beginner 20 min
How to use AI as a brainstorming partner
Get past the first three obvious ideas and end up somewhere interesting.
Guide curated and reviewed byMark Barclay
Before you start
- A specific brief or constraint
Tools you'll use
- SynaBot
- ChatGPT
Steps
- 1
Give the assistant the constraint
Great brainstorming is constrained. "Brand names for a coffee shop" is bad. "Brand names, one word, from a Scandinavian language, under 6 letters" is much better.
- 2
Ask for 20, not 5
The first 5 are always obvious. Volume forces the model past the easy answers.
- 3
Rank and iterate
"Which of these 20 are the freshest? Now give me 10 more in that direction."
- 4
Steal the criteria
"What criteria did you use to pick the best 3? Now give me 10 more that score even higher on those criteria."
- 5
Close with a critique
"Play skeptic. Attack my top 3. What would kill each in 30 seconds?"
What you'll have at the end
A shortlist of ideas that went past the obvious and survived a critique.