Tips and tricks for how to work together when you are looking to find a novel solution to an existing problem, or a solution to a problem that others didn't even know existed.

1. 20 Tips For Effective Brainstorming
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@babakf

2. What we hope you get out of this
Our goal is to provide you with travel aids for when you and your team decide to take a break from running, and instead make time to wander, in search of new paths which may lead to even greater opportunities.

3. Lunchtime TeamsLocationFLUX’s Innovation Lead
1.WTFlux! Bldg N Babak Forutanpour
2.RabbitHole Bldg N Babak Forutanpour
3.Dreamweavers Bldg N Anthony Blow
4.HomeBrew Bldg WT Shriram Ganesh
5.InceptionBldg WT Graig Zethner
6.DreamVentors Bldg WT Chaitanya Emmela
7.inQbators Bldg AAPaul Pan
8.U2QInnovators Bldg AVDavid Bednar
9.SillyPuttyIrvineScott Scigliano
10.SillyValley San Jose Jim Meador
11.KaleidoscopeBoulder Vijay Raman
12.GreenFingers UK Andy Everitt
13.MedhaHyderabad Nitin Sharma
14.GardenCity Bangalore Hemang Shah
15.AntiGravity Markham Huasong Cao
16.CreativeDrive Singapore Pushpa Prabakar
17.Cailun Shanghai David Cheng
Contributors
This advice comes from observations made by Qualcomm’s volunteer-run Innovation QClub FLUX whose 500+ members have collectively day-dreamed over 10,000 combined man-hours over lunch since in 2009.

4. Why did we start Flux?
Novel ideas are often sparked when people who are passionately curious meet and share experiences and domains of interest. The book The Innovator's DNA is a great read.
The core of our business today is a result of a brainstorm between two friends driving down from LA one evening.
We wanted to see if we could engineer that same kind of serendipity, on a corporate scale.
1 Until we had credibility, the founding members decided we wanted to do it without a budget as that usually comes with conditions.
1

5. Why not just put up a website?
Productivity tools like email and web forms are not as effective as having face time when trying to solve a creativetask.
1.People often write more clearly than they speak, which leads to the listener’s mind not having the opportunity to draw the wrong conclusion. Brainstorming can benefit from, “dude, while you were talking, I thought you were going to say X.”
2.Their asynchronous nature gives the brain too much time to think, which often leads to it drawing to the usual conclusions.
3.When your goal is to make connections in the brain where there weren’t any before, the short circuiting the happens when everyone is looking at you when speaking or listening introduces errors in the communication channel, which can help make that leap.
4.In today’s world, we have become particular good at skimming over news feeds, Facebook posts, tweets, emails we think are not going to be interesting. We don’t want that luxury when brainstorming.

6. Our Vision
To provide Qualcomm employees a platform that is scalable and sustainable, which allowsanyoneandeveryonewho is passionate aboutdiscovering and solving tomorrow’s latentuser needs, tonot dream alone.
Our 5 programs focus on fostering a genuine culture of innovation, in hopes that it helps the company win a lot of little bets that drive the Long Tail of UX.
Besides smiles, the other way we measure success is #404 pages, currently 60 patents pending in 60 months!

7. Let’s start. What gets you excited?

8. Dreamers get a RUSH, a HIGH, when their right brain conjures up something the left has never seen.

9. Let’s see if you prefer dreaming, building, or both.

10. How did that feel? Silly or a fun challenge?

11. Ask yourself, Do you want to get better at predicting what appeals to others, often before they themselves know it? Are you open to becoming more empathetic, more aware and observant to the needs of others, so you can better serve them?

12. Dream with purpose. Dream with others only if you enjoy it, not to make your boss happy or as an excuse to slack off.
#1

13. See dreaming as a game, a sport you want to get better at.
#2

14. When brainstorming, be creative.

15. What the hell does that mean, “be creative?!”
1.“How To Create A Mind (Kurzweil),”describes our brain as a giant pattern recognition system.
2.Under normal conditions, brain uses lazy evaluation –when looking for answers, it tends to search familiar, local networks.
3.Creativity doesn’t work that way. Creativity requires the system to scour distant corners, odd memories, long forgotten jokes.
4.When a connection is established where before there was none,that “a-ha” moment is where innovation starts.

16. If it comes to you in less than 5 seconds, it may also be obvious to others. Take the low hanging fruit and follow it up the tree. That is where you want to be, closer to the Sun.
A teeny tiny bit of self-editing helps elevate your,
and everyone else’s game.

17. When brainstorming, be creative.
When brainstorming, don’t be lazy.
#3

18. We have found that 90 min spurts is most the brain can take. Good ideas are a dime a dozen, but by definition, novel and useful ones are not. Ideation is hard work!
When wandering, you should return more exhausted than when you left.
#4
Brainstorming is not a bunch of guys in a room talking, that is called happy hour.

19. Support others as they wander.
If you think someone else is lost, help them, or wander alone for a bit… but don’t check your email!
#5

20. Good guides give out stretching exercises and rough maps the day before a trip.
Stretch before the journey.
#6
In Flux, moderators ask for, prioritize, and then mail out list of pain points before each bi-weekly meeting.

21. #7
Instead of DontDreamAlone, maybe we should have picked, WeTalkToStrangers.
Wander with new people, they will help you see clues you may otherwise miss.

22. Camera Engineer: Camera needs to guess what light source it is under. Believe it or not, the way we do it today is look at near-gray pixels in the images during preview and check for tint.
Audio Engineer: We can use the mics and speakers on this “camera” to detect if user is indoors. In fact, with our quad mic, we might be able to detect a ceiling. In fact, we should be able to listen for office lights.
Graphic Artist: I’m confused. Can’t you use GPS and the clock?I mean if it is 11pm in San Diego, then rule out Sunny and Cloudy!
Power Engineer: Hey, if I knew the phone was indoors, I could use it to power down some things, like GPS.
IDF From 2009

23. The most successful teams are stacked with members who bring great pain points to meetings. It is as if they have a PhD in Anthropology.
•Hau vocalizes how it is rude when people come into elevator before he can get out.
•Dev notices people playing phone tag when a call is dropped.
•Andre noticing the ear hangs off the top of the phone.
•Eric noticing caller’s ANC is not getting rid of car alarm.
•…
The best wanderers pick better starting points
#8

24. It is easy being a critic. Don’t be that guy.
#9
”During the assessment, the neuroimaging results revealed thatthe part of the brain most associated with reasoning was dormant… our brains are wired to reward us when we align the current view with our existing beliefs.http://www.steveshapiro.com/2013/04/12/confirmation-bias-politics-innovation

25. We have to be careful of meetings where the conversation is flowing too smoothly. Young teams make this mistake all the time. They talk and talk so there is a sense of comfort, that they are making progress, but that could be a hint of conformity, that we are trying to be liked and accepted by others in the room.
Ideation is messy, awkward, and it sometimes requires people just staring at each other with nothing to say until the mind starts to feel challenged to explore.
Awkward silences are encouraged.
#10

26. #11
When brainstorming, mentally take yourself to a “happy place” so your mind can relax. Use aides like natural light, comfortable chairs, beer?
BTW, we are not a big fan of tools likes post-its and voting with stickers, as that sometimes promotes conformity, forcing convergent thinking too early.
One of the ideas we are particularly proud of came at Bldg K*
*On a creative task, inebriated students solved nearly 30% more of these word problems than their sober peers. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203370604577265632205015846

27. Let’s do a quick recap of first 11 tips!
1.Dream with purpose
2.See dreaming as a sport, a game
3.When dreaming, don’t be lazy
4.Return more exhausted than when you left
5.Support others as they wander
6.Stretch before the journey
7.Dream with strangers
8.Don’t be that guy
9.Best wanderers, pick better starting points
10.Awkward silences are encouraged
11.Go to a Happy Place
Great, now what? Gimme tools, not psycho-bable!

28. Bending seeds is an art form.
#12

29. One way to bend a seed is to swap in new nouns and verbs.
E.g. “I hate when people don’t let me get out of the elevator before they come in,” can be bent towards, “I hate when people don’t get out of the room I booked,” which can then lead to some interesting wireless strategies to message a specific group of people, e.g. send message to those 8 people, not those 5 over there…

30. •Voice Mail
•Improved Capture
•Faster Consumption
•User Interface
•Web Browsing
•Computing
•Using when not in your hand
•Using it when you are asleep
•Locating X
•Recommendations
•Health
•Security
•File Sharing
•Saving/Generating Power
•Humor
•Save money
•Vacation
•Disabled
•Old
•Young
•Rich
•Poor
•In America
•In Africa
•Having multiple ones
•Safety
•Travel
•Tracking
•Education
•Crime
•Cloud Computing
•Social Networking
•Education
•Saving Money
•Conjunction with
•Concurrency
•Improve Planning
•Improve Relationships
•Minimizing Annoyance
•Vanity
•Employment
•Disability
•Find service
•During war
•During peace
•Dad works from home
•Mom works from home
•Kid does well in school
•Drug abuse
•Groupon
•Facebook
•When Alone
•When Asleep
•When Lonely
•When Happy
•When Angry
•When Scared
•Special Moments
•Annoyance
•Avoid mistakes of others
•Data Mining
•News
•Push/Pull Technology
•Translation
•Sports
•P2P, M2M
•In home, in car, on plane
•At beach
•When bored
•In love
•Abandoned
•Lost
•In Vegas
•In an airplane
•When hungry
•At a conference
•LinkedIn
Mess with your brain and get it to break its habit of matching words that often go together by injecting new ones.

31. QUALCOMM CONFIDENTIAL & PROPRIETARY
Take an idea and see how it relates to a different industry.

32. As you have probably heard, when someone walks into a hardware store asking to buy a hammer, he doesn’t really want a hammer. He likely wants a hole in the wall. In fact, it’s not so much a hole, he wants a picture to stick to the wall.
#13
Why-ing is the act of seeking motivation.

33. A Why-ing Example: Amazon
•Floor Manager: “guy cut his thumb on conveyor belt, we gotta put a sign up saying be careful”
•Bezos: “Maybe. But why did his thumb get cut”
•FM: “Cause the belt started”
•B: “Did he not know it was about to start?”
•FM: “He knew, we have lights that signal belt is about to start”
•B: “So why was his hand so close to the belt?”
•FM: “Cause he was trying to grab his bag”
•B: “Why was he grabbing his bag?”
•FM: “Cause he put it there”
•B: “Why was his bag on the conveyor belt?”
•FM: “Cause he had no other place to put it”
•B: “I want a side table for personal belongings at every station. Skip the sign for now”

34. “I want my phone to have a solar panel on the back”
Whying
•Get to the root of the problem, which is user wants longer battery life.
•He wants this because he uses his phone a lot more now
•He may use his phone more because of apps like Instagram, Facebook
•So, how can we make THESE apps more power efficient?
•Display draws most power
•Does it make sense to dim display a tiny bit for these long sessions? What can we turn off given he may be running this app for a while, likely not wanting to be disturbed?

35. Go around room and ask each person the same question, e.g. “where do you keep your phone at night?” If someone’s answer surprises the team, then ask him 5 Whys in a row.
#14
Play the game of 5 Whys.

36. When you think you are close to a discovery, but just can’t break through, take a Time-Out. Ask everyone to take pause, think quietly for 1 minute, and then see if without outside stimulus a team member makes an interesting leap.
#15
Use TOs as way of intentionally dreaming alone.

37. Time-Out Example
•Our wiki system sucks.
•Why?
•Cause there are several wikis on same topic, and most are out of date.
•Why?
•Cause people are too busy to document well.
•How can we help? Ask user for his input as starting point.
•Somehow purge old or out of date Wikis.
•…..
•Time Out
•It would be nice if we could have a search engine like Google that used PageRank.
•A-Ha moment: when you do a Google search and are shown list of results, if you click on a link but it is not what you are looking for, why when you go back are the results the same? You just gave the system a bit of knowledge, can’t it use this to make it more likely the 2ndtime I click I have greater chance?

38. Sometimes when you know you are on to something but just haven’t hit it yet, it helps to have everyone name as many instances of X in 60 seconds as possible. This forces the brain to not edit itself.
Sometimes you gotta run like Hell.
#16

39. Prior Art means you found a trail worth exploring.
#17

40. When lost, but sure there is path close by, send an SOS.
#18
One of our Internet of Everything ideas
came from email we sent to one of our
moderated lists flux.brainstorm[123456789]

41. Homework
1.Stop, watch, listen and observe someone doing something because that is the way the world is today vs. the way the world could be.
2.Bend 5 seeds
3.Play one game of “5 Whys” with a friend
4.Why 5 seeds
#19
If you want to be on the team that defines product strategy, you should have a track record for having more right than wrong hunches.
If you want to be the best, you have to practice every day.

42. Be patient with yourself and your fellow travelers. You will find your way out of the woods, not every time, but every now and then.
#20
Some FLUX members (at least me!) use to think about quitting every year or so, thinking we got all the good ideas. I learned to believe.
You have to believe.

43. Let’s do a quick recap!
12.Bending seeds is an art form.
13.Why-ing is the act of seeking motivation.
14.Play the game of 5 Whys.
15.Use Time-Outs as an intentional way of dreaming alone.
16.Sometimes you gotta run like hell.
17.Prior Art means you found a trail worth exploring.
18.Send an SOS.
19.Practice every day.
20.You have to believe.

44. Above all, have fun as you wander!!

45. Let’s get lost together.
go/DontDreamAlone