[mnutt]

Many of the Design Sprint brainstorming sessions I've been a part of felt superficial. I can see the value in pushing people to list out lots of ideas very quickly, to force them to explore the solution space and not get stuck on a single idea. But the output is more like idea stubs than ideas, usually a few words on a sticky note.

In the brainstorming sessions I've attended, the next stage involves the facilitator taking all of the idea stubs and grouping them together, then riffing on the idea groups. The whole process (intentionally?) feels like improv comedy. And much like improv, it often seems geared more for the enjoyment of the participants than the quality of the output.

And maybe that's ok, using brainstorming purely as a tool to circulate half-ideas and get the creative juices flowing? But in a design sprint, the brainstorming outputs are often directly used for longer term planning. I've found something like a lightweight RFC process is a much better medium for refining and discussing ideas. RFCs are usually written alone, and discussed as a group.