Idea Generation Part II

Jeffrey Watkins
Nov 5 · 10 min read

In addition to SCAMPER, TILMAG, and mind map concepts shown in the previous idea generation blog post, group brainstorming sessions can also be of use to designers looking for a creative spark in their ideation process. Brainstorming sessions draw off of the diverse backgrounds of each participant to create an open-ended and collaborative environment. The second idea generation process was again used to develop new solutions to the household tape measure.

HMWs

To begin a brainstorm session, a prompt to serve as a general guide for ideation is necessary. One form of these prompts is a “how might we statement.” How might we statements cause brainstorm participants to begin thinking of ideas to solve a general solution at hand. These statements may be based on problem statements found through customer surveys or interviews. Below are the two problem statements I had found through prior interviews:

Users need a way to measure long distances because a tape measure kinks at long distances requiring another person needs to help the user.

Users need a way to clamp a measuring tool to the surface they are measuring to be able to free up their hands to mark the surface in the instance of hanging a painting.

While these problem statements may be targeting specific issues within tape measures, they were used to craft how might we statements to reframe the prompt. I intended to initially create an open-ended HWE statement, later followed by a HWE leading participants to tape measure specific solutions. The HWE statements for the brainstorm session were as follows:

How might we make measuring objects easier?

How might we make tape measures easier to use over long distances?

An open-ended HWE to begin the session was designed to allow participants to field ideas for simply measuring concepts. With a stream of ideation in place from the open-ended prompt, a guided prompt was used in hopes of gearing thoughts in the direction of tape measure innovation.

Set Up

Pizza lunch for the participants

A brainstorm session is effective with the proper participants. Reaching out to a wide participant demographic allowed me to collect opinions from ranging sources. Ranging demographics, paired with diverse majors, allowed for a participant group capable of bringing unique perspectives to be collaborated on. To entice and compensate my participants for giving their time for the session, a pizza lunch was provided to aid the creative process. The 4 participants I selected for the study are close friends in a variety of majors across campus:

Holly — 21 year old, University of Minnesota student, majoring in child psychology

Alyshia — 20 year old, University of Minnesota student, majoring in chemistry

Evan — 20 year old, University of Minnesota student, majoring in finance

Avery — 20 year old, University of Minnesota student, majoring in computer science

To keep the brainstorm session engaging for my participants, I lead into session planning with a half hour time range in mind. Although a half hour time frame leaves little room for idea generation, warm up improv games to inspire creativity seemed necessary. The leading 5 minutes were designed to be used for a group story game along with my personal follow-the-leader reaction game. After the improv introduction, a set of 10 minutes would be used to introduce and develop ideas for the open-ended HWE prompt. A second set of 10 minutes would follow with a focus on the guided HWE prompt. Group participants would be instructed to draw ideas relating to the prompt while also titling each of their concepts. Once both of the HWE idea generation sessions were complete, a 3 minute block would be used to silently sort the idea concepts on the board — later followed by another 3 minutes to use their 5 votes on ideas they demeaned novel, creative, and feasible.

Supplies gathered for the brainstorming session.

The Biomedical library appeared to be the most effective venue for a brainstorming session give their large whiteboards and round tables. Similar to in-class brainstorming, I gathered a set of yellow over-sized post-its, varying colors of sharpies, and adhesive dots for the session; these materials would be used for drawing idea concepts, identifying who came up with which concept, and voting on drawings respectively. In addition to physical materials, I downloaded the post-it app to properly document the orientation of post-it locations throughout the sorting process.

Warm Up

Two warm up games appeared to be necessary to lead the brainstorming session. The first of these, taught through in-class improv instructors, was a circle storytelling game. Each group member said a single word to form a story while following in circles from left to right in a telephone-type effect. The word-to-word story would go on until the group could put together a plot.

As the circle storytelling game stimulates participant’s creativity in their minds, I believed an improv game to encourage collaboration and openness would pair very well. The improv game I developed to pair with the storytelling game was dubbed, “Follow the Leader.”

Mario Party 2’s Look Away minigame

This game was inspired by my personal childhood memory of the “Look Away” game mode in the Nintendo 64’s Mario Party 2. While I had only played the game a handful of times growing up, I distinctly remember this game mode nearly 10 years after the fact. The game mode was a 1 vs. 3 player set where the leader (shown above) would move their joystick in a direction with a musical chairs style of cutoff. Players who were matching the direction of the leader were knocked out of the game — leaving the last player standing as the winner.

Building on improv’s theme of having no losers, I iterated the minigame to form to this principle. Opposed to the players who matched the leader getting knocked out of the game, they were instead the leaders for the next run of the game. Leader(s) would count down from 3 and move their heads either up, down, left, or right. My participants appeared to enjoy “Follow the Leader as we became carried away and passed over our scheduled 5 minutes of “fun” time.

Brainstorm Session

Set up for the brainstorming closely followed my outline plan for the session. Pictures and notes were taken throughout the session to document idea results as well as to draw relevant information from the participants.

Conducting the Session

As per the set up schedule, the brainstorming session began with 5 minutes of the circle storytelling and “Follow the Leader” improv games. These games sparked my participants into a lively, creative state to begin the ideation process. Introduction of the open-ended HMW statement followed improve games with nearly 9 minutes devoted to this segment. The guided HMW prompt shortly followed the first HMW statement with another 8 minutes towards idea sketching. Fortunately the group did not require much pushing to come up with unique ideas, however, I used both negative brainstorming and brute think to encourage the creative process during a lull in activity. Participants were then tasked to silently arrange the ideas posted on the whiteboard for 5 minutes with intentionally little direction as to sorting criteria. The group then used their 5 votes to place a vote on their favorite ideas on the whiteboard after sorting.

Session Ideation

My participants came up with a range of ideas from practical solutions to out-of-the-box thinking throughout the HMW segments. The participant’s background clearly played a role in their brainstorming with a majority of my computer science participant giving tech solutions to measuring issues. Each brainstorm participant was able to produce a respectable number of ideas with color-coding to trace back the idea originator.

Ideas generated from HMW prompts

To sort these ideas, I instructed my participants to silently group the post-it drawings as they see fit. An emphasis on no communication throughout this process allowed for grouping based primarily on the function of each design. The group was given 5 minutes to sort each idea on the white board.

Ideas sorted by silent group think

Without verbal cue, the group seemingly attempted to sort each idea through its basic functional aspects. A few groups which appeared to emerge were tape measure add-ons, string-like measuring devices, new tech measuring solutions, and general iterations to tape measure features. Sorting these ideas served to both categorize the concepts as well as familiarize each participant with the ideas that were created.

Ideas with votes from the group

Each participant was given 5 green stickers to acknowledge the best ideas generated through brainstorming. I specified interest in novel, unique, and feasible qualities to help determine which ideas was considered “best.” Through 5 minutes of voting, 16 ideas received one or more votes as a novel concept. A tripod-style projector concept, where perfectly horizontal lines with accompanying measurements would be projected onto a wall, lead the votes with 4 from the group. A handheld scanner to read measurements followed with 3 votes, And finally a pocket knife tape measure attachment, measuring belt, ask “Siri” function, and mobile tape measure rounded out the top voted ideas with 2 a piece.

Session Results

The idea generation sessions, between both HMW statements, lasted a total of 16 minutes and 48 seconds. Clock stoppages were used if the group needed explanation on a prompt along with additional help during a brainstorming lull. The group of 5 formed 53 measuring concepts during this time. This idea generation to brainstorm time ratio lead to an ideas per minute (IPM) count of 3.15 for the group as a whole and .63 averaged per person.

Top 10 Ideas

Through market research, user research, individual idea generation, and a brainstorming session, numerous measuring concepts have been created showing feasible and novel designs. These concepts range from aesthetic innovation to entirely new functional aspects for the product, the 10 best ideas to come out of research processes allow for a product with promise in a prototype phase. Below are a list of 10 feasible, new measuring concepts with potential as a future product:

  1. Fishing Rod Attachment — provides a practical solution to a common problem among fisherman. The concept may be used to replace the common sticker tape measure often applied to boats.
  2. Notebook Clamping Clip — a tape measure clip to attach to a draftsmen’s sketch notebook. Allows users to draw straight lines in a vertical or horizontal manner.
  3. Pencil Marking Attachment — writing tool to attach to a tape measure tape. The product itself may be a clip individual to a tape measure or a universal application to common tape measure products.
  4. Room-Measuring “Roomba” — mobile room plotting tool to be used in commercial design or architecture setting. Technology used within the process is used within “Roomba” floor vacuuming products.
  5. Frog Tongue Measure — novel tape concept to appeal to a children demographic. Tape of the product mimics that of a frog tongue.
  6. Golf Laser Finder — golf range finder with a visible beam to trace the distance of an object on a golf course. The tool may be used by both a caddie and a golfer to visual a path for the golfer.
  7. Paper Ruler Strips — adhesive strips to be placed in a notebook or in other applications. Allows users to place a temporary ruler piece alongside an object they may be trying to measure.
  8. Tripod Projector Lines — tripod piece to project measurement lines along a wall for easy alignment of a painting or similar piece.
  9. Pocket Knife Tape Attachment — attachment to a swiss army knife style of knife to include a tape measure function. Brings a practical aspect to an already practical tool.
  10. Clamp Measuring Strip — strip concept with a level on each end of a board-like ruler piece. Used for extraordinarily accurate measurements across a long distance.

These product concepts have merit as both a licensable product as well as the base of a stand-alone business. While a few may require technical experimentation, each concept falls within a reasonable field of feasability to product a working prototype. Brainstorming, market and user research, as well as design idea generation strategies have lead to these many great concepts.

Timeline

11/1 — Come up with 2 HMW statements. Use past prompt questions to develop HMW statements.

11/2 —Set up plan for brainstorm session. Contact 4 brainstorm participants to verify session time. Gather post-it notes, sharpies, and stickers.

11/3 — Develop original warm up activity. Right the activity plans to be used before the brainstorm session.

11/4 — Conduct brainstorm session. Take notes and document the activity with pictures.

11/5 — Determine and sketch the top 10 ideas throughout the assignments. Write the blog post.

    Jeffrey Watkins

    Written by

    Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
    Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
    Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade