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Brainstorming technique wheel
Fourteen ways to generate ideas with a group, each with its own trick for getting past the obvious first answers. Spin one at the start of your next brainstorm.
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One entry per line. Add *3 after a name to give it three times the chance.
Winners show up here, newest first.
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Ready-made list. Edit it to make it yours: changes stay on this device, and Reset brings the original back.Open in the main spinner →
How each method works
- Crazy 8s: fold a sheet into eight panels and sketch eight ideas in eight minutes. Speed matters more than quality.
- Brainwriting 6-3-5: six people each write three ideas in five minutes, then pass the sheet on and build on what is there. Six rounds give up to 108 ideas without anyone speaking.
- Reverse brainstorm: ask “How could we make this problem worse?”, list the answers, then flip each one into a fix.
- SCAMPER: run an existing idea through seven prompts: substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, reverse.
- Starbursting: generate questions instead of answers, under who, what, where, when, why and how.
- How might we…: rewrite the problem as questions that start with “How might we”, then brainstorm on the best few.
- Worst possible idea: collect terrible ideas on purpose. It takes the pressure off, and the opposite of a bad idea is often a good one.
- Six thinking hats: look at one idea in six modes, one at a time: facts, feelings, caution, benefits, new ideas and process.
- Rolestorming: answer as someone else, such as a first-time customer, a competitor or a ten-year-old.
Mind map, round robin (everyone adds one idea in turn, or passes), the analogy prompt, the 10x version (what if we needed ten times the result?) and the no-budget version (what if we had no money at all?) need no more than the label.
Running a 30-minute session
- Write the problem as one sentence everyone can see. A fuzzy question gets fuzzy ideas.
- Spin for the method in full screen and explain it in a minute. Remove any method your group used recently.
- Diverge for 10–15 minutes: quantity first, no criticism, build on other people’s ideas. Those are Alex Osborn’s original brainstorming rules, and they still hold.
- Converge for 10 minutes: cluster similar ideas and dot-vote, three votes each.
- Leave with two or three ideas, an owner for each, and a next step small enough to do this week.
Tips from experienced facilitators
- Silent first: let people write alone for a few minutes before anyone speaks. You get more ideas, and the quieter people’s ideas get heard.
- Small groups: groups of three to five beat one big room. The team generator splits people in seconds.
- Spin twice: pair a method with a constraint, for example Crazy 8s plus the no-budget version.
Questions and answers
What is the best brainstorming method for remote teams?
Brainwriting and Crazy 8s, because they run in silence and in parallel. On a call, people write on a shared board, or sketch on paper and hold it up to the camera.
Why do our brainstorms keep producing the same ideas?
Usually because someone says the first, safe idea out loud and everyone anchors on it. Methods that force quantity, silence or an odd angle, like reverse brainstorming, push past that.
Can I use it for writing or art projects?
Yes, most of these work alone too. For creative prompts rather than methods, try the writing prompt wheel.