From making research papers to developing marketing strategies, brainstorming would always be involved. But not everyone prefers loud noises in coming up with ideas; hence there's the brainwriting technique for those who prefer the quiet idea generation. In some cases, others might have difficulty thinking when others also share their thoughts.
This guide explains how to run a written idea session and adapt a brainwriting template for a shared canvas. In Boardmix’s collaborative whiteboard, you can give each participant a clearly labeled starting area, then keep the ideas visible while people build on them in later rounds.
What is brainwriting?
Definition and explanation
Brainwriting refers to an idea-generation technique that stimulates creativity among organization members. Instead of people talking to each other, brainwriting invites members to list their ideas on paper or sticky notes. With technological advances today, you can make a brain-writing example using your mobile phone or computer.
The layout above illustrates five participant areas and three rounds, which is one possible variation. For the classic 6-3-5 format described below, prepare six participants and six round rows instead.
In a circulating format, participants pass their notes to someone else, who adds ideas or builds on what is already there. The timing depends on the format: a short silent-writing activity can take ten minutes, while a full 6-3-5 session has six five-minute writing rounds. Allow additional time to explain the question, read the results, and decide what to explore.
Your team can utilize a brainwriting template during the process. In most cases, these editable dashboards allow edit access to team members. With this, you won't need any physical paper to proceed with the brainwriting.
Difference between brainstorming and brainwriting
While brainstorming and brainwriting have the same purpose: to generate ideas, the two also differ in various ways. For one, brainstorming is a strategy used in the corporate world for years. The technique has been a great help to organizations generate creative ideas. During brainstorming, participants will have a topic in which they must develop ideas and share them verbally among team members.
Brainwriting is an alternative to spoken brainstorming, rather than an upgraded version for every situation. Writing gives people time to form a thought without competing for a turn to speak. A short discussion may still be needed first when participants interpret the question differently.
In 6-3-5 brainwriting, six people each write three ideas during one five-minute round—not five minutes per idea. They pass their sheet after each round until each person has contributed to all six sheets. Six rounds provide space for 108 entries in about 30 minutes of writing; entries may repeat or develop earlier ideas, so this is not a promise of 108 distinct solutions. Penn State’s brainwriting guide describes this structure.
You can use other techniques, which include collaborative brainwriting and remote brainwriting. Regardless of your choice, these three techniques have the same process: for participants to write their thoughts instead of relaying them verbally.
Benefits of brainwriting
If this is your first time knowing and seeing a brain-writing example, you might have second thoughts about applying the technique in your organization. Here are some excellent points to convince you to try brainwriting.
- Equal participation. The idea-generation process starts with every participant being silent and thinking of ideas independently. This means no one will dominate the floor space. Moreover, all participants have the same amount of time to organize their thoughts.
- Quick idea generation. In most cases, brainwriting has time limits allowing teams to think quickly. This is an excellent way to have creative juices flowing for organizations that have to meet deadlines.
- Promotes creativity. As you already know, 6 3 5 brainwriting is a technique used with sticky notes being passed from one participant to another. As participants move through the process, evident and common ideas will be taken. This will force members to think outside the box and generate innovative solutions and fresh ideas.
- Silence can be a source of better ideas. Unlike brainstorming, where participants take turns talking, brainwriting will allow participants to take their time and process their thoughts before writing them. Silence inspires innovative thinking and stimulates the imagination.
Brainwriting best practices
Looking at a brainwriting template will be helpful in how you can perform a similar approach in your team's idea generation. Meanwhile, you can also adopt the following best practices for an effective brainwriting outcome.
Preparing for a brainwriting session
Define one question with a useful boundary. “How might we help customers remember a collection appointment without adding staff phone calls?” is easier to write about than “How can we improve service?” Explain any constraints and answer questions before the silent round. For 6-3-5, prepare six sheets or canvas areas and agree on a rotation order. With a different group size, adapt the number of rounds and describe it as a variation.
How do you write brainwriting?
Brainwriting is an effective and creative method for idea generation. It's a technique where team members write down their ideas about a certain topic, then pass their paper to someone else who reads it and adds their thoughts. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a brainwriting session:
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Assemble Your Team: Gather your team together. Brainwriting can be done with any number of people, but a group of six to twelve participants is often ideal.
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Explain the Process: Explain to your team what brainwriting is and how it works. Make sure everyone understands that they'll be writing down their ideas, and then passing them on for others to build upon.
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Set the Topic: Clearly define the problem or topic you want your team to focus on. Make sure it's specific enough that people can come up with concrete ideas but broad enough that there are multiple possible solutions.
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Start Writing: Give everyone a sheet or an assigned canvas area. For 6-3-5, set a five-minute timer and ask for three brief ideas. For a less structured silent-writing format, agree on a different timebox and expected contribution before starting.
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Pass the Papers: When the timer goes off, have everyone pass their papers to the person next to them.
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Build on Others' Ideas: Set the timer again and ask everyone to read the ideas on the new paper they've received and add their ideas. They can either come up with entirely new concepts or build upon what's already there.
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Repeat the Process: Continue this process of writing and passing until everyone has had a chance to add to each paper.
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Discuss and Evaluate: Once all papers have made it around the room, discuss the ideas as a group. Evaluate which ones are most promising and decide on the next steps.
How to use BoardMix's brainwriting template
To utilize BoardMix's Brainwriting Template effectively, there are several key steps you should follow. First and foremost, gather your team and clearly define the problem or challenge you're facing. Everyone must understand the issue at hand to ensure productive brainstorming.
For a 6-3-5 session in Boardmix, arrange six working areas labeled A–F. In each area, use a table with six round rows and three idea columns, or an equivalent layout of text and sticky notes. Put the question above the areas and write down where each participant starts. The labels organize the activity; they do not make the areas private.
Keep the areas stationary and rotate the people: someone who starts at A writes in B for round two, then C, and so on; after F, continue at A. Everyone moves one area in the same direction when the facilitator calls the round. This avoids moving half-written notes around the board or having two people edit the same row. Before starting, ask each participant to add a practice entry in their assigned area to check editing access.
Run the first five-minute silent round. For the collection-appointment question, one participant might write “calendar reminder,” “day-before message,” and “clearer pickup instructions.” In the next area, that participant reads the first row and adds three entries in row two. An extension such as “include a reschedule link in the reminder” develops an existing idea; “offer an alternative pickup contact” opens another direction. Preserve earlier entries rather than editing them into your own wording.
After six rounds, give everyone time to read the completed areas. Ask for clarification where a short entry is hard to understand, then group related ideas for discussion. You do not need six presentations covering every entry: compare the approaches that would change the service in different ways, while keeping the original rows available for context.
Use the Boardmix template library as a starting point, then adapt the layout to your chosen format. Check your board’s available object capacity and participant permissions before the session, especially if each idea will be a separate note. A complete 6-3-5 exercise can create 108 entries before headings or instructions are added.
During brainwriting session
Encourage silent participation
During each writing round, hold back critique and sales pitches so people can think independently. Allow a brief clarification if someone cannot understand the prompt or an earlier entry. If the same question affects several people, pause and clarify it for the group rather than letting six different interpretations drive the remaining rounds.
Write down all ideas
For 6-3-5, use five minutes per round and three idea spaces per person. Keep even an unlikely suggestion if it answers the question; evaluation comes later. If someone has only two entries when time ends, leave the third space blank and rotate together. Padding the sheet with a duplicate just to fill a box adds less value than an honest gap.
Separate idea generations and idea evaluation
Once all the ideas have been collected, assess all the inputs to know whether they answer the topic involved in brainwriting. This is where idea evaluation comes in. While you welcome all the thoughts written by the participants, that does not mean they are all significantly related to the main topic. You can quickly develop strategies to achieve organizational goals by evaluating these ideas.
After brainwriting session
Sorting ideas for effective implementation
Separate ideas that can be tried with current resources from those needing further investigation. In the collection example, a reminder message might be easy to prototype, while changing collection hours needs an operational review. Do not combine these into one vague “better communication” action: they have different owners and costs.
Follow-up and feedback
Discuss the selection criteria before voting, such as customer usefulness and effort to test. A vote indicates the group’s preference, not proof that an idea will work. For a selected reminder message, record who drafts it, who checks the wording, and when the group will review a small trial. Keep any unresolved question—such as whether customers have agreed to receive that message—beside the idea rather than treating selection as permission to launch.
Most digital diagramming software allows you to create multiple diagrams besides the brainwriting template. You won't need to open more browsers to create a new diagram whenever you need to transfer all the final inputs from the brainwriting template to another diagram. It saves you effort and time especially if you’re beating deadlines.
