Effective ways of idea sharing with notes in Design Thinking

Design thinking is the collaborative problem-solving approach to finding human-centered solutions. It involves sharing of ideas among team members during ideation for analyzing and synthesizing information. During this process, the team works together to understand and build upon each other's idea.

The common mode of idea sharing is writing your thoughts on the repositionable notes and placing them where everyone in the team could see, usually on a flat surface like a table, a whiteboard or walls. Although it might seem trivial to write down thoughts on a small sheet of paper, it is important to do it right, as this is how your ideas would be consumed by every team members.

The following guidelines could make sharing ideas effectively:

1.   One thought per note: The post-it notes are used to categorize and prioritize thoughts. Every thought or idea should have the flexibility to be moved around on the board. Writing multiple ideas on a single note will restrict you from doing so.

2.   Word concisely: The 3x3 Square sheet of paper provides just enough space to write few words, a sentence or two to express a thought. Use your words concisely to give a gist of the idea that can be easily understood and remembered by the team instead of going into details.

3.   Use bolds: The team brainstorm in a group standing next to the wall, some people standing farther from the board. The clear handwriting helps the legibility of the idea. Writing in capitals with a thick pen is even better.

4.   Get creative: A picture speaks a thousand words. Expressing an idea by drawing it out could help explain a lot more than writing few sentences about it. It does cause an initial resistance in some of us 'grown-ups' to express ideas in drawing, but it is more explanatory and hey it gives us a chance to be a child again! :). Don't worry you don't have to be an artist to do this. Drawings could be as simple as basic geometric structures or stick figures. It forces you to think about the details of your idea and could help you to specify design minutiae with ease. It also leaves the space for adding-upon more creative ideas by your team members. This helps in better visualization of the idea by the whole team.

The use of repositionable notes is a great way to easily gather thoughts from everyone in the team and ideate your research and design sessions. Following right guidelines could help make the whole experience much more effective and efficient.