The author | VERONIQUE LAFARGUE

At Google, we don’t have a unique recipe for innovation, but that doesn’t mean that all of our great ideas come out of our heads. Inspiration only exists in legends. Innovation is actually made step by step. You can also become a master of innovation if you master the basics.

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At The Google Maker Center, Google brainstormed for the design Sprint

View pictures The correct way to brainstorm View pictures

You may often complain: Why do we brainstorm ideas and never come up with good ones? Because you may have some misconceptions about brainstorming. Brainstorming is not a loose, random process, and crazy ideas don’t come up in every particular situation. At Google, while we recognize free-form brainstorming as a source of innovation, we don’t rush into it without a broad framework.

There are techniques everyone can learn to improve their brainstorming skills, because brainstorming itself is teachable, learnable, and shareable. This method can be used almost anywhere in any industry or company.To this end, we have developed a linear process that is both creative and practical.We distilled this approach into three principles:

1. Know your users

2. Think ten times

3. Prototype

Review images①. Know your usersReview images

If you want to solve a problem, you need to focus on your key users first and then think in terms of that. So we have to be there, talking to people, gathering their stories, their emotions, their thoughts. We should learn to be silent, to observe, to listen and to understand. You don’t just need to know what your users want, you need to connect with them.

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For example, I recently visited clients from Canada, Brazil, and India. Through observing and talking to them, I realized that people’s interpretation of the term “Mobility” varies from place to place. In Canada, it meansWhether you’re at your desk, in a cafe, or in a restaurant kitchen,You can always be in immediate contact with the outside world. In Brazil, where users spend a lot of time commuting, Mobility could mean a good user interface and smooth voice recognition. In India, Mobility refers more to working offline because of poor connectivity in some areas.

It is obvious that only through extensive research can we gain a profound understanding of these cultural differences. Most brainstormers include people other than their target audience, which is why they often miss the point.

Review images②. Think ten timesReview images

Now that you’ve laid the groundwork for brainstorming, you can start letting your mind wander. But remember, this is not aimless thinking.

The concept of “ten-fold thinking” is now well known in the business world, and it’s at the heart of the innovation we do at Google. If you’ve set a goal, you’ll need to think of solutions that are 10 times larger than your original goal in order to reach it. Google balloon project, for one, our purpose is to the Internet spread to everyone: an incremental solution is to install more optical fiber network, but ten times thinking for Google balloon project, namely from can knit up the balloon on the edge of the space of mobile network, which is used to connect the people who live in rural and remote areas, cover those difficult to land.

The next step was for all participants to write down their ideas individually before meeting together to discuss follow-up projects. Before you start, it’s good to know that while the idea of thinking ten times sounds far-fetched, it’s not impossible. While the most creative part of brainstorming begins as participants sit around with post-it notes, make sure to follow these six guidelines.

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Post-it notes and stickers are the most common AIDS to brainstorming

1. Cherish every idea

It’s easy to nip an idea in the bud in the early stages. To avoid this, it’s best to give a “yes” rather than a “no” to an idea after it’s been proposed. Remember “Great! But…” Instead of “No! Although…” This statement.

Quantitative change is the basis of qualitative change

The more ideas you have at this stage, the better, so let your mind wander. Don’t fret over your post-it notes, just write and draw. The more ideas you have, the more likely you are to have a good idea.

3. Be clickbait

Try to describe your ideas in one sentence. Think about it. If you had to write an advert for your new product to post on an official account, what would the title be?

No picture, no truth. A picture is worth a thousand words

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The person doesn’t want to talk to you and throws a picture at you.

5. Your imagination is wide open

“Others laugh at me too crazy, I laugh at others not to see” — those crazy ideas are exactly for Google’s innovative spirit. This is a tenfold solution, not an incremental one.

Don’t be so quick to judge

Do not judge others’ ideas in advance during the brainstorming process (remember principle 1). Each participant should take inspiration from others’ ideas or combine several ideas to come up with new ideas.

 

Review images③ Make a prototypeReview images

At Google, we like to make a prototype as soon as we finish brainstorming. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be a physical representation of your design idea, and it needs to be validated.

Some of the details, although they look awkward, we can actually get them back in the end. When you actually put your idea into action, you not only see if it works, but you learn something new from it.

3D printing is making prototyping easier

 Review images All talk, no practiceReview images

 

In previous posts, Tezan has written about Google’s “design Sprint” that uses fun and efficient ways to activate teams. It’s just a training tool for Google’s design team, but it can be applied to brainstorming. There are very detailed instructions.

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Translation | Li Weina, im excellent

Proofreading | king division

ABOUT: Weina Li

Urban planning designer, graphic design enthusiast

I graduated from Jianghan University in 2014

Now he is working in Wuhan Kemeng Planning and Design Consulting Co., LTD

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ABOUT: im excellent

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