| name | brainstorming |
| description | Guide for collaborative ideation sessions — when to explore vs narrow, evaluating ideas, avoiding premature commitment. |
Brainstorming
Two Phases
Diverge (explore): Generate many ideas without judgment. Quantity over quality. Build on others' ideas. No "but" — only "yes, and."
Converge (narrow): Evaluate, combine, and select. This comes after diverging, never during.
The most common failure mode is converging too early. If you've only generated 2-3 options, you haven't diverged enough.
Generating Ideas
- Start broad: What are all the ways we could solve this?
- Challenge assumptions: What if the constraint we're designing around didn't exist?
- Invert: What's the worst way to do this? (Then flip it.)
- Analogize: How do other systems/domains solve similar problems?
- Vary scale: What if this needed to handle 10x more? Or 1/10th?
Evaluating Ideas
Score against explicit criteria, not gut feel. Common dimensions:
- Effort — How much work to build?
- Impact — How much value does it deliver?
- Risk — What could go wrong? How reversible is it?
- Simplicity — Can we explain it in one sentence?
A 2x2 of effort vs impact is usually enough to prioritize.
Avoiding Premature Commitment
Signs you've committed too early:
- You're defending an approach before exploring alternatives
- The first idea suggested is the one being built
- "We already started" is the main argument for continuing
Antidotes:
- Timebox exploration: "Let's spend 15 minutes generating options before picking one"
- Write down at least 3 approaches before evaluating any
- Ask: "What would we do if this approach weren't available?"
- Prototype two options cheaply rather than debating in the abstract
When to Stop Brainstorming
- You're generating variations of the same 2-3 core ideas
- The group has natural energy/conviction around an approach
- You have enough information to make a reversible decision
- The cost of deciding later exceeds the cost of deciding now
