Idea Generation

Our team went through a unique, specialized brainstorming process, which spanned several sessions. We first analyzed findings from our Contextual Design process, and used them as a springboard for new ideas. All team members contributed thoughts, sketches, new needs, and additions to each others ideas as they arose, all of which were typed up or recorded on a whiteboard and photographed. Even seemingly ridiculous ideas were captured, as they often inspired other, more focused ones

Analysis

After all of the ideas were documented, they were printed out and arranged on a section of the whiteboard. They were each discussed, and some eliminated immediately by consensus if they were infeasible, out of scope, or otherwise not relevant. The rest were written back on another section of the whiteboard, along with pros and cons based on predetermined criteria we chose to evaluate ideas on.

Pruning (The Skull System)

Each team member was then given a certain number of sticky notes, on which they put their initials or some other identifying mark. We denoted our favorite ideas with one color, and our least favorite with another color. The stickys were not used for a strict vote, but rather to make evident the general inclinations of the team, and serve as point to talk around as each idea was reevaluated with a new team focus. Any ideas that had positive stickys on it were discussed, and if approved received a positive “Team” sticky. If rejected, they would earn a negative sticky with a skull on it, hence the name of our system.