Ideation is the exciting phase of generating ideas: sparking a vast range of possibilities, widely and without filters, before selecting the absolute most promising ones.
The foundational reference is Alex Osborn, the advertising executive who formalized brainstorming in Applied Imagination (1953) around two core rules: defer judgment, and aim for quantity ("quantity breeds quality"). The concept is wonderfully liberating: separating the creative phase from the critical phase, ensuring that the fear of judgment never stifles fresh, inventive paths.
However, research has added some valuable nuance to this myth. As early as 1987, psychologists Diehl and Stroebe demonstrated that group brainstorming often produces fewer and lower-quality ideas than the same number of people working individually. We end up waiting for one another (the phenomenon known as production blocking), self-censoring, or letting a few dominant voices take over. That celebrated collective divergence is, in reality, quite fragile.
Thankfully, we have highly effective solutions: first encouraging silent, written contemplation (known as brainwriting) before sharing; alternating between solo and collaborative work; and, above all, remembering that divergence is only meaningful if it leads to convergence. A hundred brilliant ideas are worth nothing without the courage to filter out ninety-nine.
Our approach: ideation is never just a post-it note contest—it is a carefully crafted framework. We strategically guide the divergence (because a sharp, well-framed ideation question is worth a thousand vague ideas), protect individual creativity before bringing the group together, and empower the convergence phase with clear, explicit criteria: desirability, feasibility, and viability. Generating ideas is a delight; selecting the right ones is where the true craftsmanship lies.
Explore further: the double diamond (diverging then converging), creativity, cognitive biases (and how they influence collective judgment), design thinking, and prototyping (where ideas meet reality).
References: A. Osborn, Applied Imagination (1953); M. Diehl & W. Stroebe, research on brainstorming (1987).
Rémi
Gréau
Director of Design
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