Most of us are used to synchronous brainstorm sessions: being in a room together (virtual or physical) and sharing ideas based on a prompt, with the goal of coming up with something new. While this kind of brainstorming has many advantages, such as creating a momentum that inspires people to collaborate, it sometimes isn’t the best way to go with brainstorming.
There are two main reasons why:
Sometimes, people feel less inclined to participate for different reasons (they might be introverts, less talkative, not comfortable with the topic, or they might not perform very well under time pressure).
Synchronous communication doesn’t always work in distributed teams, where contributors might have different work hours (or days).
The other way to go around brainstorming is to conduct it asynchronously. Meaning, instead of having a group conversation happening in real-time, each contributor is invited to share their ideas, on their own time (but within a specified time limit).
Asynchronous brainstorming gives time and space for everyone to participate and feel included, and allows distributed teams to collaborate and innovate.
To help you conduct an asynchronous brainstorm, we prepared a free template you can use on Miro. You can also use it as pre-work for a synchronous brainstorm, for everyone to be ready before the meeting.
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