Brainstorming is a popularly-held concept—a bunch of people who try to get away from the normal routine of business, who sit around a table and spontaneously shoot out ideas. The expectation is that the iterative process of sharing and refining ideas will result in valuable, actionable ideas. BrainReactions applies outside insight to brainstorming.

The BrainReactions way is a carefully planned, facilitated process. Based on cognitive and decision theory and refined by experience gained by conducting hundreds of brainstorms, the creativity and expertise of our idea generators enables us to produce the ideas that can jump-start innovations. A BrainReactions brainstorm session:

• Adheres to strict rules of behavior
• Eliminates observer bias
• Uses a planned progression of questions framed in a Question Development Consultation (QDC)
• Is led by an experienced facilitator
• Uses professional brainstormers, handpicked for the event who are outside the company, have a Generation Y perspective, and have diverse backgrounds and proficiencies.

In most cases, the process is completed within a month including

• Analysis and reporting
• Approx. 100 man-hours per project

The client:

• Owns the Intellectual Property produced in the project
• Is guaranteed full confidentiality
• Enjoys a low total cost of engagement
• Enjoys a 100% guarantee

How it Works

First, we work with you, the client, to conduct a needs assessment around your problem, to define and refine your problem statement. From this process, we frame the brainstorm questions into the right progression of questions and allocation of time to elicit maximum output.

After the problem statement is well-defined, we select the ideal grouping of idea generators from our extensive pool of experienced brainstormers to react to your problem statement and provide new thinking you want. A BrainReactions brainstorm is a group of 7 to 10 professional idea generators. BrainReactions is well-known and in great demand for the quality of our Generation Y brainstormers and their highly desired perspective.

The BrainReactions brainstorm is led by a professional facilitator who is a proven all-star brainstormer. The session works through the question framework in about three hours. It is fast-paced, competitive yet collaborative. Sessions average an output of more than 700 distinct ideas; that’s a new idea every 15 seconds. At the conclusion of the formal brainstorming session, the brainstormers engage in a brainwritng exercise, in essence to summarize and articulate their preferred ideas and to coalesce around what they feel to be the best ideas.

Analysis and Reporting

Each BrainReactions brainstorm is recorded. The entire audio record is transcribed so that all ideas offered in response to each question are listed and linked to the specific brainstormer. The responses are analyzed by the facilitator and an outside expert in decision theory to select the best 100 to 200 ideas on the basis of enthusiasm, novelty and originality and how well they match client objectives.

These ideas are organized into the most promising 5 to 10 themes and reported in detail. The summary highlights the most exciting ideas and most articulated themes. We have found that imagery often absolutely nails the concept, so our report to the client comprises some twenty concept visualizations. The report is delivered online as well as in Word format.

As you might imagine, we zealously protect the confidentiality and intellectual property of our clients, so it is impossible to share examples of our commercial work. However, we have dispensation to share some of our community service work and invite you to peruse the deliverable for the UN Development Program’s Millennium Initiative.