Structuring the output
Of the numerous tools and techniques available, a key subset are those that structure and visualise the creative process and its output. For example
- Mind maps
- Analogy maps
- Lifecycle maps
- Morphological grids
Without these tools, the output of a creative session is too often a list or stack of ideas, with little awareness of what areas have been covered or not.
These tools make it far easier to understand what areas the creative space could cover (guidance for facilitating creative sessions) and what areas have been addressed by idea generation to date.
Using these tools enables the team to ensure they have developed an appropriately large number of ideas. This in turn highlights the next challenge - how to filter and select ideas for further development.
Structuring ideas helps to raise awareness of what has been covered
Introduction | Stimulating creative process | Structuring output | Filtering and ranking