Ideation is the mode of the design process in which you concentrate on idea generation. We ideate in order to transition from identifying problems to creating solutions for our users.
Particularly early in a design project, ideation is about pushing for a widest possible range of ideas from which you can select, not simply finding a single, best solution.
So how to run an effective ideation session?
Before the Session: Define the Challenge
A good ideation session starts before anyone begins generating ideas.
If the challenge is too broad, participants will produce ideas that go in completely different directions. If it is too narrow, the team may simply generate variations of a solution that has already been decided.
Start by clarifying:
- Who are we designing for?
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- What evidence do we already have?
- What important constraints exist?
- What should remain open for exploration?
The objective is to create enough focus to make the session useful without defining the solution in advance.
Create a How Might We Question
A useful way to turn a problem statement into an ideation challenge is a How Might We question.
For example, instead of:
We need a better IT support portal.
try:
How might we help employees find the right support path in less than one minute?
A good How Might We question should be broad enough to allow different solutions but specific enough to give the team direction.
Set Useful Constraints
Constraints are not always bad for creativity.
A challenge such as:
How can we improve customer support?
is extremely broad.
Adding meaningful constraints can make ideation more productive:
How might we reduce uncertainty for first-time users without adding another support channel?
Useful constraints might include:
- time;
- budget;
- technology;
- regulation;
- user context;
- available people or resources.
But avoid defining too many constraints before ideation. If every part of the solution is already predetermined, there is little space left for creative exploration.
How to Run an Ideation Session
Once the challenge is clear, the facilitator’s job is to create an environment where people can generate possibilities before they begin evaluating them.
1. Set the Rules
Separate idea generation from idea evaluation.
During the divergent part of the session:
- defer judgment;
- encourage unusual ideas;
- build on other people’s ideas;
- keep discussion moving;
- capture every idea.
Criticism and feasibility discussions can come later.
2. Start with Quantity
The first objective is not to find the perfect solution.
Generate many alternatives.
The obvious ideas usually appear first. More interesting possibilities often emerge only after the team has moved beyond its familiar solutions.
You can even set a target such as:
Generate at least 30 ideas before evaluating any of them.
The exact number matters less than preventing the team from stopping after the first few reasonable ideas.
3. Build on Other Ideas
Encourage participants to use an existing idea as a starting point:
- What could we add?
- What could we remove?
- What would make this dramatically simpler?
- What would make this possible for a completely different user?
- What could we borrow from another industry?
One idea does not need to be the final solution. It can simply trigger a better one.
4. Keep the Energy Moving
Every ideation session eventually slows down.
When that happens, change the perspective rather than immediately ending the session.
Try a new prompt:
- How would we solve this with no additional budget?
- How would we solve it without technology?
- What would the opposite solution look like?
- How would another industry approach this?
- What would we do if we had to test something tomorrow?
A facilitator should recognize when a productive direction can still be explored and when it is time to deliberately jump to another one.
5. Make Ideas Visible
Keep ideas where everyone can see them.
Use sticky notes, a whiteboard or a shared digital board.
Visible ideas make it easier to:
- build on other people’s thinking;
- notice repeated themes;
- combine concepts;
- avoid losing promising ideas;
- see how the session is progressing.
Sketches, diagrams and simple visualizations can often communicate an idea faster than a long explanation.
How to Select the Best Ideas
Do not try to choose the winner while ideas are still being generated.
First diverge.
Then converge.
An affinity diagram can help you group similar ideas into themes and identify emerging patterns.
You can then evaluate promising concepts using criteria such as:
- potential user value;
- expected impact;
- feasibility;
- effort;
- originality;
- speed of testing.
Dot voting can help reveal which ideas the group finds interesting, but voting should not automatically determine the final decision.
A seemingly unpopular idea may contain an important insight worth exploring.
The goal is usually not to identify one final solution.
Instead, select a small number of ideas that are worth learning more about.
A 60-Minute Ideation Session Agenda
A simple session can look like this:
0–5 min – Introduce the challenge
Explain the problem, the user and what the team already knows.
5–10 min – Review the How Might We question
Make sure everyone is solving roughly the same problem.
10–15 min – Warm-up
Use a quick creative exercise or an intentionally easy challenge to move participants out of normal meeting mode.
15–30 min – Individual idea generation
Give people several minutes to think independently before group discussion.
This prevents the loudest or fastest participants from determining the direction too early.
30–40 min – Share and build
Put ideas on the board. Combine them, modify them and use them to trigger additional ideas.
40–50 min – Cluster ideas
Group related ideas and identify emerging directions.
50–57 min – Select ideas to explore
Use discussion, criteria or dot voting to identify several promising concepts.
57–60 min – Define the next experiment
Do not finish with:
Great ideas. Thanks everyone.
Decide what happens next.
Choose an idea, identify its riskiest assumption and decide how the team could test it cheaply.
Common Ideation Session Mistakes
Starting with a solution instead of a problem
If the challenge is:
How should we implement an AI chatbot?
the team has already decided that an AI chatbot is the solution.
A better challenge may be:
How might we help users get an answer without waiting for support?
Evaluating ideas too early
A quick:
That won’t work.
can shut down not only one idea but also the ideas it could have triggered.
Separate generation from evaluation.
Letting one person dominate
Ideation is not a competition for airtime.
Use individual brainwriting or silent idea generation before group discussion so that quieter participants have equal opportunity to contribute.
Generating ideas without doing anything with them
A board containing 100 sticky notes is not an outcome.
Ideation should eventually lead to something that can be tested.
What Happens After Ideation?
The output of an ideation session should not normally be a fully approved solution.
It should be a small number of promising hypotheses.
For each selected idea ask:
What would need to be true for this idea to work?
Then identify the assumption with the greatest uncertainty or risk.
Build the smallest prototype or experiment capable of testing that assumption.
This creates a natural progression:
Problem → How Might We → Ideas → Selection → Prototype → Learning
The purpose of ideation is therefore not simply to produce creative ideas.
It is to create better options for experimentation and learning.
Conclusion
Good preparation, by reading and printing materials on selected ideation method will satisfy you and team on the session. Keep rules, relax and no judgment. This is the time when you are releasing internal creativity.
