Idea Generation — Part 2

HMWs
Problem Statements:
A custodian who uses mops on a daily basis needs a way to speed up the process of getting hot water into the bucket because it takes up valuable time
A mom with a busy schedule needs a way to vacuum and mop efficiently because she only has and hour every day for daily cleaning.
A college student needs a way to get rid of old, stubborn stains because using rags on the floor takes up too much time.
HMWs:
How might we make cleaning floors more efficient and fast?
How might we innovate the process of cleaning hardwood floors to be more enjoyable?
Set-Up
Participants:
At the last minute, I had to change the initial group I was going to brainstorm with because of two cancellations. Luckily, I was able to gather with family and friends this weekend at my aunt’s house for a candy tasting event with all the various candies she brought back from her trip to Japan. I was able to convince these participants to partake in this activity:
Kao — 47 year old asian female working in corporate and spends majority of time between work and social events. Married and living with partner. Interest in fitness, travel, and community work.
Dan — 50 year old caucasian male working in telecommunications. Married and living with partner. Interest in hockey and travel.
Lisa — 37 year old asian female who works in corporate on a salary and spends most of her time at work. Single, and living with roommates. Interest in fitness and social justice.
Samantha — 24 year old asian female who majored in Marketing and Business in college. Single, and working part-time in retail at the moment with an interest in fashion and makeup.
Mitchell — 24 year old asian/latino male who majored in Fluid Power Technology in college. In a relationship, working full-time on an e-commerce business and an interest in photography.
Session Planning
5 minutes — Introduction
Introduction to the activity and a brief explanation of the Creative Design Methods class and its final project. Thank the participants for the time and hand out materials. Move everyone into a smaller space to face each other and the wall that the post-it notes will be on.
7 minutes — Warm-Up
Explain warm-up activity and reason for the warm-up — “to get your brain started!” (See Warm Up section for more details)
5 minutes — Setting Ground Rules
- No judgment
- The objective is to get as many ideas up — good or bad
- Must sketch and write on a sticky note
- Must say the idea to everyone in the room before putting on board
10 minutes — Brainstorming HMW 1
“ How might we make cleaning floors more efficient and fast?”
10 minutes — Brainstorming HMW 2
“How might we innovate the process of cleaning hardwood floors to be more enjoyable?”
3 minutes — Candy break
Have participants eat some candy to stimulate dopamine and to encourage more ideas.
5 minutes — Thinking in Opposites
Prompt the group to think in the opposite direction — what ideas would do the exact opposite of what we’re trying to achieve?
5 minutes — Random Object Inspiration
Place three random objects in front of the group (tissue box, remote control, bananagrams) and task them with drawing inspiration from each object to generate more ideas.
5 minutes — Silent Sorting
Have the group go up to the wall and silently sort all of the ideas into categories. Then, have each person draw a star on the top 5 ideas.
Materials


The materials I used for this brainstorming session are the following:
- 6 sets of post-it notes, one color per person
- 6 sharpies
- Assorted Japanese candies
- Random objects: tissue box, remote control, bananagrams
Warm-Up
“Reminds me of..”
The warm up activity I developed combined the “bears are great because…” activity, the circle activity we did during the improv class, and the word association game. I called my game “Reminds Me Of”
To play, everyone circles up with one person in the middle. This person will play the game until they run out of ideas and can’t say anything for more than three seconds. Then, someone from the outside of the circle will take their place. The outside circle will count as many associations they can make and the one with the most will be the “winner”.
The person in the middle will start with one word and must say “____reminds me of ____” The first blank will be the random word provided and the second blank will be something they come up with. Then, the next statement will begin with the second blank, for example, someone would say:
“Wigs reminds me of Jackie Aina”
“Jackie Aina reminds me of Morphe”
“Morphe reminds me of brushes”
“Brushes reminds me of toothpaste”
To help with the number of ideas to generate, there are no rules to what you can say, as long as it remains in order. For example, you could say, “pigs reminds me of Tuesday” and it would be valid as long as the next statement begins with “Tuesday reminds me of ..”
Brainstorm Session


I began the session according to the session schedule I mentioned above with everyone in the living room, and explained the class to them. I also explained the format briefly and set the ground rules:
- No judgment
- The objective is to get as many ideas up — good or bad
- Must sketch and write on a sticky note
- Must say the idea to everyone in the room before putting on board
Then, I introduced the warm-up activity that I developed and had everyone take a turn being in the center of the circle. The participants I chose were very competitive and each wanted to be in the circle the longest to be deemed the “winner”, and you can see the serious faces on all of them during this activity below.


After the warm-up, I introduced the first HMW to the group and set a timer for 10 minutes for them to work on it. Then, gave them the second HMW statement. I found that they had a hard time with coming up with activities, and unlike the plan I had, after 20 minutes I gave them a short break to grab some more Japanese candy and chew on it before getting back into the brain storm.
There was confusion when I introduced the opposites and random item prompt and many of the ideas weren’t fully explained, for example, “dust”. But I encouraged them throughout this process to get as many ideas down on their sticky notes. The end result was a door full of color:

I had the group silently move the sticky notes into categories and asked them to explain them to me after 5 minutes. I captured the categories through the Post-It Notes app and named the categories based on everyone’s feedback.

To sort through the ideas, I had everyone star the ones they thought were most Novel, Valuable, and Feasible- everyone had to start 10 ideas.

Results:
Total Number of Ideas: 75
IPM: 2.5 ideas/minute
Major Categories of Ideas: Use of others,
Voting Criteria Used: Novel, Value, Feasible
Ten best ideas: Laser Cleaning Remote (Kao), S&M Slave (Kao), Bags on Wheel Tissue Dispenser (Kao), Reusable Wipes (Samantha), Spiky Shoes (Kao), New Floor Scent (Dan), Mop Shoes (Kao), Money (Dan), Fruity Smells (Mitchell), and a Rotating Floor (Mitchell).
Top 10 Ideas
For my top 10 ideas, I went through my previous blog posts and sifted through them with the Novel, Valuable, and Feasible lens in order to select them all. I added in ideas from the brainstorming session to add to a few ideas and made sure to intentionally choose a variety of concepts. I sketched my ideas on paper, then scanned them and added them below:









