ThemeDesign the session
CardCard 19 of 63
Questions5 to explore

Ideation

Think, discuss, brainstorm & select ideas

Generating ideas online takes more structure than it does in a room, because the unscripted energy of a whiteboard session does not survive a video call without help.

Ideation covers the range of methods that help a group think divergently and then converge: solo thinking time, open discussion, structured brainstorms, sorting and voting on what to take forward. In a physical room these can flow loosely; one idea triggers another, people cluster around post-its, and the energy is visible.

Online you have to make each step explicit. Silent individual thinking time matters more because people will not speak up unprompted. The tool you choose (a shared digital whiteboard, a simple typed list, a voting poll) does a lot of the structural work that the room does in person.

Give people something to do, not just something to say. Typing ideas into a shared board or template is more reliable than asking people to talk in sequence, especially in larger groups.

Online, specificallyOnline ideation lives or dies by the tool and the prompt: without a shared digital space and a clear instruction, most of the thinking stays private and never makes it to the group.

In a remote session

The same building block as it plays out online: how experienced facilitators tend to handle it when the room is a screen. Illustrations to react to, not rules to follow.

Start with solo thinking

Good facilitators always open ideation with a few minutes of individual, silent idea generation before any group sharing. This prevents the first voice from anchoring everyone else.

Use a shared board

They direct ideas into a visible shared space (Miro, FigJam, a Google Doc, or even a live poll) so everyone can see what has already been said and build on it rather than repeating.

Vote or dot-mark to converge

To move from divergence to selection without long debate, they use a quick digital dot-vote or polling tool. It is faster than discussion and gives everyone an equal voice.

Keep prompts tight

They write a single, short ideation prompt and show it on screen throughout the exercise, because people in remote sessions cannot re-read a prompt they missed the way they would if it were written on a flipchart.

Questions to plan around

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

What tool will hold the group's ideas so everyone can see them at the same time?
Have you built in silent individual thinking time before anyone shares with the group?
What is the single, specific prompt you will give people to generate ideas around?
How will the group move from many ideas to a short list to act on?
How long do you have for ideation, and have you split that time across diverge and converge?

What trips people up online

Without a clear output format, remote ideation often produces a flood of unmemorable chat messages that no one can revisit or act on.
Open-ended 'say any idea you have' prompts fail online because silence reads as hesitation rather than thinking; give people a structured template or question to write into.
Voting can feel arbitrary if people do not understand the criteria; name what you are voting for (most novel, most feasible, best fit for this group) before you open the poll.