Nowadays, cool ideas have become the key to the success of any company, and when there is a strong lack of new ideas, it's time for brainstorming. But this event can be different, and the experience of Halsbrook, an online women's clothing store, only confirms this fact. The founder of the company, Halsey Schroeder, told several ways to make brainstorming more orderly and useful.
"At first, as usual, we just got together and hoped to come up with some cool idea to improve the situation in the company," says Halsey, "but very soon it became clear that these discussions were too scattered and endless, without beginning and end."
After that, Schroeder and her team tried to change their approach to brainstorming, and this helped them grow by 20% every month. That's what they did:
Schroeder and the team choose a topic for each such meeting. Some of them are dedicated to identifying the target audience, others are focused on customer retention, and others are focused on user experience.
Each of the participants should come up with two or three ideas that they have come up with. At the same time, ideas should not be based on "I think this will work." In support of your idea, you need to bring data from life, for example, which other online stores have tried it, how it works for them and what results it brings.
Brainstorming in Halsbrook starts in any order every time — anyone can be asked to start. If you never know who will present your ideas first, you will surely come prepared.
In each group there are people who do not like to speak out in front of everyone, and there are those who will make decisions about the idea at the expense of their likes or dislikes to those who expressed it. Therefore, before discussing ideas, it is best to listen to everyone and write down thoughts on the board. When all the ideas are on the board, it will no longer be so important who exactly expressed them.
What to do after the board is filled with ideas? Work with them. Schroeder says that in their company, all ideas go through the profile of an imaginary client.
Each idea is considered from the client's point of view: how will this technological improvement help the client, will it make the use of the site more convenient and enjoyable for a particular user?
Small companies have one positive feature — the ability to quickly make decisions and implement ideas. If too many ideas are shelved, people stop trying.
If, immediately after the brainstorming session, you implement several ideas that were invented on it, people feel their involvement and usefulness, and they are pleased to come to the brainstorming session with new ideas.
