Participants meet somewhere. The first participant comes up with a term that roughly describes the topic.
Example 1: The problem is the wastage of plastic. First term: plastic waste
Example 2: The first participant said, ‘plastic waste’, the next participant comes up with the word ‘disposal’.
The terms are written down until a list of words has been created. Afterwards, each participant can pick the two terms. These words are highlighted for later use.
Describe the issues surrounding the term, and supply pens and paper.
If honest and creative ideas are the goal, we recommend that the participants be allowed to freely express their opinions on each contribution. If the goal is a specific solution, it is best to determine a fixed participant sequence.
All terms are noted on a piece of paper. It is important that the terms are written down, and that there are no long breaks in the process. The next word must follow swiftly.
This method, inspired, by the Stimulus Word Method, was developed by Marc Bauhofer, Bruno Loser, Andreas Marty and Daniel Stumpaber during the CreaLab Summerschool 2018 of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.