When you need to think of good ideas quickly, starting a brainstorming session is second nature to many of us. Yet ideation and actual ideas are not the same. To close the gap between your thoughts and the page, we’ve collected our favorite brainstorm templates in MindMeister. Get inspired and enjoy a better brainstorm today!
Brainstorming is more than simply firing and forgetting random thoughts and notions. Whether you’re generating big ideas or refining the details, alone or with your team, structure is everything. Want to find out how you can think your way to ideas with transformative impact? Our mind map templates for brainstorming are the first step to unlocking your creativity.
What Are the Benefits of Brainstorm Templates?
Brainstorming is about… well, your brain. It’s a way of taking the ideas out of your head and putting them onto a page, but doing so in a way that others can understand and you can iterate on yourself. However, because everyone’s brain is different, the same technique probably won’t work for everyone. The various methods of brainstorming are intended to get the most out of different types of thinkers who pursue the same goal: coming up with valuable ideas in the shortest possible time.
Likewise, you’ll need different brainstorming methods for different situations. If you’re brainstorming new project ideas, a more rigidly structured business plan template won’t be suitable.
Mind mapping itself is one form of brainstorming – and it’s one we know plenty about. You can use mind mapping software to try out new types of brainstorming techniques. This plug & play approach means “learning by doing” with the minimum amount of research and effort, which can be useful in both business and educational settings.
Our Templates Page has a mind map for every use case – simply find the one you need and start mapping!
Clarity and More Clarity: The Benefits of Brainstorming
Brainstorming sessions can quickly become disorganized without a clear process or methodology. That’s why digital mind map tools like MindMeister are perfect for structuring and visualizing your thoughts, and even more useful when it comes to brainstorming collaboratively. One great idea can spark a chain reaction of related ideas, which in turn could lead to your next big innovation.
Still not convinced? Let’s find out how you can benefit from MindMeister’s Brainstorming Templates.
Make every brainstorming session count. Learn more about effective brainstorming formats in this blog post.
The Best Brainstorm Templates in MindMeister
Although we could talk forever about the different ideation techniques and brainstorm templates in MindMeister, we thought we’d show you three of the most popular ones and leave you to explore the rest in your own time.
We took SCAMPER, the Decision Matrix, and the How Might We templates in order to give a good cross section of what’s out there. We’ll explore these brainstorm templates in a little more detail below.
Want to Get Started?
It’s easy to make a new mind map from a template: simply go to My Maps in MindMeister, or click New from template when creating a map to get started. Alternatively, you can visit the templates page to choose a template from whichever category suits your needs.
SCAMPER
Open the SCAMPER Template in MindMeister.
The general idea behind SCAMPER is to find innovative solutions by categorizing thoughts into seven key categories: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, (re)Purpose, Eliminate and Reverse, Reengineer, or Rearrange.
SCAMPER provides an opportunity for bottom-up input across areas that impact the evolution of products and services. It gives your team the chance to challenge things that are done because they “have always been done this way” and to spark discussion into the effects of any proposed change.
As the SCAMPER method should only be about your team’s ideas, a brainstorm template can save you some serious time and effort. Open up the SCAMPER template in MindMeister and use our top tips for a successful brainstorm session.
- Remove the filter. With SCAMPER, your team might find some of their most fundamental beliefs challenged. Don’t make it awkward. Get everyone into MindMeister and encourage them to follow their instinct. You can discuss the specifics later.
- Use hierarchy. SCAMPER topics are often big ideas, especially in the “Eliminate” category. Use the first-level topics of your brainstorm template to paint the big picture, then expand on the idea using subtopics.
- Keep the color. Your SCAMPER brainstorm template is already color coded… but customize it as you like to show priority, idea status and more.
Decision Matrix
Open the Decision Matrix Template in MindMeister.
Speed and decision making can sometimes make an unhappy marriage. Either decisions are rushed into before they are properly thought out, or endless procrastination drives simple choices into inertia. You’ve probably experienced both sides of the problem… but what if there was a way to make good decisions, fast?
The Decision Matrix is a perfect way to cut through the noise and focus only on the criteria that are key to your final decision. Popular among business analysts and managers, it takes various suggestions on the question that needs to be decided and analyzes them to provide a “final score”. The idea with the highest final score is the winner and the decision is made.
In the Decision Matrix template in MindMeister, you’ll see that some categories have been filled in for you. However, you can use some of the key features in MindMeister to get the most from your map.
- Stay flexible. You can customize your decision Matrix, both in terms of the content of the categories included and the visual style of the diagram. Make sure that you are asking the right questions when it comes to making your final choice.
- But not too flexible. Sometimes the decision matrix can produce left-field results that may not seem like the most logical choice. Resist the temptation to play with the weighting of the different criteria too much.
- Use permissions. As a business decision maker, you’ll probably want to provide transparency to your team about how decisions are made. However, to prevent any unwelcome or unintended changes, you can set mind map permissions to “viewer” so that people can see but not touch.
Mind mapping at work? Find out more about the other templates that can inspire you to better organization and creativity.
How Might We
Open the How Might We Template in MindMeister.
Three words can spark innovation like no other: How Might We. The key principle of this framework is to boost creativity and reframe problems as opportunities. The How Might We template was first introduced by Procter & Gamble back in the 1970s, but its key principles and its influence on design thinking still hold true today.
This type of brainstorm is a type of challenge mapping: each map relates to a single target. The first-level topics in your mind map template are known as invitation stems. As the name implies, this invites your team to add their suggestions to the mind map, ending in a map that has as many different ideas from as many different sources as possible.
The benefit of a brainstorm template? It’s all done for you! Every time you want to start a new How Might We map, you simply open the template, pop the big question into the center and away you go.
Let’s turn How Might We into How Might You. Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to success with your brainstorm template in MindMeister.
- Curate. Sometimes, many people can get to the same idea in different ways. This can confuse your How Might We map, so use the drag and drop feature in MindMeister to re-order the idea hierarchy, or delete duplicate ideas.
- Add Context. When you add an idea to the brainstorm, you might want to provide more details to your fellow collaborators. This can consume space on a collaborative mind map – creating a topic note may be a tidier option.
- Comment. The strongest ideas in your brainstorm mind map will probably generate discussion in your team. Use the comment feature to keep the conversation where the ideas are.
Your maps can do more. Find out how MindMeister can help your team maximize their ideas on our features page.
A Better Brainstorm
Brainstorming is like any discipline: the more you practice, the better at it you become. So what better way to hone your skills than by using a brainstorm template in MindMeister?
By using our templates, you can guide your team step by step through new and unfamiliar brainstorming methods, paving the way to better ideas and better outcomes. Unleash the creativity of your team – go to our templates page and try something new today!
FAQs
What is the new MindMeister editor?
We’re currently in the process of moving users over to the new MindMeister editor. If you haven’t noticed any changes already, we’ll be in touch when we’re ready for you. Meanwhile, you can find out more about the all-new MindMeister in this explainer post.
Where can I find mind map templates for the new editor?
The all-new MindMeister comes with a full catalog of over 40 different templates: browse the Template Library to create beautiful mind maps, fast.
Which mind map templates are there?
You can choose from templates in the following categories:
Business and Management
Education
Project Management
Brainstorming and Ideation
Marketing
Strategy and Planning