- Make sure you understand the challenge first – have you done your anthropology homework? Do you understand your users’ needs? Are you sure you’re solving the right problem?
- Plan ahead – what techniques will you use to generate the most ideas possible? Who will facilitate the process?
- Get a diverse set of skills involved, both to increase your understanding of the problem and to generate as wide a range of ideas as possible.
- Set rules and follow them (see reverse).
- Decompose the problem by user needs, functions, or activity profile, then solve the critical subproblems.
- Go for quantity – to get a great idea, first get lots of ideas.
- Move quickly to prototype testing – express your ideas in tangible form, and test them as soon as possible. Iterate rapidly between idea generation, prototyping, and testing.