules to it and that it was, in fact, invented by someone?
An advertising executive named Alex Faickney Osborn first introduced brainstorming in his book “How To Think Up” published in 1942. The rules he generated were intended to reduce social inhibitions among a group trying to do creative work, stimulate idea generation, and increase overall creativity. These four simple rules have stood the test of time:
Go for quantity: Maximum production of ideas to solve a given problem is a way to find the best solution. In other words, maximum quantity breeds quality. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated the bigger the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
Withhold criticism: In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead, participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.
Welcome wild ideas: To get a good long list of suggestions, wild ideas are encouraged. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking might give you better solutions. In fact, it is often good to think of the worst possible idea and then force yourself to turn it into a good idea.
Combine and improve ideas: As suggested by the slogan "1+1=3", we can stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association. Force the group to use “yes, and” when discussing an idea instead of “yes, but” and watch the difference it can make.
Product Development is an inherently creative process and really requires a team to work together. If we always accept the first solution we come up with we are probably missing a massive opportunity to find a more creative, compelling solution for our users/customers. As Waze co-founder, Uri Levine, once said we need to “fall in love with the problem, not the solution…” As Product Owners and Product Managers, we need to embrace the idea of looking for all the potential solutions long before we commit to a path to build a single solution. Design Thinking teaches us that there are a set of tools, practices, and a mindset to help us find the right problem, ideate on solutions, and quickly test our ideas with users.
It’s possible, even probable, that you are really crunched for time and do not have the cycles to execute a full Design Thinking approach. Or, you may be working with a team that is set in their ways and who are not Design Thinking experts. The good news is that you can start with simple tools and exercises that encourage creativity through, you guessed it, BRAINSTORMING. We just need to keep Osborn’s rules in mind. The other thing that can be extremely helpful is to utilize a simple framework to get the juices flowing. For that, we recommend an Opportunity Solution Tree. The Opportunity Solution Tree is a visual representation of how you plan to achieve your desired outcome. Here is the high-level structure:
Key Questions:
What do we really want to have happen?
What are the pathways to outcome?
What are ALL the things we might consider doing together?
You start your Opportunity Tree by defining the problem you are trying to solve. In this example we want to BECOME INDEPENDENTLY WEALTHY. We might start by thinking about our different opportunities or themes around how we can achieve that outcome.
Now it is time to get crazy! Generate as many ideas/solutions as you can. Remember the rules! Quantity not quality, not judging, even bad ideas are good ideas, combine and improve ideas as you go.
Are all these ideas good? Heck no! Some of them are not even legal! The point is to get creative and expand your team’s aperture for what could be done to solve the problem. Can we take a bad idea and make it good? Could we turn dealing drugs into buying an independent pharmacy franchise?
This chart is deceiving. In real life, Opportunity Solution Trees do not look this clean. It’s a messy process and that is okay. You will probably end up with a very cluttered virtual whiteboard, duplicated ideas, and debate about what things actually mean. That is all part of the process. You will also likely find that there is a moment or two of “magic” where the team comes up with some new, interesting perspective on the problem or the solution and gets really excited about an idea that they otherwise would have never conceived. It is fun to watch.
This tool is helpful when you are just starting out, get stuck on a hard problem, or need to inject some creativity into your team. Give it a shot! I think you will be surprised at what your team may come up with. Then the next time someone asks what type of tree you would like to be, tell them you would be an Opportunity Solution Tree.