If you work in an office, your boss has probably forced you into a brainstorming session or two (or 12). Invented in the 1940s by an advertising executive, the purpose was to solicit a large amount of ideas in a short period of time. By putting a collective of creative people in the same room, better concepts should come. Sounds very agile. However, science has shown several times that brainstorming is a terrible technique. It’s cumbersome due to all of the interdependent activities happening at once. When spending time generating ideas as a group, you often spend more time thinking of others ideas than your own. Fortunately, a relatively unknown technique is starting to gain popularity called brainwriting. Incorporating it into your team events can produce more diverse ideas and provide a friendlier environment for collaboration. In this session, we will workshop them and leave the audience with all of the tools to bring the technique back to their offices.

1. BRAINWRITING
The team hack to generate better ideas
@chrismurman

2. WHO AM I?
Quality Analyst
Product Manager
Copywriter
Author
Blogger
BA Tester
Graphic Designer
Sales
Agile Champion
Scrum Master
Product Owner
Coach
PM Lead
Maker
Twitter Addict
Father
Sports Anchor
Change Agent
CSMCSPO
CSP
Batman
Mobile Evangelist
Texan
Button Pusher

3. 3
IDEAS!

4. Organizations and companies are constantly engaged
in processes designed to develop new methods,
processes, and products aimed at building and
sustaining their competitive edge.
Often the ideas that are the basis for innovations are
developed in group settings, such as team meetings.
4

5. 5
Articulate the difference between Brainstorming and Brainwriting
Teach others about the social components of idea generation
Facilitate brainwriting sessions with your own teams
Have fun with your table-mates along the way!
LEARNINGOBJECTIVES

6. 6
Introduce yourself to the rest of the table.
Spend 5 minutes discussing what you
know about brainstorming.

7. ALEXF.OSBORN
“We should hold back criticism until the creative current has had the
chance to flow.”
“Become more conscious of the creative power within your reach.”
“As a term, imagination covers a field so wide and so hazy that a leading
educator has called it an area which psychologists fear to tread.”
“Each of us does have an Aladdin’s lamp, and if we rub it hard enough, it
can light our way to better living.”
7

8. Published Applied Imagination in 1953
Introduced a technique he called “brainstorming”
Go For Quantity
Withhold Criticism
Welcome Wild Ideas
Combine and Improve Ideas
8

9. - Alex F. Osborn
“IT CONCENTRATES SOLELY ON
CREATIVE THINKING AND
EXCLUDES THE
DISCOURAGEMENT AND
CRITICISM WHICH SO OFTEN
CRAMP IMAGINATION.”
9

10. WHATARESOME
CHALLENGESTOUSINGTHIS
TECHNIQUE? 10
slides 6-9 will be 15 minutes

11. Only one person can talk at a time
HIPPOs
Waiting to speak means forgetting
Introverts lose out
Politics more important than ideas
BRAINSTORMINGCHALLENGES
11

12. How many times have we said, “This is just the way
we’ve always done things”?
12

13. Brainwriting is an idea-generating technique mean to
focus the group more on the output rather than the
social components of the activity.
13

14. 6-3-5BRAINWRITING
Published 1968 by Bernd Rohrbach in Germany
6 Participants
Write Down 3 Ideas
In 5 minutes
6 Rounds = 108 ideas in 30 minutes
14

15. Electronic Brainstorming (EBS) - Introduced in the 1980s, with the
hope of using computer-mediated electronic communication to
improve creativity.
Asynchronous Brainstorming in an Industrial Setting: Exploratory
Studies published by Tel Aviv University and UT-Arlington in 2015
ITERATIONSON6-3-5
15

16. If the #1 problem to Agile adoption is education what are
some ways to educate people? - 3 minutes
Pass the paper to the right - 3 times
Goal is to identify as many ways as possible.
Who can generate the most ideas?
16
LET’SDOITNOW

17. HOWWASTHATDIFFERENT? 17
slides 10-16 total 27 minutes

18. Write down 5 barriers to Agile adoption.
As soon as you hit 5, pass the paper to your right.
Keep going until you can’t think of anything else.
Identify the table’s top three barriers, without talking.
10 minutes total.
18
LET’STRYITAGAIN

19. WHYISTHISBETTERTHAN
MAKINGYOUROWNLIST? 19

20. 20
HOWCANYOUUSETHIS?

21. 21
Retrospectives - Surveys or Stickies
Stand Ups - Slack
Release/PI Planning - Stickies and Dot Voting
Demos/Showcases - Feedback Sheets
BRAINWRITINGINAGILE
TEAMS

22. 22
The more ideas the better.
Verbal communication comes second.
Social aspects of team are still important.
This will feel weird at first.
Measure your growth.
THINGSTOREMEMBER
22
slides 17-22 will be 30 minutes

23. THANKYOU!
@chrismurman
chrisdmurman@gmail.com
chrismurman.com
coalition.agileuprising.com