144 desIgn 144 IdeatIon Brainstorming Rules Stay focused Start with a well-honed statement of the problem at hand. Ideally, this should be articulated around a customer need. Don’t let the discussion stray too far; always bring it back to the problem statement. Enforce rules Clarify the brainstorming rules upfront and enforce them. The most important rules are "defer judgment," "one conversation at a time," "go for quantity," "be visual," and "encourage wild ideas." Facilitators should enforce the rules. Think visually Write ideas down or sketch them out on a surface everyone can see. A good way to collect ideas is to jot them down on Post-it™ notes and stick these to a wall. This allows you to move ideas around and regroup them. Prepare Prepare for brainstorming with some sort of immersion experience related to the problem at hand. This could be a fi eld trip, discussions with customers, or any other means of immersing the team in issues related to your problem statement. Adapted from an interview with Tom Kelley of IDEO in Fast Company magazine: "Seven Secrets to Good Brainstorming" Successful brainstorming requires following a set of rules. Enforcing these rules will help you maximize the number of useful ideas generated. bmgen_final.indd 144 6/15/10 5:40 PM