How not to kill an idea before it's even born?

byZenn

154 followers

Updated 10 years ago

I've spent most of my career as a graphic designer, which means juggling with ideas on a daily basis.

Here, I like to share 5 simple tricks I use, which can make a big difference when you are brainstorming ideas. I hope my fellow WA members will find them useful.

Before we start, a little understanding of the creative process will be needed, so bear with me. That will help you get the most out of the 5 tricks.

Two opposite ways of thinking

Creative process uses two opposite ways of thinking.

The first one looks at the big picture and explores all the possibilities. This is most appropriate when you brainstorm and research an idea.

The second one goes into details, analyses and evaluates. This is used when you decide which idea is a keep and which one to dip in the waste basket.

Now here is the trouble most of people get into: they mix up those two. This happens so fast and so naturally that they're not even aware of it.

Here is an example on how it would go when looking for a niche:

“Well I could get into shoes… no that's too broad… well maybe making candles… no, nobody would be interested in that… ok then learning to play guitar… yes but I cannot play guitar… etc.”

You get the idea? Amazingly, we are sometimes way more creative in finding ways to judge our creativity then letting the flow continue.

Ideas bounce off each other

Imagine a stairway. At the bottom, your first idea, at the top your big idea.

When you brainstorm, you go from one idea to the other. It's the first that leads to the second, to the third and so on. If you don't have the second, you can't get the last one.

Now here is what happens, if you judge the idea on step two (crossed in red in the drawing below), you never get to your big idea.

So what to do? Here it is with the 5 tricks:

1. Keep them apart unless you want a boxing match

Brainstorm and evaluation are not good friends and will kill your creativity if you put them together. This being said, they are both very useful… each on their own time.

When you are in brainstorm mode, choose a space in your house or your office that inspires that. Put a special music, decorate it with pictures and objects of inspiration.

If you can't move your computer, you could put some music, light the room differently, well do something that tells you “it's now time to brainstorm and I will only do that”.

When that's done, go to your evaluation spot or change the light, music, etc. Do something that tells you “I'm now on evaluation mode”.

This way, you will give both a fair chance to do their work.

2. Don’t start with a blank page

Like we saw in the introduction, ideas don't come on their own. Ideas need each other, they are very social creatures. So putting a blank page in front of you is not a good place to start. For example, this is why in WA we are told to look at Amazon for niche ideas or dig into our hobbies and skills.

When I start a new project, I always do some research first. I look at what my client has, what his competition is doing, what others are doing and start to pick things here and there. Then ideas come on their own. My brain just does the work of combining things in a new form.

So make sure you do your research before starting and your page will never be blank again.

3. Take a break, your brain will do the rest

When you sleep, relax, do something else, your brain continues working. In fact, ideas are born in your unconscious. So if you take a break, it will do its job and come up with new ideas.

So next time you are stuck, look at images, read, take a walk, eat, talk to someone, go crazy, sing, dance, go to sleep, take a nap, have a cup of coffee, etc.

You will see that fresh and new ideas can be born out of this.

4. Work with the devil

I love that one. Not working with the devil, the technique. It has 3 steps.

Step one

Ok, let's say you don't know what you want. Well instead of banging your head against the wall, start making a list of the opposite of what you are looking for. Go crazy with it!

So for example with niches, you could list all bad niches you can think of.

Then two things can happen:

1. One great idea may come out of that. Then you are done.
2. Nothing happens. Then you need to go into step two.

Here, basically you take each piece you got in the previous step and turn it around. You bring it into its opposite – and leave that old devil where he belongs.

Let's say your bad niche list has: unhealthy cats, broken shoes, difficult guitar lessons, hikes where you get lost, etc., just to name a few (make your list way longer, the longer the better).

Start by picking one from your list. You will then do the same process with some of them or all of them.

Let's take the last one for this example: "hikes where you get lost". We will now further brainstorm on it and see what we can turn it into: maps to find your way when you hike, virtual guides on your mobile phone, hiking books, hiking membership club, hiking clothes and equipment, a course on finding clues in nature so you don't get lost, hikers find guides website, hiking gps, rent a guide, measure your heart rate and calories loss while you hike, loosing weight through hiking, equipment to make you loose more weight when hiking, etc.

Don't be afraid to go a little crazy – like I just did – you are in brainstorming phase remember, no evaluation.

Step three

Ok, now is the time for the judge to do it's work. Take all your lists and sort them out with your criterias: doable, enjoyable, sustainable, etc., or any other one important to you.

Once you have chosen a few, you can still tweek them to refine your idea.

5. Combine ideas

When you see an idea out there that you find so cool and think “I wish I had this idea myself”, well usually it's a combination of two ideas.

Now if you just think: “What could I combine this with?”, there is a great chance that nothing will come up. So you need to trick your brain a little bit, force the combination process.

The best way to do that is by making a table. No, no, not the one you eat on, the one with the lines and columns.

Horizontally, you write all the things you are passionate with. Vertically, you write all the things you have skills in. Then you take one vertical item at a time and combine it with one horizontal item.

You could also put half of your hobbies vertically and the other half horizontally and see what comes up when you combine them. Use whatever combination works best for you. This doesn't matter much as long as it forces your thinking a bit.

Don't go to quickly to the next one if it doesn't work, take a bit of time to really give it a thought. With practice it will come easier.

Again, while you do this process, note all the ideas, it's not the time to select them yet. That will be done at the end. You want your ideas to really flow during the brainstorming phase.

Conclusion

Those are the few tricks I use the most. I hope you will enjoy playing with them and come up with great ideas. If you find it difficult, give it a bit of time. The brain is like a muscle, it needs training, but once you got the biceps, it will be easy to lift the heavy weight. Then you have less sweat and more fun. Enjoy!