Why do some teams generate better ideas than others?

A bunch of people who have never done this before are sitting next to a whiteboard…

It kind of sounds like the start to a weird joke.

I recently read an article from the Nielsen Norman Group website titled “Ideation in Practice: How Effective UX Teams Generate Ideas.” In their survey of 257 User Experience (UX) professionals, only 15% said they felt that their ideation process was “very effective.” Most (59%) said their process was “somewhat effective,” which to me means they’re getting by with some exasperation.

We’re doing fine, but there’s got to be a better way, right? Can’t this be any easier?

Source: Nielsen Norman Group

The article goes on to summarize the areas where people feel ideation goes wrong:

• Not enough time
• Support from management is lacking
• Ideating without enough research
• Group dynamics issues

I’ve seen all of these problems during ideation sessions in both a work and university setting.

There’s one way I think the work environment tends to have an advantage here: clearly defined leadership roles (and other roles). In a school setting, I’ve noticed that project groups can easily be stalled by disagreements because there’s no one who gets to just choose one way or another. This, of course, has both positive and negative components. In a positive sense, it gives the designers all the power, but kind of like comparing a democracy to a dictatorship, you might also see decisions being made at a slower pace. #Congress. Hopefully the best ideas win out in the end in either school or work groups, but I think the school group members who are louder or more stubborn tend to win out in the end.

In my limited experience, working with people who are approaching projects with similar goals and ideas about how to accomplish them tend to deliver better products. Humility is key. These group dynamics are often even more important than having a “great” initial idea for the project because the execution and modifications as time goes on will work so much more smoothly if everyone is treating each another with respect.

In an ideation context, I think this also starts to get at the idea of how to structure the ideation phase. There are so many approaches to coming up with ideas, whether it’s the traditional sitting and spewing ideas approach (“brainstorming”), Googling, interviewing stakeholders, etc.

Considering that only 30% of the respondents above said they “Sometimes” or “Always” have a facilitator for their discussions, it makes some sense that so many teams have unstructured discussions. (Maybe my thought about school groups missing leadership is actually extendable to a lot of corporate groups as well?)

The NNG article also shared findings about where UX pros find inspiration:

Note that survey respondents listed multiple strategies. Also of note: “those who perceived their ideation process as ‘very effective’ had the highest percentage of respondents gathering inspiration from UX research.”

That’s a lot of options.

So, How Should We Be Ideating?

I have been a part of groups that have produced great work as well as groups that have really missed the mark, or at least not lived up to our potential. Based on my experiences and after reading this survey from Nielsen Norman, I thought I’d make a list! (As I tend to do.)

These are some of the aspects of group ideation that I find to be most important:

• Leadership. When someone is “in charge,” it gives the ideation important structure and efficiency. It definitely needs to be someone who puts the goals of the group over their own ego.
• Confidence. Maybe structure is a better word? Either way, those participating need to understand what’s going on and be comfortable with the strategy. We need to trust that the undertaking is important and leading us to a better place than if we had decided to skip this.
• No bad ideas. By this I mean, no idea is bad. I think it’s important to challenge ideas in order to make them better, but it’s critical for all ideators to have an open mind and to make a conscious effort to avoid shutting down an idea right away.
• Use multiple methods. Maybe one person is a big believer in surveys, another tends to do competitor research, and another loves to just stare at a wall and write or sketch out thoughts.
• Research. Good ideas are usually informed by, ya know, reality. Make time to talk to people. Schedule some interviews. Check out Google Trends. Whatever you have to do to make your design decisions more informed.
• Time. Good ideas need enough time to really flower, take root, or whatever plant-related metaphor you want to use. Plan ahead to make enough time for proper research and ideation before diving into executing the plan.

I’d love to hear some perspective from other UX pros on this. What aspects of group ideation have you found to be most impactful?

Be sure to check out Aurora Harley’s NNG article for more info on UX ideation.