Brainwriting

The "6-3-5 method"

Brainwriting is a method similar to Brainstorming. Again, this method will lead to better results with multiple persons, but there's also a version that will result in good output if you're on your own.

Brainwriting uses the "6-3-5-Method", if you're not using this method by itself. You need 6 participants. Every participant writes down 3 ideas, and repeats this 5 times. Hence the name of the method.

Every participant draws a table with 3 columns on a sheet of paper - one for each idea. Then, they add another 6 rows to the table: One for the basic idea and 5 for the repeats (modifications).

Consequently, every participant has a sheet of paper with 18 fields. For the first turn, every participant writes down 3 ideas for a given topic into the first row - one in each field. These ideas in the top row are called the basic ideas of the participant.

When every participant is done, the sheets are passed on to the lefthand or righthand neighbour. Now, the second row is filled in by that participant, who is inspired by the first row and produces new modifications and new ideas. This procedure is repeated 5 times. For every row, there are about 5 minutes of time.

Alltogether, you will get 18 x 6 = 108 fields with ideas. Some of them will most likely be similar or identical, but many new creations and ideas will have developed.

Unfortunately, there are not always 6 participants available, so you may need to modify the 6-3-5-method. There are lots of variants, e.g. "2-3-7", "7-3-6" and others.

One single person can also use this method, for example in the "1-3-2" version. Of course, you're not limited to 2 modifications. The method is expandable at will.