6 | 3 | 5 Brainwriting

Ideas are what make business go around. When you're looking for new insights within your enterprise, the 6 | 3 | 5 Brainwriting method invented by Bernd Rohrbach helps you to create up to 108 ideas or solutions within 30 minutes. Let's find out how it works!

Idea Form 

To perform a successful Brainwriting session, you should have a working sheet that is often referred to as an idea form. 
This form consists of 6 rows and 3 columns, representing 6 rounds and 3 ideas per round, each participant must have one copy.

It should look like this:

Problem statement

A problem statement represents what needs to be solved through the application of the Brainwriting session.
The subject of the brainwriting session is to be decided in advance. This is either by the participants or someone who has, for example, a management function.

The problem statement should be written down on top of the idea form.

6 participants | 3 Ideas | 5 minutes

Select 6 different people from your team to participate in the Brainwriting session. Each participant should have an equal understanding of the subject that is being worked on. Being equally informed assures that the session will have an optimal output. 

Let the selected participants come up with 3 ideas within 5 minutes and write them down on the idea form. Once the 5 minutes have passed, the idea form should be passed to the person on the right. The participants can then use the examples as inspiration to come up with new ideas or build on the ones provided. 

This process is repeated 6 times resulting in 108 ideas within a 30 minute time frame. Note that sometimes, especially during the last few sessions, ideas may come slower, in this case sessions can be prolonged.

Selecting ideas

After the brainwriting session, the team is to delete the duplicate ideas and select the best ones to find the best solution for the problem statement.