Each HMW question typically takes ~15-20 minutes to go through. I find that 3-5 questions per brainstorm is more than enough to chew on. If you want to do more, you can have each group work on a subset.

Set-up 📋

1. Provide context on how questions were derived; alternatively, you can gather suggestions from brainstorm crew in advance

2. Split crew into groups of 4-5 people

3. Make sure that every idea is recorded

4. For each question, have people spend ~10 minutes independently brainstorming

5. Smaller group convenes to share ideas for ~5 minutes per question

6. One person per group presents ideas to the whole crew

💡 Brainstorms are meant to collect divergent point of views. Wild and crazy should be entertained. Convergence comes later. 

Tools ⚒️

• For in-person - sticky notes

• For remote - Whimsical, Retroboard, Google Sheets
  
  

Should you vote on ideas? 🗳️

A better question is: are you prioritizing the ideas based on what's most popular? If not, voting can be a pointless exercise. 

While voting can help you figure out what’s top of mind for the team, prioritization doesn't work as well when it's designed to placate everyone. The ideas everyone's ok with are usually the most familiar ideas, which tend to have ordinary outcomes because many people pursue them. 

Diversity in counsel (via brainstorming, for instance) is useful, but effective leadership comes from unity in command.

If you still want to try voting, recommend either:

1. Making it clear what the goal is, and why final roadmap may differ from votes OR

2. Practice what you preach, and test voting as a way to come up with a prioritized roadmap