Brainstorming Tools
Brainstorming tools are small helpers for producing and testing ideas: a prompt, a timer, a set of constraints. Each one here comes from a technique in the book.
Updated
Every tool here is free, runs in your browser and needs no account.
Why tools, and why these
The book is blunt about brainstorms. Groups tend to avoid conflict and slide toward safe, similar ideas, and a bad brainstorm can leave everyone frustrated. Individuals are better at generating lots of different ideas, and groups are better at narrowing them down. So the tools here are built for one person or a pair first, and for a team once you have a pile of raw ideas to sort.
The tools
- Ch3 ScavengersBusiness Idea Generator
Roll an audience, a problem, a mechanism and a business model, and get a one-line pitch to react to. It is built on the Scavengers chapter of the book.
- Ch1 How to PlayCreativity Test
Two parts, about ten minutes: three timed rounds listing uses for everyday objects, then ten questions that point to one of six creative styles from the book. It is for fun and self-reflection, not a validated assessment.
- Ch3 ScavengersProduct Idea Generator
Roll an everyday object, a verb and a user, and get a one-line invention prompt. It is built on the Scavengers chapter of the book.
- Ch2 Idea Spaghetti / Ch10 ConnectedRandom Idea Generator
Roll two unrelated things, or an object and a constraint, and work out what it could be. Built on the Connected and Idea Spaghetti chapters of the book.
More tools are on the way, each tied to a chapter of the book.