Brainstorm email 📧

Share context on what to expect. This sets the WHY for the meeting, and instills confidence that it will be useful. Particularly important because there will likely be people who are jaded from unproductive brainstorms. 

• Template & example

Materials❓

Fundamental unit of a brainstorm is a HMW (how might we) question, which ensures the team focuses on solving the most important problems. These should flow from company goals either created by the leadership team, or that you've aligned on with your manager.

If company goals are not clear and you get carte blanche, some thought-starters:

1. Why are you NOT growing faster? What are you bound by?

2. What would your customers love to be able to do, and why?

3. What are you now uniquely able to do? What assumptions have changed?

4. In a perfect world, what would your product do?

5. What has worked well? How can you double down on your wins?

Your questions should inspire some ideas that are untethered from reality. Give the team a horizon to stretch towards. This becomes very important at a bigger company where resource is less of a constraint. 

Easy vs. advanced 🎛️

There are two ways to do HMWs.

Easy: focus exclusively on top HMWs that solve problems for customers

Advanced: place HMW questions in the context of your vision, jobs to be done, strategy, goals, and customer pain points

If you / your company is new to brainstorming, start with "easy". If you're familiar with brainstorming, and need to get a large group of people on the same page, "advanced" will be more effective. 

• Template & example