This document provides tips and strategies for running an effective brainstorming session. It discusses preparing for the session by defining the problem, gathering stakeholders, and choosing a location. During the session, the facilitator should have participants individually write down ideas before sharing to allow solitary thinking. A variety of idea generation techniques are recommended, including building off others' ideas. After the session, the facilitator prioritizes ideas by scoring them based on desirability, feasibility, and business impact to determine the top ideas. The overall goal is to generate as many ideas as possible through an interactive yet structured process.

1. Effective Product
Brainstorming
Braden Ericson

2. Braden Ericson
Product Manager @
Participated in 100+ brainstorming sessions
25 patents pending, 1 patent granted

3. Q&A
Agenda
After the Brainstorm
- Prioritization
Running the Brainstorm
- Problem Definition
- Idea Generation
- Facilitation
Before the Brainstorm
- When to Brainstorm
- Preparation
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4. Before the Brainstorm

5. A brainstorm session can help you
identify a direction for your product
When to Brainstorm
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6. How can we provide more value to
in-store shoppers?
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7. Gather 4 - 7 different stakeholders
Preparation
Find some space away from distractions
Put aside 30 - 60 minutes
Have something for everyone to write on
Retail employee, Marketing, Sales, Engineering
Conference room
Pen and paper for everyone, a whiteboard for the facilitator
60 minutes at the end of the day
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8. Running the Brainstorm

9. Begin with level-setting on the topic
What is the “problem” you are going
to be thinking about?
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10. Set the problem to be customer focused, but open-ended
Talking about the Problem
Talk about industry data related to your product
Encourage 10x thinking
Share internal metrics, learnings, and goals
How can we provide more value to in-store shoppers?
Share industry data around retail mobile app usage
We know our customers LOVE personalization
Assume you have no resource restrictions
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11. Don’t start by solving the problem
Give your participants time to think
about the problem alone
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12. Write as many ideas as possible
Or write out 1-3 ideas and pass your list on
to the next participant
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13. Write as many ideas as possible
Retail Employee Engineer Marketing
Let customers request
employee assistance
directly from within the
app
Easy phone navigation
to products on
shopping list
Technology showcases
through phone camera
Personalized aisle
recommendations
Budget functionality
that allows shoppers to
find inexpensive goods
Use camera to provide
augmented reality
offers hiding around the
retail store
Fully autonomous
“Amazon Go-like”
experience
Scan barcodes to add
things to digital cart
Self-checkout with
phone; scan products
with phone and show
cashier a confirmation
number
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14. Write 1 idea and pass your list
Use camera to provide augmented
reality offers
Engineer
The offers could be hiding around
the store, and the customer needs
to go and find them; kind of like a
treasure hunt
Retail Employee
The shopper’s phone could
receive a push notification from
our app when they are close to the
virtual offer
Marketing
When checking out, the offer
could automatically apply if they
pay with their Retail Credit Card
Sales
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15. Write 1 idea and pass your list
We could provide different routes
to different shoppers to prevent
aisle congestion
Engineer
The Shopper could use their
phone as an in-store GPS, making
it easier to find all the products on
their shopping list
Retail Employee
Based on what items are in their
shopping list, we could navigate
them through aisles with products
we think they might also want
Marketing
We could provide themed routes
shoppers could take through the
store, or even promotional routes
that give shoppers a discount
Sales
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16. Buzzword Brainstorming
Randomly draw buzzwords and come up with as many ideas
as possible based on the combination
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17. Buzzwords
List of buzzwords
Customer Service
In-Store Pickup
Voice Assistant
Shopping Cart
Mobile Phone
Credit Card
Online Shopping
Product Return
Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality
Personalization
Robots
Randomly pick 2
Customer Service
Personalization
Write as many ideas as possible
Let customers request
employee assistance
directly from within the
app
When the shopper walks
into the store, our system
could connect to their
mobile app so employees
can greet shoppers by
name
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18. Personal Bubble Map
Have everyone maintain their own bubble map that ties
concepts together. When they hear a new buzzword, have
them bubble it off from the original.
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19. Bubble map
GPS Navigation
Shopping List
Personalization
Easy phone navigation
to products on shopping
list Route the mobile app takes
you on is personalized to
your profile, providing stops
at aisles you might enjoy
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20. Share and build off ideas
Give everyone the chance to share
the ideas they came up with
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21. As the facilitator - you are in charge
One Conversation
at a Time
Build on other
ideas.
“yes… and”
Quantity over
Quality
Time limit the BS
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22. Additional tips and tricks
Make sure the audience is interested in your topic
Make sure your team is clear on the problem
No distractions (phones and laptops away)
Encourage big thinking
Do what works for YOU
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23. After the Brainstorm

24. You have a ton of ideas.
Now what?
Prioritization
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25. List out all the ideas in a single place
Define your prioritization criteria
Rank each idea based on how well it meets all of your criteria
Assign a numeric value for how well the solution meets the criteria
Spreadsheet, Kanban board, etc.
Desirability, Feasibility, Business Impact
On a scale of 1-5… how feasible is the solution?
Your top ranking ideas should have the highest score
Prioritization
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26. Ideas
Use camera to provide
augmented reality offers
Easy phone navigation to
products on shopping list
Budget functionality that
allows shoppers to find
inexpensive goods
Let customers request
employee assistance
directly from within the
app
Desirability Feasibility
Business
Impact Total
Prioritization
4
2
2
1
4
2
10
5
3 5 1 9
5 4 3 12
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27. Running an Effective Brainstorm
Give people time to think alone
Identify the problem to be discussed. Why are we here?
Finish by discussing ideas and building off each other
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28. Thank You
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