Brainstorming:

the process of creative thinking used to generate new ideas, particularly in a group.

Brainstorming is based on 2 ideas:

That having good ideas comes from having lots of ideas

and

That you should delay judging ideas until very far along in the process.

Steps of brainstorming

Solo Phase: done by yourself without talking. 10 minutes.

Generate 20 ideas around a focus question.

This is like a freewriting session. Just keep your pencil moving and use words doodles and images or any combination to get your ideas down.

Group Sharing Phase:

Sharing without judgement. Go around the group and each person gets a turn.

Share your list of ideas. No questions or comments from others are allowed. If others have questions or comments, they can write them down.

Clarification Phase

Asking for explanations

People can now ask other group members questions about their ideas. Still, no judgements.

Evaluation and sorting of ideas

Look at all ideas and rate them on two different criteria:

How creative/good they are and

How possible/feasible they are with the technology and resources we have

Rank each idea as a 1-3 in creative/good and 1-3 in possible (3 is the best 1 is worst)