Things To Remember In Brainstorming Whether You Do It By Yourself Or In A Group

1. Use a tape recorder so that you can keep note taking to a minimum.

2. There are no dumb suggestions.

3. Do not discuss individual answers now; that will inhibit the free flow of thought and force participants to defend something they may not quite understand themselves.

4. Bring in a new feature the moment the benefit stream dries up. Keep the action lively.

5. If someone suddenly suggests a benefit for a feature that's already been covered . . . great!

6. Don't let anything negative get in the way of the process.

Once you and your features are exhausted, type each one, along with its suggested benefits, into your computer, print them on individual sheets of paper, and distribute copies to the brainstorming participants. Now is the time for critical scrutiny—and for the addition of those benefits that brought you awake in the middle of the night two days after the original session. Ask everyone to criticize, add to, change, edit, or otherwise modify anyone's suggestions and return the lists to you for a final compilation. Whether you'll have another meeting to discuss this final list will be determined by your working situation, but the end result should be a series of features and their benefits, in order of importance for specific audiences. Thus, the same benefit may appear more than once but be given different emphasis, as in details of nutritional value in selling puppy food to veterinarians and careful feeding instructions in selling it to the general public.

Continue reading here: Yellow Pages As A Mirror Of A Market

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