How to run an ideation session that ends with one idea to build
Write the problem as one How might we question, have everyone sketch alone, put every sketch on the wall, vote with sticky dots, then agree one idea and write down who builds the first rough version and by when.
An ideation session can fill a wall with sticky notes and still end without anything to build. People take photos of the wall on their way out, and at the next team meeting nobody can say which idea won or who was meant to do something with it.
This guide is for whoever is facilitating. That might be a product owner, an operations lead, or a head of digital who has been asked to run the session because nobody else would. It covers the five steps we use with client teams, plus the mistake we see most often at each step in our workshops since 2015.
By the end, the team has one idea to build and a named person building the first rough version, with a date when everyone gets to see it.
Write the problem as one question for the team
On a normal working day, a session starts from a vague brief. Improve onboarding. Do something with AI. Everyone in the room hears a slightly different problem, so the sketches go off in different directions and can't be compared.
Before anyone picks up a pen, write the problem as one question starting How might we, at the top of the wall. Everyone works on that question for the whole session. When someone drifts, point at the wall.
The most common mistake is a question that already names the answer. "How might we add a chatbot to the onboarding flow" leaves the team nothing to sketch except the chatbot. "How might we help new customers finish opening an account without calling the branch" leaves room for a chatbot, a shorter form, a change to what branch staff do, or something nobody has thought of yet.
This matters more now that so many teams are asked to put AI on things. AI on a broken customer journey automates the failure. A good question keeps the team looking at the journey first.
Sketch alone before anyone talks
In most meetings, the most senior person speaks first. Everyone else adjusts. Nobody means any harm by it, but the session quietly turns into a discussion of one person's idea.
Hand out paper and pens and set a timer. Everyone sketches their own ideas in silence. Nobody discusses anything until the timer goes off. Drawing skill doesn't matter. Boxes, arrows and a few words on a screen are enough.
This is the step that gets developers, marketers and senior managers working side by side on the same problem. Design is not only for designers, and some of the most useful sketches we see come from people who have never been in a design workshop before.
The mistake to watch for is the senior person talking before the sketching starts. Even a short "I was thinking we could" is enough. In our workshops, when that happens, a lot of the sketches end up as versions of their idea. If you can, have a quiet word beforehand and ask them to sketch along with everyone else and keep their view until later.
Put every sketch on the wall
Once the timer goes off, people get self-conscious. Someone says theirs is not really finished. Someone else holds back a drawing because it looks messy next to a colleague's neat one. The wall ends up with the tidiest sketches on it, which are not always the best ideas.
Stick all the sketches up side by side, rough ones included. Each person explains theirs in a sentence or two. Keep it short, because a long pitch turns into a sales job. Then the team reads the wall quietly for a while before anyone comments.
The quiet reading is where patterns show up. Two people from different departments have sketched the same fix to the same step in the customer journey. One sketch has a single screen that solves a problem the others missed.
Don't let anyone leave out the messy drawings. A badly drawn sketch can still turn out to be the idea you build. You are judging the idea, and the drawing is only there to carry it.
Vote with sticky dots
Left to talk it through, a team will usually pick whatever the most confident speaker argued for. A show of hands is not much better, because everyone watches who raises theirs first.
Give everyone the same small number of dots. People put their dots on the parts they would actually build, and they can put more than one dot on a single sketch if they feel strongly. Voting on parts lets the team see which pieces of each idea are strong, even when the sketch as a whole is not.
Run the vote in silence. The mistake we see is people talking while they vote, so the dots follow whoever argued loudest. Once the talking starts, the dots move towards one person's sketch and away from everything else.
When the voting is done, the wall shows you where the dots clustered. Sometimes it is one sketch. Often it is one screen from one sketch and one step from another, which is useful to know before you agree anything.
Pick one idea and name a builder
This is where most sessions fall over. The team agrees on a top three, everyone feels good, and the meeting ends. Without a name next to any of the ideas, none of the three gets built.
Look at where the dots landed and agree on one idea. Then write a name next to it on the wall: the person who builds the first rough version, and the date the team will see it. The first version can be paper screens, a clickable mock-up or a rough working version of an AI feature. It only needs to be good enough for someone to try.
A rough version people can try tells you more than another round of slides. With a large insurer, we ran a series of five-day design sprints on customer-facing web journeys. Journeys that previously took six months or more were designed and tested with customers in two weeks and live in four. Completion rates on the new journeys rose 80 percent, measured by the client. Every one of those journeys started with a team agreeing one idea and someone going off to build it.
What to do this week
- Write the How might we question before you book the room, and check it doesn't name the answer.
- Get paper, pens, a timer and sticky dots, and decide how many dots each person gets.
- Ask the most senior person to sketch and vote along with everyone else and keep their view until the dots are on the wall.
- Before the session ends, write one name and one date next to the chosen idea, on the wall where everyone can see it.
- Put that date in the team's calendars so the first rough version actually gets looked at.
Questions people ask
Why should people sketch in silence during an ideation session?
If the most senior person speaks first, a lot of the sketches end up as versions of their idea. Sketching alone first gets every person's own idea onto paper before anyone can steer the room.
How do you vote on ideas without the loudest person winning?
Give everyone the same small number of sticky dots and vote in silence. People put dots on the parts they would actually build, and can put more than one dot on a single sketch.
What should an ideation session finish with?
One agreed idea, the name of the person building the first rough version, and the date the team will see it. A top three with no names next to it usually means none of the three gets built.
On-Off Group trains teams, tests products with real customers, finds where a transformation has stalled and builds what gets it moving, for banks, insurers and enterprises in the Philippines, since 2015. Who we are.
