Brainstorming is tough. Getting your team focused and fully engaged can feel like herding cats. If that’s true when everyone is in the same room, how can brainstorming be done with remote workers? This question is nothing new to creative professionals. Working with remote-based freelancers, looping in talent from multiple offices (and even countries) is a regular reality for agencies. As necessity is the mother of invention, it’s no surprise that a digital marketing agency invented a solution. It’s called BRAINSTORM Online.

Remote Brainstorming  in 4 Steps 

BRAINSTORM Online helps teams brainstorm better, period. Anyone with access to a smart device and an internet connection can participate from any location. BRAINSTORM can greatly improve your ideation sessions by saving you time and enhancing your output. It does this in four simple steps.

1. Setting up the Brief
   First, it steps the facilitator through writing an effective brief. Why is this important? It’s important because the brief needs to provide a clear summary of all key information for the brainstorm to participants. So they can make more informed and relevant contributions during the session and spend less time getting up-to-speed on the topic at hand.

2. Structuring the Session
   Then, it provides a framework for the session. It provides the facilitator a selection of modules and methodologies to build their session and allows them to tailor the resulting mix of questions and activities to suit the goal. Ultimately producing an exciting brainstorm that will keep participants engaged and on task. Ensuring a richer outcome from the brainstorm.

   

3. Coordinating the Guests
   Next, it allows the facilitator to schedule their session and invite guests. Currently, only live group sessions are available. However, work is underway to offer facilitators the option to invite participants to contribute individually, in their own time. This planned new feature should reduce the risk of missing out on valuable insights. As when working remotely across time zones, live participation might not always be possible for all desired contributors. 

4. Reporting the Results
   Finally, as BRAINSTORM is a digital platform, all of your participants’ contributions are collected and recorded automatically. This reduces the need for note-taking during sessions and provides near-instantaneous reporting. In turn, accelerating the process of reviewing and analyzing your results and making the sharing of clear, useful reports easy.

As we all explore ways to make our teams and businesses more
resilient during and post COVID19, now’s the time to add tools like BRAINSTORM Online to our productivity arsenals.