SolveYourProblem Article Series: Brainstorming
Brainstorming, Where Do I Begin?

The Top Brainstorming Tools & Products Available

A myriad of amazing products now exist to help facilitate more prolific and profound brainstorming sessions than ever before possible.

Brainstorming Cards

One popular form of brainstorming tool is cards, or rather decks of cards, each designed to stimulate creative thinking. Brainstorming cards contain inspiring and thought-provoking images and words that can be used in a number of different ways to come up with ideas relevant to your specific challenges and objectives. The text on brainstorming cards can be anything from keywords to questions to stimulating scenarios to exercises and activities to inspiring messages and helpful principles. Each deck has its own “rules”, really suggestions for ways to best use the cards to maximize the creative output.

Popular brands of brainstorming cards include:

• ThinkCube
• Creativity a la Card
• Inner Vision
• ‘Ask Einstein’
• Free the Genie
• MetaMemes
• Innovative Whack Pack

Even once you become familiar with all of the cards in a brainstorming cards deck, the value never diminishes, as you can always plug new ideas into the process, and you never know which cards will show up when to spur you into completely new modes of creative thought. Just like tarot cards never lose their oomph to those who use them, so do brainstorming cards retain an undying sort of magic.

Brainstorming Systems

An example of a comprehensive brainstorming system is Michael Bungay Stanier’s “Get Unstuck and Get Going…on the Stuff that Matters”. This package includes a perspective-generating workbook, an action-accelerating process in a step-by-step checklist, an instructional handbook, and an interactive website.

The great thing about brainstorming systems is the breadth and wealth of material you get in a single package. There are usually endless ways to utilize a brainstorming system, each time with new and surprising results. Whereas with brainstorming cards, there is the potential to eventually grow tired of the same creative stimuli.

Brainstorming Software Solutions

The modern age has blessed us with a bevy of technological tools to make every aspect of human life easier, and that’s no less so with brainstorming. A slew of fantastic brainstorming software exists that can help breathe new life into old challenges without you ever leaving your desk.

There are software variants of the brainstorming cards idea-stimulating motif, like ThoughtPath, ThoughtOffice and FlashBrainer. And there are also Mind Mapping tools like the XMIND 2008 Pro, OpenMind 2 Business, and NovaMind for Windows.

Then there are software tools designed to help with brainstorming very specific projects, such as NameBuilder 10 which helps companies to come up with brand names for new products, Visual Concept which empowers you to create visual business models, and Seiko InkLink which allows you to easily add handwritten sketches to digital notes.

Free Brainstorming Tools

Finally, many of these creativity tools need not even be purchased. Many are available for free on the internet, among them:

Downloadable text-based brainstorming tools, like:

• EyeWire Creativity Cards
• IdeaMiner Journal
• Pocket Generator of Ideas
• CPS Cheat Sheet
• Harvey Cards
• The 100 What’s of Creativity

Web-based brainstorming tools, like:

• Creative Whack
• Jump Start
• Idea Lottery
• Job Force
• Watizit
• Random Word Technique
• Random Picture
• The Solution Machine

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2008

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