It's very rare that an idea comes out fully defined and ready to implement.  Studies from leading scholars of innovation (like Clayton Christensen), suggest that 93% of successful innovations started out in the wrong direction.  Chances are you're not in that lucky 7%.

So what do you do?  How do you find out what the "right direction" is? 

We've found that the best way to get your idea moving towards the right direction is to expose it to a diverse set of perspectives.  From the exposure to diverse perspectives, the idea evolves to reflect new information.  We've built a number of useful features into Brainstorm to reflect this dynamic and help you grow your ideas.

Building the Idea

After you submit your idea to Brainstorm, you're given an Idea Profile Page.  The Idea Profile Page is designed to give you the tools you need to move your idea forward.  A key element of that is changing your idea to reflect new information you learn.

Ideas can be built by adding "parts" to your idea.  There are four basic part types: Note, List, Documents, and Links.  "Parts" are like the Lego blocks that represent different aspects of your idea.  They can be customized and reordered as you see fit to best communicate your idea. 

To add parts to your idea, click the appropriate button in the "Add more stuff" section at the bottom of the main collaboration area on your idea (if you just submitted your idea, it'll be under the "Description" note).

Note
A note part can be used to store any type of text information.  It can also display pictures.  As such, it's one of the best ways to convey your idea. Beyond the description of the idea, note parts are commonly used to communicate: meeting notes, announcements, customer research findings, and mockups. 

To edit a note, move your mouse over the note you want to edit.  A series of controls will appear.  Click "edit title" on the left side of the note if you want to change what the note is called.  Click the edit icon on the right hand side if you want to edit the content of the note.  You can also send the note to another tab or delete the note.

List
A list can be used to keep track of things that remain to be done.  It's a great way to keep track of a checklist or the actions a team member is responsible for.

Documents
A documents section can be added to group a set of documents together.  At the most basic level, you may want a general group of documents related to your idea.  However, as the idea evolves, you may want more specificity.  Common uses we've seen include: customer research documents, competitive analysis, overview of the idea, mockups, team collaboration documents.

Links
A links section can be added to provide external resources that may help others to understand or collaborate on the idea.  Common uses include links to: a web site or blog post, external research, wikipedia article, and even other ideas in Brainstorm.

Promoting the Idea

Brainstorm does a fair amount on its own to promote your idea by including actions in activity feeds and making your idea discoverable through search.  But, if you really want to push the idea forward, you'll need to make others aware that your idea exists.

Share
The big yellow button in the right side column is your best friend for idea promotion.  "Share" allows you to shoot a quick message off to people to encourage them to take a look at your idea.  All you need to do is start typing another user's name that you think would be interested in the idea in the "Choose people" field and select that user from the list (repeat as desired).  Then, write a quick message and hit "Send."  Brainstorm will shoot off the email and include links back to the idea for the recipients.

Our experience with customers over the years has shown that this is one of the best ways to make others aware of your idea and get them to comment and collaborate.

Building the Team

It's rare that one person has all the skills necessary to make an idea happen in an organization.  To overgeneralize, you can imagine an engineer with a prototype, but no ability to test the prototype with customers.  Or a business guru with a solid business plan, but no ability to implement.  These examples represent skill gaps where an idea doesn't have the skills to move forward.  Fortunately, Brainstorm gives you tools to fill your skills gaps.

Add Team Members
If you know the person you need on your team, you can click "Add a new team member" (in the "Team" module in the right column) type the person's name, and click "Submit."  That person will receive an email notification with a link back to the idea.  That person will also now have "edit rights" as a team member of the idea.  Like you, this person can rearrange idea parts, edit them, and add other team members.

Help Wanted Ads
More commonly, you don't know the specific person you need, but you know what you're missing.  You know you need "marketing help" or a "mobile developer" or a "social media guru."  Whatever it is, "Help Wanted Ads" can connect you with the people in Brainstorm most able to help.

To create a help wanted ad, click "Add a new help wanted ad," write a quick description of the help you need, add skill tags that describe what you're looking for (see What are Tags?), and click "Submit."  Brainstorm will immediately show you up to four people who most closely match your needs.  You can click their names and find out additional contact information.