Most people love jumping ahead to the brainstorming phase. It’s fun, liberating, and can take minimal effort, especially if you’re doing it on your own. But if you’re doing it right, it shouldn’t be the first step… it’s the middle step in the design thinking process, called “Ideation.” It takes what you’ve learned from investigating the problem you’re addressing and uses that information to come up with potential solutions.
Brainstorming works best if you’re not just doing it by yourself in a vacuum. Diverse perspectives can help you take brainstorming to a whole new level. Deferring judgment and criticism of ideas is essential for building on one another’s ideas and coming up with solutions that you likely would not have generated on your own.
Here are best practices for brainstorming like a professional from IDEO:
Tools for Social Innovators 