Qualiteg Selection, Idea Creation #3: How to Use Brainwriting

Hello to everyone visiting the Qualiteg blog — this is Michele. In my work on AI-driven new business development and marketing, there are questions I hear from clients again and again. Through this blog, I would like to offer my own answers to the challenges that anyone exploring AI-powered business development is likely to face.

A Magical Tool for Creating New Businesses: How to Use Brainwriting

Launching new businesses plays a vital role in a company's growth and competitiveness. Generating truly innovative ideas, however, is no easy task. That is where a technique called "brainwriting" comes in. In this article, we take a detailed look at brainwriting, from its basic concepts and how to run a session to how it can be applied to new business creation.

What Is Brainwriting?

Brainwriting is a variation of brainstorming in which participants write their ideas down on paper and share them with the other participants to generate new ideas. Compared with speaking ideas aloud, it offers the following advantages.

• Everyone can participate at the same time
• The discussion is not dominated by managers or other strong voices
• Anonymity lets people write freely without self-censoring, making novel ideas more likely to emerge
• Because ideas are visualized on paper, they are easy to build on and combine

The Basic Brainwriting Process

(1) Preparation

• Divide participants into groups of about 5–8 people
• Give each participant paper and a pen
• Clearly define the theme or problem and share it with everyone

(2) Idea generation (about 5 minutes)

• Each person writes three ideas on the given theme on their sheet of paper
• When time is up, pass the sheet to the person on your left

(3) Building on ideas (about 5 minutes)

• Read the ideas written on the sheet you received, then develop them further or add new ideas
• When time is up again, pass the sheet to the person on your left

(4) Repeat

• Repeat this process about 3–5 times

(5) Sharing and evaluation

• Share all the ideas and discuss them as a group
• Select the most compelling and feasible ideas

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Using Brainwriting for New Business Creation

When applying brainwriting to generate new business ideas, the following approaches are effective.

(1) Bring in diverse perspectives
Gather members from different departments and areas of expertise to incorporate diverse viewpoints. Encouraging participation from marketing, engineering, finance, HR, and other functions makes well-rounded ideas more likely to emerge.

(2) Set constraints
Setting concrete constraints — such as "a product that meets market needs five years from now" or "a service that contributes to a sustainable society" — enables more focused idea generation.

(3) Adopt the customer's point of view
Set themes such as "customers' unsolved problems" or "customers' hidden needs" to promote customer-centric idea generation.

(4) Combine with trend analysis
Analyze industry trends and technology developments in advance and use the results as input for the brainwriting session. This makes it more likely that highly feasible ideas will emerge.

(5) Combine and develop ideas
Hold sessions dedicated to combining the ideas that were generated and developing them further. This increases the chances of arriving at ideas that are both more innovative and more feasible.

Keys to a Successful Brainwriting Session

(1) Establish a no-criticism rule
During the idea-generation phase, make it an absolute rule not to criticize any idea and to prioritize quantity. Avoid dismissive remarks like "that will never work" and maintain a constructive atmosphere.

(2) Manage time strictly
Set an appropriate time limit for each step and stick to it. Time constraints help participants focus and produce ideas.

(3) The facilitator's role
Having an experienced facilitator keeps the session running smoothly and helps keep participants motivated.

(4) The importance of follow-up
Do not forget to follow up after the session. It is important to organize the ideas that were generated and connect them to the next steps, such as detailed examination and feasibility assessment.

(5) Run sessions regularly
Rather than treating brainwriting as a one-off event, holding sessions regularly strengthens the idea-generation capability of the entire organization.

Advanced Brainwriting Techniques

(1) Use online tools
With remote work on the rise, online brainwriting is also effective. Online whiteboard tools such as Miro and Mural make it possible to generate ideas regardless of location.

(2) Adopt the 6-3-5 method
Adopting the "6-3-5 method" — six people each write three ideas in five minutes, repeated five times — enables a more structured form of brainwriting.

(3) Combine with mind mapping
Visualizing the generated ideas in mind-map form makes it easier to spot connections between ideas and triggers for new thinking.

(4) Pair with scenario planning
By envisioning multiple future scenarios and generating ideas for each of them, you can create ideas from a much broader range of perspectives.

Evaluating and Selecting New Business Ideas

To turn the ideas produced by brainwriting into concrete new businesses, an appropriate evaluation and selection process is essential.

(1) Set evaluation criteria
Define multiple evaluation criteria, such as market potential, technical feasibility, profitability, risk, and social impact.

(2) Scoring
Score each idea against the evaluation criteria to enable quantitative comparison.

(3) SWOT analysis
For the shortlisted ideas, analyze their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to gain deeper insight.

(4) Prototyping
For promising ideas, build a simple prototype and gather customer feedback to validate the idea's feasibility and market potential.

Roadmap to Launching a New Business

Here is a roadmap for developing the ideas born from brainwriting into an actual new business.

(1) Idea selection and refinement

• Organize and evaluate the ideas produced by brainwriting
• Select promising ideas and flesh them out

(2) Market research and validation

• Detailed analysis of the target market
• In-depth exploration of customer needs
• Competitive analysis

(3) Business model design

• Design the revenue model
• Build the value chain
• Formulate a partnership strategy

(4) Prototype development and testing

• Develop an MVP
• Collect and analyze customer feedback
• Improve through iteration

(5) Business planning

• Create a detailed financial plan
• Draw up a resource allocation plan
• Formulate a risk management strategy

(6) Organizational structure

• Establish a new business unit
• Secure and develop the necessary talent
• Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders

(7) Pilot rollout and scale-up

• Pilot deployment in a limited market
• Data collection and analysis
• Establish a proven model and formulate a scale-up strategy

Conclusion

Brainwriting is a highly effective tool for generating ideas for new business creation. By incorporating diverse perspectives and encouraging free thinking, it makes truly innovative ideas possible. To develop those ideas into actual businesses, however, an appropriate evaluation process and a carefully crafted commercialization plan are indispensable.

Starting from brainwriting and working carefully through each stage — market analysis, business model design, prototyping, and more — you can expect to establish a successful new business. When the whole organization understands this process and practices it continuously, it leads to sustained innovation and corporate growth.

Thank you very much for reading this column to the end. At Qualiteg, we provide training and consulting on AI technology and new business planning methods. If this has piqued your interest, or if you have any specific needs, please feel free to contact us through the inquiry formhere.

We also offer a popular workshop for those who want to master the steps of new business creation. The training focuses on having each participant think about the business from an executive's perspective, and the content is designed not only for planning staff but also for their counterparts in engineering, design, and marketing.

We look forward to hearing from you. And please look forward to the next column as well.