Qualiteg Selection, Idea Deep-Dive #3: How to Use RoundRobin

Hello to everyone visiting the Qualiteg blog—I'm Michele. Working on AI-driven new businesses and marketing, I often receive questions from clients. Through this blog, I would like to offer my own answers to the challenges that anyone considering an AI-powered business is likely to face.

The Idea Deep-Dive series of Qualiteg Selection has reached its third installment! This time, we introduce RoundRobin, a technique that works well when a group needs to generate and dig into ideas together. Give it a try when brainstorming stalls or when you want to bring in a wider range of perspectives.

What Is RoundRobin?

The term "round robin" is used in many contexts, but in most cases it means taking turns—rotating some role or turn among many things or people.

Here, we use RoundRobin to refer to a technique in which every participant contributes ideas in turn while the ideas are recorded. Speaking in sequence removes the bias created by differences in assertiveness and creates an environment where everyone can participate actively.

RoundRobin is fairly well known in the design thinking world, yet among the hundreds of people I have trained—including at publicly listed companies—almost no one had heard of it. Even in the consulting industry, while I meet people who have seen the keyword in a book, very few actually know it or have experienced it. That makes it all the more rewarding to teach, and it has become one of my go-to workshop staples.

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Facing the reality that "innovation is hard to achieve alone," we provide comprehensive support for value creation through external collaboration. From assessing the current state to strategy formulation and execution, our experienced consultants stay by your side. Through diverse approaches—idea workshops, hackathon planning, AI technology adoption, and more—we accelerate your innovation efforts and guide you toward true breakthroughs that combine internal and external knowledge. Let's overcome the barriers to innovation together and create a new future.

How Qualiteg Uses RoundRobin

At Qualiteg, we use RoundRobin in a variety of situations, such as analyzing user interview results and planning new services. For example, after a user interview,

• "What are the user's pain points?"
• "What kind of service would solve them?"

We run RoundRobin sessions on themes like these, with each member contributing opinions from their own perspective to deepen the analysis and ideation. For this reason, starting with about four members works best. With five or more, the rounds become awkward, so we recommend keeping it to four.

The Benefits of RoundRobin

Using RoundRobin, you can expect benefits such as the following.

• Diverse idea generation: With everyone contributing, the odds increase that unique ideas emerge that no single person would have come up with alone.
• Livelier discussion: Speaking in turn lowers the barrier to speaking up, leading to more active discussion.
• Stronger team cohesion: When everyone participates, team awareness rises and a sense of unity emerges.
• Fairness: Everyone gets an equal chance to voice their opinion, regardless of how assertive they are.

How to Run a RoundRobin Session

1. Set the theme: First, clearly define the theme you want to discuss.
2. Choose the participants: Gather the members relevant to the theme.
3. Decide the order: Decide the order in which participants will speak.
4. Generate ideas: Contribute ideas in turn and record them as you go.
5. Set time limits: Limiting each person's speaking time and the overall session time keeps the discussion efficient.
6. Organize the ideas: Organize the ideas that came up by grouping them and prioritizing them.

Be sure to explain the rules quite carefully at this stage. In Japan, perhaps because the word "round" doesn't quite click, some teams get confused. (When I run the same content in the US, almost no one gets confused...)

The Qualiteg Way: Keys to a Successful RoundRobin

Ensure psychological safety

• Creating an atmosphere where people can speak freely is essential. Welcome critical opinions and wildly unconventional ideas alike.

The facilitator's role

• For a smooth session, we recommend appointing a facilitator. The facilitator manages time, organizes the discussion, and encourages participants to speak up.

Make the record visible

• Visualizing ideas with a whiteboard or an online tool helps energize the discussion.

Summary

RoundRobin is a highly effective technique for generating and deepening diverse ideas and tackling problems as a team. At Qualiteg, we actively use this technique in our daily work to deliver higher-quality services. We encourage you to use RoundRobin to make your team discussions livelier and more creative.

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. If this has piqued your interest, or if you have specific needs, please feel free to reach out to us via the contact form here.

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 it is designed not only for planners but also for their counterpart engineers, designers, and marketers.