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Sample of How to Ideate with Bad Ideas—A Divergent Ideation Method template

Bad Ideas is an ideation method you can use both for ideation and to train your divergent thinking skills. Divergent thinking occurs in the early stages of ideation and takes the form of generative cognitive activity, where the quantity of ideas is more important than quality. This divergent phase is a time for disruptive and lateral thinking.

When you ideate, there can be a lot of pressure to come up with good ideas and you’ll often struggle to break the logical, analytical linear thinking mode which we practice in our daily lives and learn at school. However, when you try to come up with bad ideas, it’s easier to focus on the ideation without worrying about how your ideas will be judged. Bad ideas are also a design tool which will help you explore a whole new part of the design space. Bad ideas help you tap into lateral thinking where the purpose is to break out of rigid thought patterns and to generate unpredictable ideas that were previously unknown. To do lateral thinking is to think outside the box.

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Table of contents for “Creativity” master template bundle

Bundle of 15 Creativity templates
  1. Arbitrary Constraints—A Divergent Ideation Method
  2. How to Ideate with Bad Ideas—A Divergent Ideation Method
  3. Brilliant Designer of Awful Things—A Divergent Ideation Method
  4. Oxymorons—A Divergent Ideation Method
  5. Random Metaphors—A Divergent Ideation Method
  6. Embrace Opposites
  7. Externalization
  8. More Specific and More General
  9. Multiple Classifications
  10. Three-Way Comparisons
  11. 3 Habits That Will Foster Your Creativity
  12. 7 Best Practices: How You Create the Optimal Environment to Nurture Creativity
  13. 5 Best Practices: What to Do When You Get Stuck in Executing Your Work Plan
  14. How to Plan for Creativity: Effective Time-Management Plans for Your Large-Scale Creative Projects
  15. 7 Reasons You Should Use To-Do Lists to Help You Emotionally and Make You More Efficient

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