This is where you get ready.
Before any technique works, you need the right environment. Most brainstorms fail not from lack of tools but from toxic conditions that suffocate ideas at birth.
These are proven creative tactics used by top creative directors worldwide. Based on classic brainstorming strategies from the 1950s and methods I picked up over years in advertising—use them to get in the right headspace for creating something great.
Start with one clear question. Not three benefits. Not a positioning statement with clauses. One idea. One truth.
Write it as a question:
"How might we make people feel [specific emotion] about [specific benefit] so they [specific action]?"
Agree before starting: We generate 100 ideas before judging any. This isn't arbitrary.
- The first 20 ideas are what everyone has already thought
- Ideas 21-50 start pushing boundaries
- Ideas 51-100 enter territory no one has mapped
- The magic lives in the last 30
Every idea, when born, looks like an ugly baby. It needs nurturing, not criticism.
The phrase "Yes, and..." replaces "No, because..."
When someone offers an idea, your only legal responses are:
- "Yes, and what if we also..."
- "That makes me think of..."
- "Building on that..."
Titles mean nothing in the Detonation Chamber. The intern's crazy idea gets the same treatment as the CD's.
Cultivate the naive perspective—those who don't know the "rules" often break them most productively.
Every idea gets written or sketched. Ideas exist only when externalized.
Verbal ideas evaporate; captured ideas compound. One person's job is solely to record without filtering.
Schedule sessions for three hours minimum. The breakthroughs come in hour three.
Creativity comes in waves. The first wave brings obvious ideas. Then comes the desert—silence, frustration, the temptation to quit. Push through. The oasis lies beyond.
Evaluation happens in a completely separate session, preferably the next day.
The creative mind and the critical mind cannot coexist productively. Let ideas breathe overnight before you start killing them.