Design Thinking Methods Catalogue

# Ideate

# Inspiration Cards

Purpose
Looking at questions from different perspectives
Time required
30 minutes to 2 hours
Participants
Design Thinking team (min. 3 persons)
Level of experience
Beginner

# What is it about?

Various questions are written on cards, with which the participants are put into other roles or fictitious scenarios. These inspiration cards encourage participants to look at the question from a completely different perspective.

# The goal

Generating new ideas or problem-solving approaches.

# How to do it?

  1. Preparation of the Inspiration Cards (10-20 cards per session): Creative compilation of a set of cards with inspirational questions which are suitable for the participants. The following three types of questions are only suggestions and can be supplemented with your own:
    • Imagine cards: ‘Imagine that ... ! What would you do then?’ Here, boundaries can be overcome, laws overridden and framework conditions completely changed. Emotions can also be included in the question.
    • Role cards: ‘What would be the idea of ...?’, ‘What would ... do?’ When selecting the cards, take into account the context of the group of participants; the selected person or company must be known to all participants.
    • Negative cards: ‘How do I harm ...?’ Here, the original question is formulated negatively in order to derive positive ideas from it later.
  2. At the beginning of the session, the rules and method are introduced to the team and the prepared cards are shuffled and placed in a pile in the centre.
  3. one participant draws the top card and presents it to those present. Now everyone fills their post-its with ideas, either visually or in writing. The post-its can be hung up on a prepared metaplan wall.
  4. Now the next participant draws the next card from the pile and proceeds as in step 3.
  5. After the creativity has been exhausted, the ideas should be structured and documented. Suggested methods for evaluating ideas can be found in the section ‘Following methods’.

# When do you need it?

The use of this method is suitable for generating ideas with unique perspectives.

# Resources

  • (high-quality) cards, (laminated) moderation cards
  • sticky notes and pens
  • metaplan board

# Advantages

As this method is intuitive and easy to use, it is usually a lot of fun for the participants as unexpected solutions emerge. The cards help to look at the challenges from completely unusual angles and thus sustainably promote the creativity of the people involved.

# Disadvantages

Due to a lack of variety in the questions, roles and perspectives used in the Inspiration Cards, there is a risk that the problem-solving approaches will be very monotonous.

# Keep in mind

Some cards may not work in some groups and should therefore be adapted to the participants in advance to reduce this likelihood. Questions that appear unsuitable can also be eliminated during the session. The aim of this method is not to work through the prepared pile.

# See also

Previous methods Alternative methods Following methods

# Sources

← Yes, and... →