Ask anyone who knows me: I love a good whiteboard session. I get true joy from solving problems with big red dry erase marker in rapid motions and sweeping arm gestures. The shift to remote work has been a huge blow to traditional meeting norms, brainstorms especially. As a whiteboard-loving collaboration fanatic, it really knocked me off kilter, and I had to develop a new groove for generating creative ideas in a group setting.
But that’s actually been a good thing. When I couldn’t lean on my tried and true brainstorm meeting playbook, it forced me to deeply consider how to get the best creative energies and thought partnership from others. Remote brainstorms are a different beast, but they are not only possible, they can actually be incredible. Give them a chance. Here are my top 5 tips for maximizing ideas in remote brainstorms:
1. Reflect on your intent, and use that as your north star.
You’re hosting a brainstorm in order to generate new and unexpected ideas, right? The goal isn’t documentation, so don’t obsess over what program to use – there are several out there, but a shared word doc might suffice. And the goal isn’t entertainment, so don’t stress about putting together a song and dance. Your goal is to tap into the imagination, creativity, and subconscious genius of others. So focus on your intent: what will enable the people you bring together to be their most uninhibited, creative selves?
For that, you also need to understand the people you’re inviting to contribute. Invite folks from different levels, backgrounds, and departments to join, and take a minute to reflect on the various styles of energy and communication they bring. What makes them tick, and in what conditions do they come up with their best ideas? Ask them! Don’t be afraid to pull folks a little outside their comfort zone, but do the thought work upfront to believe you’re creating conditions they will thrive in.
And keep your group a reasonable size to manage. You probably don’t actually want to get into complex logistical planning for a group of 40, unless you’re solving for multi-year corporate goal-setting. I like to max at 9 participants total, or the number of faces that will comfortably fit on a grid in most video chat programs on a laptop without hiding anyone’s face.
2. Thoroughly explore and define the Problem.
You’ve been stewing on this issue for days, weeks, maybe even months. Has your crew? Set up your brain trust with context and a clear, shared understanding of the problem at hand before you go asking them to solve it. Whether you have a well-constructed brief, or just a vague sense that some big bold idea is needed, consider making your first session with this crew a briefing, not a brainstorm. This gives you a platform to put all your cards on the table – what you know, what you don’t, what you’re hoping to achieve with the brainstorm, and get them excited to help by bringing their unique ideas to the table.
An added benefit to kicking things off with a briefing: this is your chance to talk. That’s right, get it out now, get it all out of your system. Because once you invite others to share their ideas, your job will be to moderate, support, and maybe add-on. You don’t want to dominate your own brainstorm. Remember the goal: It’s about getting amazing ideas out of others.
3. Assign a Scribe.
There is one clear purpose to assigning a scribe, and that is to ensure all the best ideas generated are captured. But there are major positives to capturing everything – even, maybe especially the bad, silly, dumb, or ridiculous ideas – in a shared, visible space. Imagine you are joining a brainstorm for the first time – you’re nervous about being judged for having a dumb idea, but you’ve drummed up the courage to pitch something in the moment. If that idea makes it up onto a “board” – whether that’s a virtual brainstorming program, or a simple shared document – there’s a psychological impact reinforcing your contribution. You shared an idea. It’s on the list. The positive reinforcement of seeing your ideas written down by someone else can have a massive impact on the courageous creativity of the people in the room.
Assign a scribe - it could be you, or someone better suited to great note-taking, but have them capture everything, and make that documentation live and visible the whole time.
4. Go for generative, not performative.
The Brainstorm as an event isn’t actually the most optimal idea-generating environment for everyone and every problem. This isn’t just a line between introverts and extroverts – there are visual thinkers, tactile thinkers, processors, and neurodivergent types. There are creative story concepts vs. user experience problems that benefit from very different kinds of research. Some people like to throw out something on the spot, but others might like to quickly mock up something that otherwise would be difficult to describe.
You can capture a broader array of types without over-baking the process. Here’s a simple format that works:
Host a Briefing
Kick off “the Brainstorm” as a timeframe that begins immediately after the first briefing. Encourage independent research and ideation as an option, and allow folks to add their ideas in written and visual form in advance of a follow-up
Create an open forum – a passive/casual chat channel that can be used to lob casual ideas back and forth. This is also a nice way to create some atmosphere with the group you’ve curated, so feel free to seed it with your own ideas, thoughts and questions that pop up.
Schedule the Brainstorm as a sharing session in a reasonable amount of time after the briefing. I’d default to a week, but this depends entirely on the urgency and complexity of your problem.
5. Games are fun, and games have rules.
I’ve attended some cringe-worthy brainstorms, hell – I’ve hosted some. But they are actually supposed to be fun. Why not think of them more like a game than a meeting? As the host, you get to make and enforce the rules of the game so that everyone can enjoy it. I always start off brainstorms of any kind by laying out clearly how I want people to engage in the meeting. Here are some of my current go-to brainstorm rules for remote life:
Cameras On, Mute Off
If you’re in this room, you’re meant to contribute. Speak! But, you can use chat if you have to.
Get comfortable with awkward pauses. These give people the room to speak.
Go blue sky. Get weird with it. Worry about feasibility later.
Don’t poke holes or edit*
Do ask questions and make “yes, and” statements
*The hardest habit for many people to break in a brainstorm is the tendency to shoot down ideas that have obvious holes or seem impractical. Some of the best ideas I’ve seen have come as add-ons to crazy wild ideas that would never work in practice. You have to make space for the incredibly crazy ideas if you ever want to make it to the great ideas, and in order to get there you have to manage out the natural tendency many have to shoot things down. I find that 99% of the time people immediately get the intent of the rules, but fall back into their common meeting habits by accident.
Be an active advocate to the process. Yes, call people out if they are breaking the rules – kindly. “Remember, we’re not here to edit, we’re here to explore – if anything I don’t think that idea was far out enough. Could we go even bigger with it?”
The beauty of remote brainstorming is that it can truly inhabit any format – video, phone, or just a chat room – and by making it a multi-step event, you can capture the best from a variety of different thinkers and perspectives. As for myself, you’ll always find me on the other side of the camera with a mini-whiteboard and dry-erase marker, quickly jotting my next “yes, and!”