The document describes an ideation session to generate ideas for improving the SXSW experience. The session leaders will teach various ideation methods including idea vomiting, brainwalking, clustering, voting, questioning assumptions, making wishes and worst ideas, using picture prompts, and sketching and storyboarding. Participants will work in groups to apply these methods to identify problems with SXSW and generate solutions. The goal is to come up with new ideas that are an improvement over their initial ideas for making SXSW better.

1. idea vomiting
a creative brainstorming session
Alexander Braden
Courtney Tye
Breyna Fries

3. by the end of this session, !
you’ll be able to!
• harness the creativity of your team!
• spur brilliant ideas from unlikely sources!
• use absurdity to ignite your creative genius!
• discover your best solutions yet

4. and together, we’re going to
make sxsw better

5. ACTIVITY
listen, understand + identify
In pairs, tell each other the story of your SXSW
experience (the good, the bad and the ugly).!
Listener be silent! You should write down any problems/
opportunities he/she hears on sticky notes.!
Take 3 minutes for the first person to tell their story as
the listener takes notes, and then switch roles.

6. Alexander Braden
Alexander Braden graduated from SCAD with a BFA in Interactive
Design. He is currently a User Experience designer at IBM. He has
a love for the way we interact with technology and a fascination
with that point in which the digital and the physical become one.
!
Courtney Tye
Courtney Tye is a visual designer for software products at IBM
Design. She currently works on Smarter Cities projects within the
Industry Solutions division of IBM and previously worked on B2B
commerce. Courtney graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in May 2013
with a major in graphic design.
!
Breyna Fries
Breyna Fries is a Visual Designer at frog here in Austin. There she’s
responsible for bringing each moment of the design to life with a
powerful visual language that strategically extends each brand. She
has a BFA in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art and
Design where she focused on brand development. !

7. we use ideation!
to design better !
software @!

8. what is ideation?
Ideation is the process of generating, exploring,
and evaluating new ideas.

9. To have a great idea,
have a lot of them.!
Thomas Edison!

10. what is ideation?
• collaborative problem-solving!
• a collection of methods, not a hard & fast process!
• diverging + remixing + converging!
• finding the best solution possible, not one correct answer

11. rules !
for ideation

12. defer judgement

13. say
!
YES!

14. encourage !
wild ideas

15. build on the ideas of others

16. STAY FOCUSED ON THE GOAL

17. one conversation
•
one conversation at a time

18. QUANTITY
is better than
QUALITY

19. keep in mind...!
“Being creative !
is a self-fulfilling !
prophecy”!
!
Bryan Mattimore, author, Idea Stormers

20. cool.!
now let’s split into groups.

21. where ideation fits in context of
design thinking

22. first, we need to understand !
the user!

23. next, we must identify the problem
and frame the opportunity!

24. how to choose a focus
look for:!
• Unexplored/growth areas !
• Common pain points!
• Unmet needs!
• Missing steps in a process or gaps in an experience!
• Unnecessary complexities!
!

26. let’s make the SXSW !
experience better !
example problems
! there’s too little/too slow/too crowded transportation
! it’s tough to plan each day
! traffic is batshit crazy
! i have to wait in line foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
example opportunities
! how can we make transportation better at sxsw?
! how can we make the waiting experience better?

27. ACTIVITY
identify your problem + opportunity
Share what you wrote earlier with your group, and
discuss which problem or gap in experience you might
want to address.!
When you have agreed on a problem to focus on,
rephrase the problem as an opportunity, i.e., how can we
make _______ better at SXSW?!
Write your question at the top of one of the large sheets
of paper.!

28. let’s ideate!

29. idea vomiting
• very flexible method!
• allows every member of a group to be heard!
• rapid-fire, no talking or discussion!
• stream of consciousness, one idea per post-it note!
• no idea is a bad idea

30. idea vomiting
• use other peoples’ post-it notes to spark ideas !
• cluster similar ideas to identify groupings!
• to converge on the best ideas, individually vote on clusters
you’d like the group to pursue

31. ACTIVITY
idea vomiting + brainwalking
In your groups, write the problem area you chose for
ideation on the top of your sheet.!
For 10 minutes, idea vomit and place ideas on the sheet.!
Take another 10 minutes, and move around the room,
contributing to other teams’ ideas.

32. curveball
• Introduce absurdity: !
•
The cell towers are overloaded!!
•
The use of smart phones is gone!!
•
How does this scenario change your ideas?

33. clustering

34. how to cluster
• Group similar ideas together to reveal categories, patterns
and/or relationships!
• If you find duplicates, stack them on top of each other!
• Discard post-its that are irrelevant/don’t make sense!
• Give each cluster a name to summarize its content!
• Consider what might be missing!

35. how to vote
• Vote by making a tally mark on the bottom right corner of
each post-it!
• Each member of the group gets 4 votes!
•
2 votes for the ideas most likely to succeed!
•
2 votes for the ideas most likely to delight!
• Take the top 2-3 ideas that receive the most votes to ideate
on further!

36. ACTIVITY
converge
Return to your station and take 10 minutes to cluster.!
Take another 5 minutes to vote for which clusters you’d
like the group to ideate on further.!
Each person gets 2 votes for the ideas most likely to
succeed, and 2 votes for the ideas most likely to delight.!
!

37. let’s play back!
our ideas

38. what other ideation !
methods are there?

39. lots.!
questioning assumptions!
wishing!
redefine the opportunity!
brainwalking!
semantic intuition!
picture prompts!
journey maps!
forced questioning!
attribute listing!
role playing!
analogies + metaphors!
associations!
mind mapping!
reverse roles!

40. our 4 favorites
questioning assumptions
make a wish + worst idea
picture prompts
sketching + storyboarding

41. METHOD 1
questioning assumptions

42. METHOD 1
questioning assumptions
• In your groups, rapidly generate
assumptions (whether true or false)
you may be making about the
problem/opportunity area in front of
you. Aim for at least 20-30
assumptions and list them out on a
large sheet of paper.!
• Use the assumptions to trigger
new ideas.

43. METHOD 2
make a wish + worst idea

44. METHOD 2
make a wish + worst idea
MAKE A WISH
•
In teams, generate as many wishes as you can.
How would you solve the problem if anything
were possible? Use the list of wishes as thought
starters and triggers for new ideas.
WORST IDEA
•
In teams, generate as many terrible, silly,
ridiculous ideas as you can. Use the list of
bad ideas as thought starters and triggers for
new ideas.

45. METHOD 3
METHOD 3
picture prompts

46. METHOD 3
picture prompts
•
Gather photos and spend several minutes
studying them. Individually list ideas the
photos inspire. Consider actions,
interactions and relationships (and the lack
of these) in each photo as food for thought.!
•
Spend a few minutes discussing your ideas
with another member of your group. How
can you improve your ideas? How can you
build upon them?!
!

47. METHOD 4
sketching + storyboarding

48. METHOD 4
sketching + storyboarding
•
Decide whether you’d like to sketch a
concept, or storyboard an experience.!
•
If you decide to sketch, draw several quick
thumbnails rather than one detailed image.!
•
If you decide to storyboard, try to tell your
story with images and use as few words as
possible. Make sure your story has a
beginning, middle, and end.

49. as a group, choose one !
of the 4 methods & take 20 !
minutes to ideate!

50. questioning assumptions
make a wish + worst idea
•
In your groups, rapidly generate assumptions
(whether true or false) you may be making. Aim
for at least 20-30 assumptions and list them out.!
•
Make a wish: In teams, generate as many
wishes as you can. How would you solve the
problem if anything were possible?!
•
Use the assumptions to trigger new ideas.
•
Worst idea: In teams, generate as many
terrible, silly, bad ideas as you can. !
•
Use the lists of wishes and bad ideas as
thought starters and triggers for new ideas.
picture prompts
•
•
Gather photos and spend several minutes
studying them. Individually list ideas the photos
inspire. Consider actions, interactions and
relationships (and the lack of these).!
sketching + storyboarding
•
Spend a few minutes discussing your ideas with
another member of your group. How can you
improve your ideas? How can you build upon
them? Finally, play back to the group as a whole.
Sketching a concept: Draw several quick
thumbnails rather than one detailed image.!
•
Storyboarding an experience: Try to tell your
story with images and use as few words as
possible. Make sure your story has a beginning,
middle, and end.

51. what’d you !
come up with?!

52. let’s compare
Look back at the ideas you jotted down
at the beginning of the session.
How do they compare to the ideas you have now?

53. thank you.!
!

54. contact us
Alexander Braden!
Courtney Tye!
abixd.com!
aebraden@us.ibm.com!
courtneytye.com!
ctye@us.ibm.com
Breyna Fries!
breynafries.com!
breyna.fries@frogdesign.com!