How to use or facilitate:
- Designate an area of a wall or use a blank post-it pad to do your share out. If remote, use a virtual white boarding tool like Miro to set up a blank canvas and virtual post-its.
- Hand everyone participating a fresh post-it pad and regular sharpie marker. Encourage the group to use one idea per post-it note, using as few words and as many pictures as possible to communicate their ideas.
- Give the prompt to the group: “Let’s pretend there’s no constraints, no budgets, no limits for this project. In 5 minutes, simply answer the question from your own point of view, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if?’ with as many thoughts or ideas as you can. Go big. Go bold and most importantly, be honest. Go!”
- One at a time, have each person share their most interesting ideas with the group, post them on the wall, and share why. Discuss!
- [Optional] Allow everyone to vote on their top 3 ideas by walking up to wall and drawing a dot in the corner of each post it. Virtual participants can add a red dot to their canvases as well.
The Takeaway:
This exercise can unfold one of two ways; either you come up with a list of amazing ideas that can be incorporated as potential features or solutions for the project you’re working on, OR you’ll be able to use it as a light-hearted, risk-free way to have a group share their hopes and expectations within an already defined project. Either way, it’s a win!
