Selecting Ideas

Brainstorming was all about divergent thinking, but now it is time to select or narrow down to at most three ideas through convergent thinking. Convergent thinking is about focusing, but not about settling on the simplest ideas to execute. Don’t rule out ideas that seem too edgy or risky.. Further out ideas are really important early on. Some suggestions are to select ‘the most likely to delight,’ ‘the rational choice’, and ‘the most unexpected’.

Activity: Follow the instructions below and complete the Selecting Ideas worksheet page by providing descriptions of the ideas you’ve narrowed down to.

How to Converge

1. Vote Give everyone in your group three votes and ask them to put a checkmark on their favorite ideas.
2. Cluster Start looking for similarities between ideas and cluster them together to see if any themes emerge.
3. Discuss The core team or individual should summarize what ideas came out of this ideation phase and discuss or consider which to prototype.
4. Decide While you can certainly invite input from others, the final decision belongs to the core team or team leader

For Individuals
You can still follow similar steps when you’re alone. Just get a bit creative!

To complete this course please click the link below to upload your workbook and fill out the course evaluation.

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