What Is Ideation and How Do You Make the Most Out of It?

In the 1960s, George Land’s creativity test for NASA asked a simple question: where does creativity come from? To find out, kids were tested by asking them to come up with as many uses as possible for a paperclip. The results were staggering: at age five, 98% of children scored as creative geniuses. By age ten, that dropped to 30%, and by adulthood, only 2% retained their creative spark.

The conclusion? We don’t lose creativity—it’s trained out of us.

This might sound familiar to anyone building a startup. As founders, we’re expected to innovate and solve big problems, but self-doubt and the pressure to “think rationally” can smother creativity. The truth is, creativity isn’t something you’ve lost—it’s just been buried under years of conditioning to follow the status quo.

That’s where ideation comes in. This process is the key to breaking free and thinking differently. It’s about unlocking your ability to generate bold, innovative ideas that can drive your startup forward. In this article, we’ll show you how to make the most of ideation, helping you rediscover your creative genius and turn it into actionable strategies for success.

What Exactly Is Ideation? 

Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and refining ideas to solve problems or create new opportunities. It’s more than just brainstorming—it’s a structured approach to creativity that combines divergent thinking—exploring a wide range of possibilities—with convergent thinking. 

For startups, ideation is the backbone of innovation. It’s where raw creativity meets strategic thinking, helping founders identify bold solutions to unmet needs, tackle market challenges, and uncover new business opportunities. Whether you’re brainstorming features for a product, crafting your value proposition, or rethinking your business model, ideation is at the heart of the process.

The Role of Ideation in Startups

Startups thrive on innovation, and ideation is the spark that fuels it. It helps you:

• Explore Opportunities: Ideation allows you to step back, look at the bigger picture, and uncover possibilities you may not have considered before.
• Solve Problems: Whether it’s a product bottleneck or a market challenge, ideation helps you think creatively and approach issues from new angles.
• Align Your Team: Collaborative ideation sessions bring diverse perspectives together, fostering alignment and a shared vision among your team.

A Common Myth About Ideation

One of the most common myths about ideation is the belief that creativity is an innate gift—something only a select few are born with. This misconception often leads people to think, “I’m just not a creative person.” Though, our previous NASA example has shown creativity isn’t something we lose—it’s something we’re conditioned to suppress over time.

Adding to this dialogue is Sir Ken Robinson’s famous TED Talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”. This talk highlights how traditional education systems stifle creativity. By focusing on convergent thinking, schools discourage risk-taking and treat mistakes as failures. This approach conditions us to follow predefined paths and avoid exploration.

Yet, as Robinson points out, creativity thrives on divergent thinking—the ability to generate multiple possibilities and embrace mistakes as opportunities. Rigid educational structures prioritize safety over experimentation, ultimately suppressing the kind of innovative thinking that drives creativity.

For startup founders, this mindset can be a major obstacle. Building something new requires breaking free from conventional thinking and taking risks, yet years of conditioning can make this feel unnatural. But the truth is, creativity isn’t gone—it’s just waiting to be rediscovered.

Quality vs Quantity of Ideas

As Thomas Edison famously said, “To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” That’s the essence of ideation—embracing quantity over quality in the initial stages. At this point, the goal isn’t to find the perfect idea, but to generate as many ideas as possible. This is the divergent stage of the process, where creativity flows freely, and judgment is deferred until later. By doing so, you:

• Clear Brain Space
  Creativity is about combining old ideas in new ways. To do this effectively, you need to clear mental space by getting all your initial thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Early ideas tend to be obvious—copies of existing concepts or combinations of familiar ones. As you keep going, your brain starts to stretch, and more unique connections emerge.
• Improve Your Judgement
  Generating a large pool of ideas gives you more to compare, making it easier to spot the best ones. This practice sharpens your ability to distinguish between good and great ideas over time.
• Gain a Confidence Boost
  Successfully generating a high volume of ideas can give you a significant confidence boost. With that confidence comes a willingness to be more daring and experimental, which leads to even more innovative thinking.
• Reduce Idea Attachment
  Generating many ideas prevents you from becoming too emotionally attached to just one. Falling in love with a single idea can trigger confirmation bias, where you overlook flaws and exaggerate its potential. By exploring multiple options, you stay objective and open to better possibilities.

The Creative Cliff Illusion

Researchers Loran Nordgren and Brian Lucas at Kellogg University studied this phenomenon, which they call the “creative cliff illusion.” They found that people often believe their creativity declines over time during brainstorming.

In reality, the opposite is true: ideas generated later in a session are often rated as more creative. The harder your brain works to dig deeper, the more intriguing and unconventional the ideas that emerge.

Brainstorming Methods to Unlock Creativity

When starting off on an ideation session, a good practice is to brainstorm 100 ideas. Now, you might be thinking, “why 100?” Simply put, creativity follows a natural pattern: most ideas will be average, a few will be poor, and a handful will stand out as brilliant..The more ideas you generate, the higher your chances of uncovering those gems.

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This may seem counterintuitive. After all, we often romanticise creativity as something that strikes like lightning in the form of a sudden “aha” moment. However, research suggests that our best ideas don’t come early—they come after we’ve pushed past the obvious ones.

So, how can you generate what might feel like an overwhelming number of ideas? Don’t worry—there are plenty of effective techniques to get your creativity flowing.

How Might We Questions

Tackling broad challenges can overwhelm the brain, so start by narrowing them into smaller, specific questions. Use “How Might We” (HMW) questions to reframe the issue. For example:

• How might we make customers feel that the information is secure when using our system?
• How might we make apps more intuitive for older users?

These smaller questions are easier to answer, and their solutions can often combine to address the larger challenge.

Add Constraints and Use Analogies

Surprisingly, adding limitations can fuel creativity. Frame questions with specific conditions, like:

• If we were in space, how does this change how we might solve the problem?
• How would we solve the problem if we were Google?

Constraints push your brain to think beyond the obvious, leading to more inventive ideas. At the same time, using analogies help connect unrelated concepts to your challenge, sparking fresh ideas. For example:

• How might we make elevators as welcoming as a freshly made bed?
  

By forcing your brain to bridge gaps between different domains, analogies encourage truly innovative solutions.

Question Bursts

Instead of jumping straight to solutions, start by brainstorming questions. This approach challenges assumptions and sharpens your problem statement. Examples include:

• What if we completely removed the need to wait for a taxi?
• What can we learn from other industries?

Generating questions helps uncover hidden angles and paves the way for creative answers.

Brainwriting

Brainwriting is an excellent technique for team brainstorming and ideation. Unlike traditional brainstorming, where participants speak out ideas, brainwriting involves everyone silently writing down their thoughts. Once done, participants pass their ideas to others, who build upon them. This approach levels the playing field, giving introverts and quieter team members the chance to contribute without the pressure of speaking up. It’s also a highly efficient way to generate a large volume of ideas in a short amount of time.

Brainswarming

If you’re a visual thinker, you might enjoy brainswarming as an alternative. In this method, you write your main goal at the top of a whiteboard and list available resources at the bottom. Participants then connect these resources to sub-needs and actions, creating a web of ideas that flows toward the goal. This structured yet collaborative approach keeps the team focused while fostering creativity.

How to Lead a Brainstorming Session

Running an effective brainstorming session requires preparation, facilitation, and adaptability. As the facilitator, your role is to create an environment where creativity thrives and diverse ideas flow freely. Here's how to lead a successful session in three easy steps:

1. Make the Right Preparations

Before you get started with anything, aim to make a group of 4–8 participants with diverse backgrounds. Include people of different professions, cultures, ages, and perspectives. This diversity fosters a broader range of ideas, as participants draw from varied experiences. Avoid overloading the group with experts in the field, as too much shared knowledge can hinder innovation. Once you have your group, it's time to:

Develop Brainstorming Questions

Good questions spark creativity. Use open-ended prompts like "How Might We" (HMW) questions to focus on specific aspects of the problem. Prepare at least 10 questions related to your challenge, and consider including provocative or “wild” ideas to inspire participants.

Prepare the Space

• In-Person Sessions: Choose a spacious venue with tools like whiteboards, Post-its, and markers. Provide areas where participants can move around and display their ideas. Set the mood with music, food, and relevant props to stimulate creativity.
• Digital Sessions: Use online tools like Miro or Jamboard to create a virtual whiteboard. Set up the space in advance and ensure participants can easily access it.

2. Facilitate, Don’t Direct

Start by explaining the session's goal, the challenge you're addressing, and the format. Share the brainstorming rules and outline the schedule. For example, allocate at least 20 minutes for brainstorming and 10 minutes for clustering ideas. We also recommend that you:

Try Out a Warm-Up Exercise

Begin with a fun, fast-paced activity to spark creativity and build psychological safety. For example, ask small groups to brainstorm as many ways to “make money with a cow” as possible in three minutes. This breaks the ice and sets a playful tone.

Guide the Brainstorming Process

1. Present one brainstorming question and write it on a board or share it digitally.
2. Encourage participants to share ideas freely, keeping them concrete but not overly detailed.
3. If energy dips, introduce a provocative idea, add a constraint, switch to a new question to reignite creativity, or even take a break from brainstorming altogether and supercharge the group with a fun and unrelated activity like a quick team game, a stretching session, or a light-hearted challenge such as brainstorming “ways to sell ice to penguins.” These activities refresh the mind and reset the energy in the room, paving the way for more creative thinking.

Capture Every Idea

Ensure all ideas are recorded, either by participants or by you. Pause the session briefly if needed to jot down ideas before moving forward.

3. Wrap Up and Organise Ideas

Once you’ve finished your brainstorming session, the work isn’t over yet. To finish everything up you’ll need to:

Cluster Ideas

Group similar ideas together to identify themes or concepts. For example:

• Combine ideas targeting the same aspect of the challenge (e.g., user experience, cost reduction).
• Use a framework relevant to your challenge, such as mapping ideas to specific stakeholders or processes.

Vote on Top Ideas

Have participants vote for their top three favourite ideas or clusters using stickers or markers. This quick voting process helps identify the most promising concepts.

Prep Your Next Steps

Thank participants for their contributions and briefly explain the next steps, such as further refinement or testing of ideas. Take photos of physical boards or save the digital whiteboard to ensure no idea is lost.

That’s a Wrap

Ideation is the driving force behind innovation, allowing you to uncover creative solutions and bold opportunities that can transform your startup. Whether it’s tackling a major challenge or refining a specific process, the techniques shared here—like crafting "How Might We" questions, brainwriting, and brainswarming—help you dig deeper and think differently.

Remember, ideation is not just about the ideas you generate—it’s about fostering an environment where creativity thrives, collaboration flows, and even the wildest ideas are welcomed. With persistence, the right mindset, and these tools in hand, your best ideas are just waiting to be discovered.

Now it’s your turn. Gather your team, set the stage, and start brainstorming. Your next big breakthrough could be just one idea away!

Like what you've read and are ready to supercharge your startup journey? Explore our Founder Resources—the ultimate toolkit for founders, featuring expert-crafted templates, guides, and strategies to help you build, launch, and grow with confidence.

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