Generate many ideas, reduce ideas. Generate many ideas, reduce ideas. This is in essence the creative process. Within Super adaptive we do this very quickly and very briefly, because we try to focus. There are many easy techniques to generate many ideas.
Benchmark examples and define what is good
Find comparable examples and evaluate what is good about them. You can do this in 10-15 minutes splitting up in small teams of 2-3 members.
After 10 minutes, present the results to eachother and choose the elements that we want to apply on our project. Write each of those ideas on a separate sticky note and put them up a wall. Group if necessary. Prioritise them based on most valuable (most effective). Briefly discuss how you can make a first small version of the most valuable idea/component. Make that real.
Grouping versus choosing
Both are reductive techniques to come up with a decision. So when to use what?
Grouping does not eliminate anything. It just creates an overview. Choosing eliminates everything you didn’t choose. Think of a menu in a restaurant. The items are grouped in the menu in for example: starters, desserts, main courses and among the main courses different kinds of dishes. Now, that just creates an overview so it is easier for you to choose what you want to eat. And that is choosing: you select what you will eat. So, what you choose automatically eliminates what you don’t choose.
Grouping and choosing feedback
Grouping creates an overview of the kind of ideas. This gives you an overview of all the problems/ideas. So for example, you ask everybody to write their feedback on last cycle. What was good, what to improve. Just write every idea/remark on a separate sticky note. Group the ones that are similar next to each other and try to give the group a group name. The larger groups are obviously somewhat more relevant. Pick those to discuss.
Grouping and choosing ideas
Maybe during a benchmark done by 3 sub teams, every team provides 10 suggestions. Write them down on a separate sticky note and group them across teams. Label the groups. Ask the team to select among the larger groups a few topics to discuss.
So you have grouped the ideas. There are 10 sticky notes that say we need to improve photography on a website. There are other groups that the team find less important. Choose one group and go for it. This means, you drop the others. For now. :-)
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