Design Thinking and Product Design Part 7: Effective Ideation Techniques 

To execute the Ideate phase, let’s now delve into some of the most powerful techniques that can help unlock creativity and generate innovative solutions. 

As promised in the last article, we will explore brainstorming, mind mapping, and other techniques like the SCAMPER method and Crazy 8s to provide you with practical tools for transforming the way you approach problem-solving.

Brainstorming: Fueling Creativity Through Collaboration

Brainstorming is a cornerstone of effective ideation. It focuses on generating a high volume of ideas in a collaborative setting, with participants encouraged to express even the wildest thoughts without judgment. The key principles of successful brainstorming include:

• No judgment: All ideas are valid, whether practical or not. Judgment-free sessions inspire creative thinking and help participants feel comfortable sharing unconventional ideas.

• Encouraging quantity: The more ideas generated, the better. Even if some ideas seem unworkable, they might lead to better, more refined solutions later.

• Building on ideas: A collaborative environment allows participants to build on each other’s ideas, creating more innovative and nuanced solutions.

Brainstorming strategies, like setting time limits to spur creativity, using prompts to spark fresh perspectives, and involving diverse team members can enrich the process.

Mind Mapping: Structuring Thoughts and Finding Connections

Mind mapping is a powerful visual technique that helps structure thoughts by showing how different ideas or concepts are related. Starting from a central problem or idea, participants create branches that represent different aspects of the challenge, connecting related concepts. This technique is particularly useful to:

• Organise ideas after brainstorming: Once you’ve generated many ideas, mind mapping helps you visually sort and structure them.

• Explore relationships: Mind maps highlight the connections between ideas, which can lead to unexpected insights or solutions.

• Simplify complex problems: Visualising thoughts on paper or software can help break down complex problems into manageable parts, making it easier to see the bigger picture.

Tips for effective mind mapping: Colour-coding branches, using images, and ensuring that the map stays flexible as new ideas emerge.

Crazy 8s: Rapid Ideation for Breakthrough Ideas

Crazy 8s is a fast-paced ideation technique that encourages participants to generate eight ideas in eight minutes. This method is perfect for breaking creative blocks and pushing participants to think quickly without over-analysing. It’s particularly useful when:

• Time is limited: Crazy 8s forces participants to think on their feet, often leading to surprising and unconventional ideas.

• Overcoming analysis paralysis: The fast pace of Crazy 8s prevents participants from getting stuck in perfectionism or overthinking ideas.

• Group participation: Everyone works independently, and then shares their ideas, encouraging a variety of perspectives.

SCAMPER: Rethinking Existing Ideas

The SCAMPER method is a structured ideation technique that pushes you to rethink existing ideas or products. SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for:

• Substitute: What can be substituted to improve the product or solution?

• Combine: Can two elements be combined to create something new?

• Adapt: How can existing solutions be adapted to solve the problem?

• Modify: Can the size, shape, or function be modified to improve the product or solution?

• Put to another use: What can used in a different way than originally intended?

• Eliminate: What can be eliminated to simplify the product or solution?

• Reverse: Can reversing or rearranging elements lead to a new outcome?

Applying SCAMPER to existing ideas or products encourages teams to explore new possibilities and push the boundaries of conventional solutions.

While there are numerous tools and methods available for generating creative solutions, we’ve touched on some of the most commonly used. If you’re interested in diving deeper into design thinking, consider joining a design thinking school, where you’ll gain hands-on experience with these techniques and more. 

Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll explore the exciting Prototyping phase – the next step in turning your ideas into reality.

Start reading Qusai’s full series on design thinking and product design from the first chapter here.