Generating options.
WHY IT IS GOOD AT THIS
Quantity is easy. Quality is your job.
For brainstorming, quantity is precisely what you want.
HOW TO ASK
"Give me twenty ideas for X. Include obvious ones and unconventional ones. Do not evaluate them."
WHY TWENTY
The first five are obvious. The interesting ones appear later, once the obvious is exhausted.
FOLLOW-UP PROMPTS THAT WORK
"Now give me ten more that are completely different from those." "Which of these would a competitor not think of?" "Take idea seven and give me five variations."
WHAT TO DO WITH THE OUTPUT
Select. Most will be unusable. Two or three may be worth developing.
That is a good outcome.
WHAT NOT TO EXPECT
Ideas grounded in your specific situation, unless you provided it.
THE CONTEXT THAT IMPROVES IT
Your constraints, your audience, what you have already tried, what failed.
THE PRACTICAL USE
Getting past the first obvious idea, which is where most brainstorming stops.
