Why you shouldn't brainstorm

Brainstorms are overrated. At least in the way they are done and taught by innovation practitioners from design-thinking.

Specifically, they are overrated when it comes to developing solution concepts to address customer needs of any complexity.

How the classic group brainstorm works

The typical group brainstorm begins with rules such as the above posted on a whiteboard or screen. Everyone is given some sticky notes and told to create 100 ideas in 60 minutes to address some vaguely defined customer problem.

Here's the output of the session:

• 1/2 dominate people create most of the ideas.
  
• People who feel less creative copy the ideas they see already put down because they want to feel good about themselves.
  
• 100 ideas are created, 99 of which are bad and the 1 good solution can't be identified because of the noise of 99 bad ideas.
  
• The sticky notes get put into one pile and sit in a 'design-thinking room' for the next 12 months never to be looked at again.
  
• 0 of the ideas consider either the pragmatic nature of the problem or what even makes an ideal solution to the customers needs.
  
• When someone is onto a good idea, someone interrupts conversation by sharing their idea as a way of shifting discussion.
  
• Everyone has equal votes as to which idea is good, despite the fact that some people are better judges and have more believability.
  

What's going wrong with brainstorms

The brainstorm as a concept is great. Relying on human intuition and experience to develop solutions to problems.

But we must acknowledge the limitations and issues with the brainstorming approach.

• We are not evolved to understand complex systems. The more variables that need to be considered as it relates to a problem, the worse human intuition is for creating solutions.
  
• Group brainstorming neglects human behaviour. The need for status in our group, to feel competent and more. As such, dominant thinkers love it who create lots of ideas, everyone else hates it and feels a need to copy to feel competent.
  
• There is substantial statistical research showing group brainstorming reduces creativity. I treat this with a healthy level of scepticism recognising behaviour is a complex system to study, but it is worth reviewing the literature.
  

Like many fields, partly what I think is going wrong is a lack of multi-disciplinary approach. Innovators consider themselves as creatives, intuitive people who are rebellious and don't need process or science-backed methods.

Of course, this is hubris - excessive pride blinding the ability to see one's flaws. As innovator practitioners, we benefit greatly from working with scientists to do systematic studies of creativity and what drives it and to then build new methodology.

Process does not hinder creativity, it enables it. Because there are behavioural flaws such as attachment to our ideas we must overcome that stifle creativity, and it is methods that help us remove this, not unhinged brainstorming.

Some realities of group brainstorming

• Quantity does not equal quality.
  
• Quantity does not equal more creative.
  
• Quantity makes identifying good ideas harder.
  
• Human intuition is terrible at understanding complex systems.
  

Use constraints to enhance your brainstorms

Two things you can do to enhance your brainstorms. First, do them individually, not as a group. This gives people space and time to think through a problem properly and to develop well-rounded solutions.

Secondly, use constraints. I'll use Amazon retail platform as an example.

Scenario 1: I tell you to do a group brainstorm and to develop 100 ideas for how to improve the Amazon retail experience. The result is the graphic on the left. Tonnes of ideas, none of which consider what drives the fundamental customer experience and therefore what makes a good idea: ones that decrease the price of goods for customers while increasing convenience.

Scenario 2: I tell you to develop ideas that make the shopping experience more convenient while reducing the prices of goods. You get the graphic on the right.

You come up with 5-6 ideas rather than 100. All of these are in the direction of a good solution, and none of which are ideas that will lead to increases in price or decreases in convenience (speed of delivery etc).

When to use brainstorms

I believe brainstorming has its place, and I personally use it. Augmenting it with constraints is always useful. Use it when: 

• You're solving simple problems.
  
• Everyone is confident in their creative ability.
  
• You have deep discipline knowledge and experience to draw on.
  
• You have a clear objective that ideas need to address (basically, constraints).