I have trawled some more photos of Research Brainstorming and Sandpits out of the vaults. There are lots of different methods of brainstorming for research projects and solutions, so I’ve posted some ideas from another Sandpit which was operated by Proctor and Gamble.

The method centres around the IWWMW (which stands for ‘In What Way Might We?’) wall. This wall acts as a focus for the day’s (or week’s) activities.

In the first instance, after a problem briefing, the wall is open to place posts centred around the core problem issues ‘in what way might we solve x?’

Only two types of post are allowed: proposals and IWWMWs. Proposals group with problem issues, and suggest avenues of technology, research or solutions. At no time is criticism allowed, the only way to address proposals is via another layer of IWWMWs.

Good sport is to be had during the ‘re-alignment’ sessions, where everyone has the opportunity to move any or all the posts around on the wall to bring associated problems and solutions together into research projects. Sometimes it seems like the entire wall is in movement at the same time.

This very basic methodology is one which I’ve found to be the most effective for brainstorming and working up research proposals. A session like this can easily generate a dozen Research Council standard proposals between a couple of dozen people if everyone buys into the process.