The Idea Generation Triple Threat

There are three go-to methods I use when trying to rapidly and fairly collect and curate ideas: brainstorming, affinity analysis, and dot polling. This strategic combination of methods seem to generate ideas quickly and allow the group a way to sort and select the most promising ones.

Brainstorming was introduced by advertising executive Alex Faickney Osborn in the late 1930s and further popularized through his book Applied Imagination, published in 1953. Osborn developed brainstorming as a structured group creativity technique aimed at generating a large number of ideas in a short period. His key principles of brainstorming include: 

• Defer judgment: Participants are encouraged to defer criticism or evaluation of ideas during the idea-generation phase
• Go for quantity: The emphasis is on generating a large quantity of ideas as a higher quantity would lead to a higher likelihood of finding innovative solutions
• Encourage wild ideas: Participants are urged to suggest unconventional or seemingly impractical ideas to break away from conventional thinking 
• Combine ideas: After the initial idea generation, participants can build upon each other’s ideas or combine elements to create new and improved concepts

Brainstorming. This method is designed to generate and not limit all ideas that come to mind from a group. Participants are encouraged to express their thoughts freely, creating a broad range of ideas. As the ideas are presented, capture them on sticky notes or on a white board. The information from this step will form the raw material for the down-selection processes that follow. For now, embrace quantity over quality and don’t eliminate any ideas.

Affinity Analysis. To bring order to the ideas of the previous step, next use a method called “affinity analysis.” This method organizes a large number of brainstorming ideas into their natural relationships. Group like ideas based on their similarities, forming clusters that unveil patterns of likeness. You can group sticky notes into categories or circle similar ideas on a white board. This method helps categorize the brainstormed ideas and creates a visual representation of the conceptual landscape, making it easier to navigate. 

Dot Polling. This third step, called “dot polling,” helps pull out the best ideas from the clusters. Using this method, participants vote on their chosen options using a limited number of stickers or marks with pens — dot stickers being the most common. This sticker voting approach is a form of cumulative voting. Participants are given a finite number of votes to distribute among the clustered ideas from the affinity analysis. Based on the number of votes and if you can vote for the same idea more than once, you provide a means for the group to conduct a fair and transparent evaluation of the collected ideas. The most favored ideas naturally gain more dots from the individual votes. Group members vote by placing their dots directly on the post its or marks annotated on the white board. The collective intelligence of the group comes into play as the most popular and promising concepts rise to the top with more dots attached to them. 

I have found that this three-method, structured approach ensures that the best ideas are not only rapidly identified but also validated by the consensus of the group. The integration of brainstorming, affinity analysis, and dot polling forms a robust framework for idea generation and selection and can be done with varying sizes of groups and topics with little advance preparation. 

Over the years, variations of brainstorming techniques have been developed, and its principles have influenced other methods for collaborative problem-solving and innovation.