19 :: 5 Ideas Generation Techniques

CINO In The Making is a weekly newsletter about innovation, growth, and leadership, where I share my journey and the toolkit I'm building to (hopefully) become a Chief Innovation Officer. ⚡

It’s the execution that moves the needle, but there is no execution without ideas. If you are anything like me, they can either come unexpectedly when you are about to fall asleep, in the shower, or even when commuting, or on the spot during a team workshop or collaboration exercise. Hard to control, but easy to potentiate. No matter the creativity level you self-evaluate with, with the right tools and as long as you stay away from single viewpoints, overexplored territories or unchallenged assumptions, anyone can expand their brainstorming and ideation capabilities. These are 5 of my favorite techniques to generate innovative ideas:

1. 6-3-5 Brainwriting ⏲️

Six people, three ideas, five minutes - with the goal of leveraging collective intelligence. In this technique, 6 participants generate 3 ideas each within 5 minutes. These ideas are then passed around the group, with each participant building upon the ideas contributed by others. Overall, the iterative and collaborative process fosters rapid idea generation and encourages building upon each other's creativity, resulting in a diverse set of innovative concepts.

2. Reverse Brainstorming ◀️

Reverse brainstorming is a quite unique approach to idea generation because it consists of generating ideas to exacerbate the problem innovators are trying to solve rather than solve it. Alone or in group, to reverse brainstorm is to think about all the ways that could make that problem worse. By identifying (often new) potential sources of failure or weakness, reverse brainstorming prompts divergent ways of thinking and uncovers hidden opportunities for innovation solutions as a consequence.

3. SCAMPER 🧭

A mnemonic is always a good way to remember a cool technique. SCAMPER stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate, and Reverse. It provides a systematic framework for creatively manipulating existing ideas or products to generate innovative variations or improvements. Each letter in the acronym encourages a different way to approach a problem or idea, exploring possibilities beyond the obvious.

4. 6 Thinking Hats 👒

This technique, developed by Edward de Bono, also explores and evaluates ideas from multiple perspectives. Each "hat" represents a different thinking mode - analytical, creative, critical or empathetic, for example - guiding the exercise to consider problems and solutions from various angles. By switching between the different hats, innovators are able to explore different aspects of an idea or problem, enhancing creativity, critical thinking, and decision-making.

5. Starbursting ❓

Startbursting as a technique prioritizes generating questions before seeking answers - specifically asking 6 big-picture questions and building a six-point star diagram with Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? to explore various dimensions of an idea or a problem. It ensures that all their relevant aspects are considered during the brainstorming exercise. In general, asking questions (particularly “Why?”) and deeply understanding the field we are trying to innovate on is a very powerful mechanism to generate ideas.

Ps. I left Gen AI-powered techniques out of the list on purpose. Great triggers and assistants, but their ability to generate average ideas do not make it to a top 5 when the alternatives are the generative limitless power of natural intelligences building on each other.

See you next Tuesday! 👋