Brainstorming Definition and Examples to Collect Fresh and New Ideas

There could be a specific problem that can only be solved by a group of participants. That is where brainstorming comes into play. Brainstorming is used by a group of participants to discuss ideas and develop a quality output. By employing this technique to your team, you encourage everyone to participate and welcome ideas from people with different views or perspectives.

On the other hand, brainstorming templates are pretty helpful and considered invaluable because of their ability to make brainstorming meaningful and effective. That is due to the organized structure for brainstorming that will help the team to arrange relevant ideas instead of throwing them all over the place. That said, we prepared various brainstorming examples for students and professionals. Read on to see the templates and examples provided below.

Brainstorming Examples

Part 1. Brainstorming Techniques

Brainstorming is undoubtedly helpful to make new and creative ideas come into the light. Yet, one of the significant drawbacks of brainstorming is when a few people do most of the talking. Some group members may experience one-sided judgment, criticism, and unrecognized ideas. It is essential to have techniques and strategies to keep the ideas flowing. Before using the examples, here are some techniques you may employ for your team and make the brainstorming session interactive.

Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is an excellent graphical tool that helps the team collect ideas in the form of a mind map where there are branches of ideas gathered. Considering there are lots of different ideas. It would be great to categorize them according to their relevance, from the main topic to the detailed ones. By using this brainstorming technique, you can reorganize all the gathered ideas, identify relationships, and combine one or more thoughts.

Mind Mapping Technique

Role Storming

Add up spice to your brainstorming session with the help of the Role Storming technique. It does inspire interactive brainstorming since Role Storming is designed to make people involved in the team participate by portraying a character involved in the business. There will be participants who will act as clients or customers, members of management, etc. In other words, participants will portray a role of a particular type of stakeholders of a particular business.

Stepladder Technique

The following technique is developed by Steven Rogelberg, Janet Barnes-Farrel, and Charles Lowe. This is a step-by-step approach to ensure no member is left out and everyone is heard. Moreover, every member in the group will present their ideas to participate and come up with a final decision. The only time it will not be effective is when there are too many members in the group. Needless to say, a small group can maximize the effectiveness of this technique.

Starbursting

Starbursting is a technique used to expand the interrogative to a complete sentence. Leading by questions 5WH where the challenge is at the star's center. Then the team will complete the questions who, what, where, why, when, and how.

Starbursting Technique

Trigger Storming

Trigger Storming can yield a large quantity of diverse and creative ideas and thoughts. This helps the team to forcefully think outside the box with provocative or open-ended statements. Also, it could stir their thinking by challenging the team with “what if” questions, bringing up issues, and helping them think of possible solutions.

Part 2. Brainstorming Examples

Depending on your needs, different frameworks and templates are available for you to use. Suppose you aim for a brainstorming template for your business, essay, education, or entertainment requirements. In that case, you may look into the brainstorming examples below.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a brainstorming example useful for analyzing essential aspects of a business or an organization. This helps you identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to understand your business better and address the problems.

SWOT Analysis Template

Essay Writing

The following template depicts a simple outline of an essay writing to make better sense of what you wish to write. The layout gives you an overview of the main topic, organizes ideas, and categorizes points making it one of the best brainstorming examples for students. Ultimately, having an outline like this lets you create a coherent essay and prevents you from getting stuck.

Essay Writing Template

Tokyo Itinerary Tour Plan

If you have a trip somewhere, perhaps you need to brainstorm which place to visit. That said, you may refer to this brainstorming example to create an itinerary, so you will know how you will spend your entire trip and make the most out of it.

Tokyo Itinerary Tour Plan

6 Ms Production

6 Ms production helps capture vital areas, including manpower, method, machine, material, measurement, and mother nature, especially when considered one of the best brainstorming problems examples.

6 MS Production Template

Part 3. How to Brainstorm With the Help of a Mind Map

You now know some of the brainstorming techniques and templates you can employ in your brainstorming sessions. Yet, to effectively apply them in your team brainstorming, you need a tool to achieve that. If we are talking about hassle-free ways for brainstorming for teams and students, MindOnMap should come first into mind. It comes with the necessary layouts and stylish themes suitable for your brainstorming needs. You can personalize your maps with unique icons and insert pictures and links to produce an intuitive illustration. Best of all, you can export your work into different formats, including images and documents. All that is needed is your familiarity with the information and creativity.

Free Download

Secure Download

Free Download

Secure Download

1

Launch the MindOnMap

First off, launch the tool from your web browser and click the Create Your Mind Map button to get started. You will then reach the page for layout and themes. Select a layout if you want to start from scratch or choose a theme suitable for your needs.

MindOnMap Get Started
2

Start working on the map

Now, edit the map by filling the nodes with the necessary information. Select options on the right-hand panel to alter the appearance structure according to your brainstorming needs. You can add icons, change the style, backdrop, etc.

MindOnMap Map Edit
3

Save your finished work

Click on the Export button and select a file format to save your work. You may also share it with others using the link of the map.

MindOnMap Save Project

Part 4. FAQs on Brainstorming Examples

What is the purpose of brainstorming?

Brainstorming can be done alone but is often used for team discussion to explain ideas, problems, and solutions. Other than that, it encourages creative thoughts to come into the light.

What are the phases or stages of brainstorming?

Brainstorming usually starts in setting the mood or positive environment. Then, the team will identify the problem, generate ideas, and share thoughts. After that will narrow the list of ideas and make an action plan.

What is the best number of participants when brainstorming?

It is advisable to have a maximum of seven participants and a minimum of four people. Any less than the minimum, and you will suffer from a lack of ideas.

Conclusion

All of the brainstorming examples listed above are excellent for collaboration. Also, the techniques will help your team get everyone involved in a project discussion. On the other hand, you can accomplish all your goals and objectives by utilizing a robust solution like MindOnMap to simplify your tasks.

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MindOnMap

An easy-to-use mind mapping maker to draw your ideas online visually and inspire creativity!