CHAPTER 2

Working With Ideas

PURPOSE OF THESE TOOLS
Most of the value in a teams work lies in the ideas and insights generated
during a project. The tools in this section will help your team generate,
organize, and process ideas.
Note: There are many good resources available to teams on generating and
working with language data. Weve included three that are used
universally not only for their own sake but as part of many other tools that
appear in this book. We encourage teams to investigate creativity tools and
additional methods for decision making.

DECIDING WHICH TOOL TO USE

Brainstorming, below, basic guidelines for holding an idea-generating
discussion. All teams will need this.
Affinity diagram, p. 30, a way to organize a large set of ideas. Very
helpful for any team after a brainstorming session, when analyzing
customer comments, etc.
Multivoting, p. 31, a method for identifying priorities or narrowing
down alternatives. Helpful when you have more ideas than your team can
reasonably handle.

BRAINSTORMING
Purpose

To provide a group with a wide range of ideas around any topic

Why use brainstorming

Brainstorming produces many ideas or solutions in a short time

Brainstorming stimulates the creative thinking process
Brainstorming helps make sure that all group members ideas are
considered

When to use brainstorming

Use brainstorming whenever your group wants to make sure a range of

ideas are considered, including
Completing elements in a project charter
Identifying customers to include in research
Identifying potential causes to investigate
Identifying types of data to collect
Identifying solution ideas
How to brainstorm

1. Review the problem definition

2. Clarify the goal/question and provide any relevant information
3. Give everyone a few minutes of silence to think about the question and
individually write down some ideas
For ease of consolidation later, have people write down their ideas on selfstick notes or cards (one idea per note or card)
Encourage creativity; no idea is too outrageous for brainstorming

4. Gather ideas
Do a round robin, where people state one idea at a time, or do an open
popcorn, where anyone can speak up at any time.
Capture every idea
If ideas are written on self-stick notes, post them on the wall, board, or
flip chart
Alternatively, have each person read one idea aloud so a scribe can write
it on a flip chart posted where everyone can see it
If doing cause analysis, post the ideas on a blank cause-and-effect
diagram (this helps make sure all categories are considered)
Do not allow discussion until after all ideas are gathered; allow only
questions of clarification. (By important do you mean to us or to our
customers?)
OK for people to write down or add new ideas sparked during the sharing
session. Make sure the new idea is captured on both the flip chart and on a
self-stick note.

 Continue until everyone is out of ideas.

5. Consolidate similar ideas and discuss the complete set of ideas. Use other
tools as appropriate:
To find patterns, use affinity diagrams (p. 30), or cause-and-effect
diagrams (p. 146)
To narrow down or prioritize items, use Multivoting, p. 31
Brainstorming DOs and DONTs

DO
Go for quantity (not necessarily quality) in the early rounds
Allow individuals to complete their thoughts
Build on existing ideas
Be brief when stating an idea
Organize, categorize, and evaluate only after the brainstorming session
Keep the self-stick notes even if you transcribe ideas onto a flip chart (the
self-stick notes can be reused for creating an affinity diagram)
DONT
Criticize ideas (do not allow idea assassins)
Make judgments as ideas are being offered
Paraphrase an individuals idea when scribing
Allow any one person to dominate the session

AFFINITY DIAGRAMS
Purpose

To organize facts, opinions and issues into natural groups to help diagnose
a complex situation or find themes
Why use an affinity diagram

To help organize a lot of ideas

To help identify central themes in a set of ideas
When information about a problem is not well organized

 When a breakthrough is needed beyond traditional thinking

When to use affinity diagrams

Use to organize ideas from a brainstorming session in any phase of

DMAIC
Use to find themes and messages in customer statements gleaned from
interviews, surveys, or focus groups
How to create an affinity diagram

1. Gather ideas from brainstorming session, or customer need statements

from interview transcripts, surveys, etc.
2. Write ideas on cards or self-stick notes (one idea per card; stay as close to
original language as possible).
3. Post self-stick notes randomly on a board or flip chart; if using cards,
place them randomly on a table top.
4. Allow people to SILENTLY start grouping the cards or notes.
Its OK to move notes or cards that someone else has already moved. If
you cannot agree on where an idea belongs, write a duplicate note and put
it in both groups
Silence is critical!dont let the talkers sway the non-talkers
5. When the clustering is done, create a header label (on a note or card)
for each group.
Work through the groups one at a time
Ask participants to interpret what they see
Ask them to suggest a label or key theme for that group

 Write the theme on a larger self-stick note or card (the Header) and
place it at the top of a cluster
Continue until youve labeled all clusters
6. OPTIONAL: Do a second round of clustering if desired. Clip together all
the cards or notes from each cluster with only the Header labels showing.
Then move the Headers into groups. Create Master header labels for the
larger clusters.
7. Complete the diagram and discuss the results.
How will the patterns youve found influence your actions?
If youre working with customer need statements, move into developing
requirements based on those needs. May want to separate the needs based
on the Kano Model categories (p. 66) before starting.

MULTIVOTING
Highlights

A quick technique for identifying priorities or at least narrowing down the

options from a list of ideas
To use multivoting

Prework: This method assumes you have an existing list of ideas or

options. Eliminate duplicates and combine related ideas before
continuing.
1. Number every idea or option being considered
2. Write each idea on a flip chart or whiteboard visible to all participants
3. Decide how many votes each person will have
Rule of thumb: Participants should be able to cast multiple votes equal to
about 1/3 of the total number of items on the list (Ex: 33 items on the list =
11 votes per person)
4. Cast votes
Decide if people can cast more than one vote for an item or if they must
split their votes between items.
Easiest method: Give everyone a marker and have them go to the flip
chart or whiteboard and mark their votes.

 Confidential method: Have people write down on a slip of paper the

numbers of the items they are voting for. Collect the slips and mark the
votes on the flip chart or whiteboard.
5. Count votes
Tally the votes and record the totals next to each item

6. Decide on a course of action

Identify the top vote-getters
Eliminate from consideration all ideas with few or no votes
OPTIONAL: If the list of top vote-getters is still too large for your
purposes, do a second round of multivoting using only those top vote
getters. (Ex: First round of votes on a list of 33 items identified 12 top votegetters; do a second round on those top 12, this time giving only 4 votes
each)