Brainstorming board template
A board for a brainstorm: one wide frame where everyone writes ideas at once, and four frames beside it to sort them into themes when the writing stops.
Opens a live board in one click. No sign-up: share the link and your team joins.
What is a brainstorm with an affinity map?
A brainstorm separates having ideas from judging them. Everyone writes as many ideas as they can, one per note, without discussing them. Only then does the group sort them: similar notes go together, each group gets a name, and the names show what the room was really saying. That sorting step is an affinity map.
What is on the board
5 frames — Ideas, Theme 1, Theme 2, Theme 3, Theme 4 — each headed in large type so it reads with the whole board on screen, and a legend with a kind of note for each thing people will write. Drag a note off the legend, or double-click the board.
- Idea
- One idea per note. Quantity first; judge later.
- Question
- Something we would need to find out.
- Concern
- A risk or a reason it might not work.
- Action
- Something to do next, with an owner.
How to run it
- Write without talkingSet the timer for five or ten minutes. Everyone adds ideas to the Ideas frame, one per note.
- Read them outGo through the notes together. Merge duplicates; ask about anything unclear.
- Sort into themesDrag related notes into a theme frame and rename the frame for what they share.
- Vote and actStart dwell voting to pick the strongest theme, and write the next action on a yellow note.