For any project, problem or proposal, innovative idea generation is at the root of finding a solution. In order to produce a wide variety of concepts, there are a number of different tools and techniques you can use to aid you. So, as promised, here’s a short exploration into some of these tools – you should use your experience, knowledge of the target audience and commercial understanding of the goals to consider if and how they could be useful to you or your business!

Firstly, some of the old favourites:

Brainstorming – Probably the most well-known and widely used tool, brainstorms can help assemble a large quantity of ideas, either from an individual or more typically a small group. The method of creating a central problem or idea and branching off with as many ideas, words and thoughts as possible, creates a physical visualisation of concepts and is a great starting point.

Mind-Mapping – A second stage to brainstorming, mind-maps are a more controlled expression of ideas, focussed on logical organisation and identifying the relationships between ideas. There are a variety of online tools, programmes, and applications to aid the process, including Bubbl, Mindmeister and Xmind – but there’s nothing wrong with using good old fashioned pen and paper!

Storyboarding – Mainly used in the creative industry, although suitable for producing visual solutions to many complex problems, storyboards can be used to connect images with text, creating a clear story and flow of ideas – allowing everyone involved to fully grasp the concept of what you are trying to achieve.

There are also a variety of creativity tools and techniques that are less widely known and adopted, for example:

Lotus Blossoms – With the lotus blossom technique, you create a grid with a core idea in the centre and 6 or 8 empty spaces around it. Once you have filled each of these with an idea, these are then expanded away from the central problem and 6 to 8 more ideas placed around each of these, as shown here. Designed mainly for groups, this technique prevents you becoming fixated on a certain path by encouraging you to produce a certain number of alternative ideas.

Random Word Generation – There are a variety of online tools available that generate random words – encouraging you to try and think laterally, creating links between random concepts and using your ideas and thoughts to leap frog you onto other ways of thinking.

If you are attempting to do something really conceptual, or perhaps attempting a group exercise in creativity, you could try and attempt something really unusual. For example, the site Animal Crackers encourages you to think how animal adaptions may relate to the problems you are trying to solve. For more information and ideas, check out the Innovation Tools website, or if you have any creativity tools of your own (conceptual or otherwise!) – please share them with the team!