Idea Generation and Innovation Activities

Remote Note and Vote

remote-friendly decision making problem solving idea generation prioritization

Use a remote-friendly version of the classic note and vote exercise to generate ideas quickly, vote on the most suitable, and turn them into how might we statements your group can move forward with!

Ten True Statements about creativity

creative thinking idea generation

Time: 5-10 minutes

(15-30 minutes) Write down 10 true statements about your creativity in your Creativity Notebook. These can be anything: ‘I feel the most creative when I’m dancing.’ ‘My desk needs to be messy/tidy for me to feel like I can be creative.’
EXTRA CREDIT: If you get even the slightest whiff of an 'aha!' moment, add a second layer sentence to your Noticing Wall (the back page of your Creativity Notebook). Noticing Wall Statements look like anything from, 'Huh, I never thought of it that way!' to 'Wow, I guess I really do need a messy desk to feel creative; I wonder why.'

This n’ That

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Creativity is connecting things. If you are looking to give your creative mind a workout with a simple concept mash-up, look no further. The more you do this, the better you’ll get at one of the fundamental skills that lead to new ideas, combining elements. We've found a simple online tool from Dave Birss that helps you to define random objects that can form the basis of your creative combination.

Y-box idea generation tool

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Use Y-box for your New Production Development ideation workshop

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Dixit Braamcamp. Turning a boardgame into a co-design tool for citizen participation in local development

A Martian Sends a Postcard Home

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Use Craig Raine's poem A Martian Sends a Postcard Home to spur creative thinking and encourage perspective shifting in a group. After a warm-up, you can then use this martian perspective to describe your product or service and gain new insights and ideas.

Apple-Drawing Ideation

hyperisland innovation idea generation

The purpose of this simple exercise is to demonstrate three key principles useful for creativity and idea generation: quantity is a condition for quality; building on the ideas of others; the ideas we come up with are usually all the same. The format is simple, with small groups standing and drawing apples. At the end of the exercise, the whole group reflects and draws out learnings and reflections.