Assignment: Lead an Ideation Session

Now that you’ve been guided through a short ideation session in class, learn the valuable skill of setting up and facilitating a longer session on your own.  This will allow you to explore other ideation methods beyond brainstorming, and practice selecting ideas as a team. You’ll leave with ideas that you can prototype in the next lesson.

1. Define your “How Might We”. This might be the same one you worked with in class, or you might  craft a new statement based on something you’ve learned, or one of the clusters of ideas that you came up with in the first brainstorm.  (There are more tips on crafting a HMW statement here).

2. To set up your session, consider:

• • Who’s involved in the session?  Is it possible to bring your users into the session? 
  • How will you set up the space and the environment?  (Tips: bring some snacks or toys to fiddle with to foster a relaxed and playful environment. Make sure everyone has something to write with and can access the shared board. Post the rules of brainstorming up on the shared whiteboard, to keep them top-of-mind!) 
  • What’s the ideation method you’ll use? (Choose from the methods below)  
  • What criteria will you use for voting?

3. Run your session. Defer judgement, and allow all ideas to be heard!

(Reminder: Try to push your team past the point where the conversation gets quiet and there’s a lull. It’s often after this point that the most creative ideas come, once you’ve gotten through the easy and obvious ones!)

4. Converge.  Vote based on the criteria you’ve defined, and select your top 3-5 ideas that you might want to move forward with. 

For your session, you can choose from one of these three ideation methods:

• Bio-inspired design: The Biomimicry Process: For your chosen challenge, follow this process from the Biomimicry Institute, from the steps of Define to Evaluate. 
• Lenses to stretch your thinking: Fast Idea Generator (worksheet), or SCAMPER
• Mash-ups: Overview and worksheet