README: How & when to use this template

Hi, I’m Shirley 🙋🏻‍♀️ I created this format when I noticed my team was naturally brainstorming ideas about how to act on research learnings. I wanted to make sure we captured, assessed, and prioritized those ideas so we could act on immediate opportunities and save bigger picture thinking for the future! (Read about the pilot program here.)

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How to use

• Make a copy of this deck
• Split the sections for “brainstorm” and “shareout” into separate decks
• Use the highlighted text for suggestions and delete
• Discuss goals & plan with your PM and EM → could the team act on feasible ideas in the next quarter, half, or year?
• Discuss goals & plan with your Design team → this is best as a combined effort between CD, PD, and UXR

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When to use

• After a research readout → “how might we act on these learnings?”
• After early design explorations (discuss with your PD) → “how turn explorations into feasible tests?”
• When a high level priority is announced → “how might this team support this new goal?”
• Whenever you notice a team generating ideas naturally → “how might we act on these ideas?”

Template deck 1: Brainstorm

Goals & Agenda

1-2 lines of context

Example: The team started discussing ideas for how to act on UXR learnings in last week’s readout, so Design set up a tactical brainstorm to enable this in a more structured way.

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Goals (update as needed)

• Generate ideas for each opportunity space
• Identify potential tests and hypotheses
• Assess what is feasible in this (timeframe)

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Agenda (update as needed)

• 5 mins - Brainstorm 1 (topic 1)
• 10 mins - Discuss
• 5 mins - Brainstorm 2 (topic 2)
• 10 mins - Discuss
• 5 mins - Brainstorm 3 (topic 3)
• 10 mins - Discuss

What do we mean by tactical?

This session will focus on ideas that:

• Can be built by the team we have
• Can be tested
• Can be measured clearly

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Don’t hold back, we’ll:

• Document all ideas
• Discuss which are tactical vs. blue sky
• Save the blue sky ideas for longer-term planning

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ideate

discuss

top

candidates

Assess for scope & impact

Ideas to build & test

Where will we brainstorm?

We’ll make a post for each topic in the (team channel)

• Brainstorm
• Add 1 comment per idea

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• Vote
• “Like” ideas you want to discuss

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• Discuss (top likes & callouts)
• “Reply” to ideas discussed with assessment notes

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Update instructions based on your setup

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Topic 1: Context (level set everyone to start)

Image

Image

Image

Brainstorm 1: Topic 1

user quote or insight

~P2

user quote or insight

~P8

user quote or insight

~P1

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How people feel:

Brainstorm starters:

How might we… (prompt based on learning)

How might we… (prompt based on learning)

How might we… (prompt based on learning)

Source: add links for team to find source materials

Brainstorm 1: Discuss

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• Browse ideas
• Vote with likes
• Call out faves (your own or others)
• Assess top likes & callouts
• Can it be built?
• What would test hypothesis be?
• Could that be measured?
• How does it map to long-term strategy?

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Goal:

• Identify 1-2 top ideas based on feasibility and team interest

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Repeat per topic

• Copy & paste slides 5-7 for each topic
• Delete this slide 👀

Next Steps (set clear expectations, owners & follow through on commitments)

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Document

• Save all ideas & initial assessment (name)

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Followup

• Assess top 2-3 ideas for design options (CD+PD names)
• Assess top 2-3 ideas for eng effort (EM name)
• Assess top 2-3 ideas for projected impact (PM, DS names)

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Shareout → see next section for a shareout deck template!

• Publish brainstorm results by date (name)

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This will inform prioritization coming out of this brainstorm!

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Thanks!

Make a fun thanks slide

Template deck 2: Shareout

Tactical Brainstorm: Context & Outcomes

1-2 lines of context → copy from Brainstorm deck: Goals & Agenda slide

This is why we did this thing.

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Goals → copy from Brainstorm deck: Goals & Agenda slide

• Generate ideas for each opportunity space ✓
• Identify potential tests and hypotheses ✓
• Assess what is feasible in this (timeframe) ✓

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Topics (update as needed)

• (topic 1)
• (topic 2)
• (topic 3)

Outcome in Numbers

(number) participants

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(number) brainstorm topics

• Brainstorm 1: topic → (number) ideas
• Brainstorm 2: topic → (number) ideas
• Brainstorm 3: topic → (number) ideas

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(number) ideas total

• (number) immediately actionable
• (number) more to investigate
• (number) open questions to inform research or product strategy

Brainstorm 1: Top Candidates

Idea: (short description)

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• Assessment
• Owner: name
• Next step: (align with owner if not you)

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• Assessment
• Owner: name
• Next step: (align with owner if not you)

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Repeat per topic

• Copy & paste slide 15 for each topic
• Delete this slide 👀

Open Questions

• Capture questions that came during brainstorm & assessment discussions
• These are opportunities to learn more
• Discuss with team about if and how to pursue these opportunities

Thanks!

Make a fun thanks slide

If you liked this tool

• Comment on my Tactical Brainstorm article to share your results
• It’s a small community and we all learn from each other

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• Check out more UX Design tips, tools, and tactics from Shirley Chan on Medium
• Follow, like, comment to let me know what you find valuable