Generating Ideas and Concepts - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 110

6.4.4 Brainstorming
Nowadays “brainstorming” is not a politically correct name for a really useful exercise, but
I have yet to find an adequate alternative. Some of my clinical colleagues have a coarser
name; they call it brain dumping . In effect it is simply a collection of people in an applicable
space just spouting ideas off the top of their heads. As with all group activities no one's idea
is wrong and there must be someone jotting down the ideas as they develop. Sometimes
this type of meeting can be totally anarchic and difficult to manage (herding cats is a good
analogy); sometimes the ideas flow like water and it is hard to keep up. To get the latter pick
a good venue, have good icebreaking activities, and make sure that all participants feel equal
and included.

Some basic rules to brainstorming are the following:

l

Quantity is good: don't worry about quality at this stage, capture as many ideas as you
can.

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Criticism is bad: do not let members laugh at, criticize, or ridicule another member's
ideas.

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Creative thought is good: let members go off at tangents but do not let them get distracted.

l

Combinations are good: if two ideas merge into one then so be it.

One last trick, make sure you look at one thing at a time; it is very easy, while brainstorming,
to get distracted.

6.4.5 Discretizing
To help with any of the activities it is often beneficial to cut the overall idea into smaller parts.
“Discretizing” comes from finite element analysis and literally means “cutting into discrete
parts.” For example, if we were getting ideas for testing blood samples we may discretize the
whole system into four parts ( Table 6.2 ).

Table 6.2: Example of Discretizing

Main Function Discretized Functions

i) collecting the blood sample;
ii) transferring the blood sample;
iii) analyzing the blood sample;
iv) disposing of the blood sample.

Testing a blood sample