As a game designer, one of the most fun parts of my job is coalescing a new set of constraints into the beginnings of a concrete game idea. I find this is best done in groups, like a T.V. writers room, where people bounce concepts back and forth. Some ideas are assists, others are slam dunks. I often say that my own superpower as a game designer is not having the best ideas, it’s having the most ideas. To make a great meal, one needs ingredients, and the more ingredients you have in your kitchen, the more likely you’ll be able to make a complete meal without substitutions.
I’ve gone through the group brainstorming process so often that I’ve developed some rules that I believe make brainstorming work better. That’s not to say that you can’t work without the rules. You may not need any kind of framework, especially if you know and respect your collaborators. The rules are there to make all the participants feel comfortable sharing their wildest notions, and to create the kernel of the concept that will later germinate into your solution.
Though I’ve worked primarily in game design, I think these rules work for any kind of group brainstorming. In engineering, the arts, even in science, we find ourselves needing to generate a range of solutions to select from. I think this is how you do it.
1. Separate Ideation from Editing
You can think of yourselves as cartographers of a creative landscape. Your job in the first phase is to get a complete map. The second phase is when you will decide where to build your city. The editing phase can be done in a separate meeting (ideally with some time in-between), or even offline.
So, it’s important to naysay the naysayers. If you’re ideating when someone starts to express doubts about the idea being discussed, remind them they’ll get a chance to edit later. Right now you need to see how far you can take it. “Yes, and” is the name of the game. When someone expresses an idea, try to build off of it and extend it, without negating the initial premise.
That brings me to my two exceptions to the “no editing” rule:
- Out of Bounds
- Hat on a Hat
When you went into the (real or metaphorical) room, you probably had a list of constraints. Some are soft, like “our team needs to be able to accomplish it in less than a year” or “we need to use off-the-shelf hardware”. Those are difficult to estimate, and are probably best returned to in the editing phase. However, there are also hard constraints, like “it’s an app for iOS devices” or “it allows cars to drive across the river.” When something violates the Hard constraints during brainstorming, it’s OK to say “Out of Bounds” and use your time on more relevant lines of inquiry. Sometimes you may want to give it time to see if an Out of Bounds idea wanders back in bounds, but that’s very much a judgement call.
The other term, “Hat on a Hat”, comes from improv comedy. It’s a sense that you’ve gone a bit too deep down the rabbit hole. Too much complexity has been piled on, and with this latest addition an idea has become too cumbersome. When someone has put a Hat on a Hat, usually everyone will feel it, and it’s OK to call it out. If there’s disagreement, and you have time, you should to keep going until you get consensus. If time is short, take a quick majority vote.
2. Separate People from Ideas
People like to feel that they are contributing. A certain amount of self-esteem can get bound up with how much of their own input makes it into the final product. That’s why it’s important to give new ideas names as soon as possible. The default name for a new idea will be ‘Lucy’s idea’ or ‘Howard’s idea’. That means Lucy or Howard now have a stake in the success or failure of an idea that bears their name. Their judgement about those ideas is corrupted.
Instead, after a new idea is expressed, the next person to speak should give it a name. “Oh, I really like the Zipper Idea” or “What if we did the Concrete Sandwich idea, but with rebar in the bread?” Now the idea belongs to everyone. Not only does this avoid attachment to the originator, it also frees the rest of the group to play with the idea without apology.
3. Geniuses, Poets and Artists
“If we treat each other as if we are geniuses, poets and artists, we have a better chance of becoming that on stage.” – Del Close
The most important part of brainstorming is emotional safety. If someone is worried they’ll be ridiculed, you’ll only hear their safest and most banal ideas. The best way to make everyone feel safe is to treat them with high esteem. That’s not to say that you need to establish hierarchies — everyone can be a genius of the same caliber, with different strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to call out people’s competencies, and create a culture of congratulation. “I know this idea worries you, but I’m sure you can make it work.” “There are some details missing here, but I think you’d be the perfect person to work those out.” “I think this fits the brief, bit it’s closer to your area of expertise than to mine, so I defer to you.” As I said, this is very much a set of cultural norms. Each of the phrases above can be said in a sneering, sarcastic or exploitative way, but you need to establish that that’s not how things are done hereâ„¢.
This also relates to the amount people are speaking in the room. Interrupting or talking over another person is hard to avoid entirely, especially over online video chat where latency sometimes creates awkward moments, but each time it happens is a strike against the speaker. Ideally, everyone should be keeping track of their own strike count, and three strikes earns yourself a tacit time out. If someone is violating this norm, you may have to call them on it. That causes embarassment, but it has been earned.
That is not to say that everyone should be speaking an equal amount. People have different styles, ranging from silent contemplation punctuated by brilliant interjection to thinking aloud and being surprised by ones own voice.
If you don’t respect the people you’re brainstorming with, either because you haven’t had a good experience working with them in the past, or because you just don’t know them that well, then your job for the duration of the meeting is to FAKE IT. Pretend they are geniuses, poets and artists, and see how you can build off of their ideas. Maybe you’ll gain an appreciation for their point of view over the course of the session.
4. Don’t Forget Anything
You are cartographers, so don’t leave any parts of your map behind. That does NOT mean to just audio/video record everything (no one is going to want to go back and watch it), and I wouldn’t trust AI summary either. You’re going to need a person or process dedicated to recording the substance of everything you say. Even the ideas you know are bad (and why). A (real or metaphorical) whiteboard works. Sometimes sticky notes, though they tend to lose context easily.
Ultimately this should turn into a bullet list. Not a ranked list, a bullet list of everything you’ve come up with, and any augmentations the rest of the team have made. Blind alleys and dead ends, as well as any avenues left unsearched. Keep it all.
That’s it. What next?
The rules above are really all the advice I have for the ideation phase, and philosophically I don’t think there ought to be many more. Creation requires a certain amount of freedom. By contrast, editing requires process. Culling and ranking the options needs to be done transparently, if not by the same group. Here’s where your moves will need rational justifications, and perhaps some sidebar conversations about those soft constraints.
These rules have been very helpful to me the last few years. I had to cobble them together the hard way—with lots of frustration, hurt feelings, and sub-par solutions left in my wake. I hope you can avoid all that and, along with a group you trust, find the best ways past all your problems.
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Bobby Lockhart is an award-winning game designer and author. You can find him on LinkedIn.