Who says you have to be sitting in the same conference room with colleagues to host a productive brainstorming session? Stormboard is a web-based application that people on opposite sides of the continent can use to brainstorm, organize, prioritize, and act on their favorite ideas just as easily on those people sitting alongside each other in the same room.
Stormboard is a real-time collaboration tool that relies on virtual sticky notes for idea sharing. When you create a free account, you can participate in an unlimited number of brainstorming projects. To start a new session, you’ll need to create a “storm.” Select a template, invite colleagues to participate, and choose the sticky type that’s most appropriate given the types of ideas you’re discussing. Popular sticky types include notes, images, video, stacks, documents, and sketches. When your team is all tapped out on new ideas, start organizing the stickies that you’ve gathered into groups and discuss or vote on which ideas are worth taking action on. You can export your ideas into detailed reports, PDFs, or spreadsheets at any time during the brainstorming process.
The ideas that groups discuss on Stormboard are completely private, since storms are only viewable to people you’ve invited to participate. Stormboard is accessible on any device, including smartphones and tablets. Although a free plan is available, larger groups will need to upgrade for advanced features like reporting, stacks, documents, and importing/exporting capabilities.
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Another tool for team decision making on visual templates is http://www.groupmap.com.
It allows for individual brainstorming on maps, with rules you can set to improve the outputs of brainstorming, which then combines to give you a combined view. Capture comments, ratings and votes at each stage of the brainstorming process and get session reports instantly which also show the input of individuals.
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