Brainstorming sessions can be a great way to generate new ideas. Your success, however, is dependent on the prompts you’re giving your team. Tried-and-true questions may be popular, but they also may stunt creativity.
“There’s so much pressure with things like deadlines and quarterly sales reports,” says Chris Kocek, author of Any Insights Yet? Connect the Dots. Create New Categories. Transform Your Business. “We think that serious solutions need serious questions. That leads to a lot of constriction of ideas, and it narrows the playing field for exploring ideas.”
Instead, shock the brain out of complacency so you and your colleagues are challenged to think differently. To uncover new ideas, Kocek recommends skipping these five boring questions:
1. Who are our customers?
While this is a perfectly good priming question, we’ve all heard it before, says Kocek. Instead, he recommends asking, “How would we solve this problem if our target audience were five-year-olds? Seven-year-olds? People who are blind? Twelve-inch robots?”
Kocek continues, “You can certainly ask the question, ‘Who are our customers?’ but try and find different kinds of customers and then explore what the solution would look like based on changing who the customer is. “You’re really trying to see the world through a different set of eyes. Doing so gets to different ideas.”
2. What do customers like about us?
This question is about what’s working, but the problem is that there’s no tension in it, says Kocek.
“People have a tendency to lie,” he says. “It’s a little bit like asking, ‘What do you like about me?’ The answer is, ‘You’re nice.’”
Instead, Kocek recommends flipping the question on its head and asking, “What do customers hate about us?” Or, “What do they hate about the category?” Look for spoken pain points that can be found on review sites. Also, uncover unspoken pain points, which can be harder to get to.
“Take the ‘mean tweets’ approach from Jimmy Kimmel,” says Kocek. “It can be a little bit ego bruising, but that is the goal—make everyone feel uncomfortable. Then ask, what are you going to do about it?”
3. What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?
This is a classic question, but the problem is that it’s too direct, explains Kocek. “It’s a good setup question, but it doesn’t take you to exciting places,” he says. “Since we’re trying to get to new and unusual places, we have to kind of get out of the ruts and habitual thinking that we’re accustomed to—the low hanging fruit and the easy things.”
Instead of asking, “What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?” Kocek suggests asking, “What are the worst or weirdest ways to solve the problem that we’re trying to solve?”
“That’s going to get you to some interesting places,” he says. “Then start stair-stepping backwards to more manageable or effective solutions.”
4. What are our competitors doing?
When you’re in the same category, you can end up copying everyone else, which is very seductive and tempting. The goal, Kocek says, is to get out of the copycat game. Instead, ask, “What are businesses in adjacent or completely different categories doing to solve a similar problem?”
“That’s how Starbucks came up with their happy hour idea,” he says. “Nobody’s ever heard of a coffee shop having a happy hour. That’s something that you do for alcohol at bars and pubs. But Starbucks thought, ‘Why can’t we have a happy hour?’”
5. What has worked in the past?
While this can be a good framing question, Kocek says it’s looking backward. “Innovation is all about looking forward,” he says.
Instead, ask questions like, “What if the world were like this?” For example, “What if we treated scientists like rock stars?” “What if everything in the world ran on gas? Or electricity?” “What if humans had six fingers on each hand?”
“They seem like kind of silly questions, but if you play it right, those are questions that lead to great innovations,” says Kocek.
Pixar is an example of a company that asks innovative questions, he says. For example, the question at the center of Toy Story is, “What if toys were alive?” In The Incredibles, the question is, “What if everyday people were superheroes?” And in Inside Out, “What if our emotions were little people inside our heads?”
“Pixar is a great place to start because they’re in the business of telling stories and creating conflict to move those stories forward,” says Kocek. “Their world-building starts with the weirdest questions and then they build from there.”
In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all set of questions for every brainstorming session; you need to know your goals and adjust accordingly.
“Ask more around innovation, insights, and creative ideas than finding answers to boring questions,” he adds. “Brainstorming is a lot like improv. It’s really an active-listening process more than anything because you’re trying to build a new world together.”
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
