Brainstorming:

Purpose

It is used for:

• Solving problems 

An existing problem that you want to solve anytime during the project i.e in the beginning, middle, or end.

• Generating Ideas

This is the most common perception and rightly so.

You use it to quickly get thoughts and ideas around a topic or you can also use it to generate potential solutions to a problem.

• Create Consensus:

At the end of a brainstorming session, after multiple ideas and solutions have been shared, you can create a consensus on a solution or an idea that can solve the problem.

Types:

• Individual

This type is rarely used.

An individual project member creates a list of ideas on a topic or problem.

• Open

This is the most common type.

Example Procedure:

• • You get a group of people in a room.
  • Explain to them the agenda and the scope.
  • You kick off the session with an idea or a thought.
  • Allow the group members to come up with ideas and build on others’ ideas.
  • You, the BA, acts as the facilitator of the session.
  • The scribe takes notes as the session progresses. It could be the BA but a separate person is preferred as then the BA can focus on facilitating. Also, the BA has his/her own ideas and knowledge and can be a participant in the session.

• Structured:

This type of brainstorming isn’t frequent and is used when:

• • There are members of the executive leadership or senior management in the room due to which others may feel shy to share their ideas around company processes
  • There is a strong-willed person in the room who hinders others from participating by being loud about his ideas.

Example Procedure:

• • You get a group of people in a room.
  • Explain to them the agenda and the scope.
  • You ask each participant to write down their ideas.
  • The facilitator (preferably the BA) goes participant to participant to have them share their idea each
  • This process continues until all the ideas are exhausted.

Advantages of Brainstorming:

• Generate multiple ideas

Multiple minds create multiple ideas very quickly

• Involves multiple perspectives

If we have correctly selected our stakeholders (e.g users, developers, managers, etc) then we have multiple minds tackling the same problem from different angles.

• Promotes equal participation 

It gives all the participants involved in a brainstorming session an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas.

Disadvantages:

• Details of ideas or not discussed/explored

Brainstorming sessions are designed to fetch as many ideas as possible and shortlist the best ideas from them. You cannot dive into the details of a particular idea because this will stop you from fetching more ideas. Due to this inherent nature of brainstorming, we cannot explore those ideas in detail and have to stick to the ideas at a high-level.

• Ideas may be get misunderstood or ambiguous 

Since you deal with ideas at a high level only, you may misinterpret the idea later (during analysis) due to insufficient info around it.

Best Practices:

• Decide in advance the type of the brainstorming session

 By knowing the type you can prepare & plan for the session accordingly.

• Publish the agenda prior to the brainstorming session

This helps the participants to research on the topic/problem and come prepared with seed ideas.

• Clearly state the objective of the meeting

These sessions can go off-topic very easily and very quickly. State the agenda and objective and then allow the participants to contribute freely within those guidelines.

• Make the environment conducive for participation

If there are shy participants then get them to contribute by informing them that they are important and their opinion counts while also making them comfortable to participate. Ask them open questions to get them to talk.

If there are strong-willed people then make the session structured to provide equal opportunities to other participants.

• State ground rules:

Don’t dive deep into the ideas. Only, ask questions to gain clarity on an idea.

Eg If the brainstorming session is held to solve a problem then only request high-level solutions from the participants. Don’t get into “how” the solution fits in the context, or how the solution will be implemented, etc. You can only ask questions to gain clarity on the solution at a high level.

Do not dismiss or discount an idea or a person

By not acknowledging the idea of a person you may demotivate or discourage him/her from participating in the session. Brainstorming sessions are like finding a needle in a haystack; you have to find that one right idea from a hundred terrible ideas that will eventually work. Hence have an open mind and do not discount any idea even if it feels inappropriate or incorrect or unreasonable and note down each one of them.

Build on others’ ideas and suggestions

Allow the ideas to flow freely from all (with valid questions if necessary). Let the vibe become high energy and enthusiastic, as that’s an environment that is conducive for a creative process like brainstorming.

Keep the environment enjoyable

Have fun with brainstorming.

Keep the session less formal if possible and encourage each other to participate more.

• Establish Roles:

Preferably multiple people should play these roles, however, a single person can play multiple roles.

Timekeeper:

Keep a watch on the time. It is easy to lose track of time when you are in a discussion. You need to value everyone’s time as many participants will have other commitments post the session. Hence you need to end the meeting on time.

You can divide the session into multiple intervals and call out the time at each interval so that everyone is aware of the remaining time.

Scribe:

This is the person who in real-time jots down the ideas being discussed in the session.

It should be ideally done on a computer connected to a projector so that everyone can see them.

The ideas are later shared with all the participants.

Facilitator:

You as the BA would perform this role.

A facilitator performs the following tasks:

• • Decides on the type of brainstorm session i.e open or structured
  • Informs the session in advance to the participants
  • Gather all the participants in a room.
  • Explain to them the agenda and the scope.
  • Kickoff the session with an idea or a thought.
  • Allow the group members to come up with ideas and build on others’ ideas.
  • Drives the meeting forward to a logical end

• Allocate sufficient time to organize ideas

Before the end of a session you should organize the ideas else you’ll end up with a large list of unorganized ideas. Later, it will be difficult to sort and you may illogically mix up the ideas.

Hence, you need to allocate time to combine, categorize, and summarise similar ideas. For this, you should stop the session a few minutes before it ends.

You do not have to force a break. If the tempo of the room is high and the ideas are flowing freely then let that continue. Most of the time the session naturally slows down.

For an hour-long session, you can stop 10-15 minutes before the end to organize the ideas.

• If the topic is complex then create multiple sessions

Brainstorming is a mind-draining process. You will naturally feel tired after an hour-long session. Hence if the topic is complex then have multiple sessions to keep the fatigue low.

Start each session with a recap and summary of the previous session and build on from there.

• Schedule follow-up meetings

Reach out to the participants if you want more details from them.

You can use other elicitation techniques to fetch further ideas and thoughts from them.

• Prioritize final ideas to plan further analysis

In the end, from all the collected ideas and thoughts you need to shortlist or prioritize the most important ones. You shall move forward with those selected ideas for further analysis and discard the other ideas.

E.g. Allow votes for top ideas. You can ask the participant to vote for the top ideas and you can select from them and discard the rest.

The post is  based on my notes and understanding from this BA tutorial