Creativity is often seen as coming from a specific type of skilled individual, the artist, the creatives, the entrepreneurs. Brainstorming is a creativity technique that involves a group trying to find solutions to a specific problem. The idea is to list as many ideas as possible instead of focusing on only one solution.

The concept was originated by Alex Faickney Osborn. We can find the first notable mention of this specific creativity technique in his 1942 book, “How to Think Up”. But it was popularized later (in 1953) with his book “Applied Imagination”.

Brainstorming brings together at least two interesting elements that service designer still use today (outside of the technique itself).

The first idea is that there isn’t one perfect solution to a problem and that we must explore multiple different paths. This is key to the exploratory phase of any service innovation project.

The second aspect is, of course, the democratic aspect of brainstorming where we want many people to participate. This is the case in the co-creation actions that service designers perform to find solutions with the ideas and experiences of all the stakeholders of a specific service.

This article is part of the book "A Tiny History of Service Design, " a tiny two-hour read that goes through the historical events that created what Service Design is today.