Creative line and role storming

The technique includes two parts. At the first stage you create word images or slogans through unconventional associations; exercises from the second part give you a chance to look at a situation or a product from a new, unexpected perspective.

We have prepared convenient templates that you can download and use during team brain storming. To use a template, follow the link and click “Use template”:

Role storming and Creative Line

Create a board on Miro

Make a brainstorming template with 10 fields: Warm-up, Given, Spontaneous ideas, 4 steps for Creative lines, Role storming, Discussion, Follow-up.

Formulate the task

Select a picture of the object or describe the situation for the brainstorming. Formulate the problem: we use this technique when we need to find a verbal image, find a creative slogan or an unusual representation.

Spell out rules for participants

At the beginning of any brainstorming, we pronounce the rules to be followed during the process. There are only 4 of them:

Raise your hand to speak.
Say if you need a break.
Do not let other things distract you during the brainstorming.
All ideas are welcomed. If you want to criticize, suggest something in return.

Do a warm-up

The warm-up helps to "wake up" the brain and switch the participants from previous tasks to the current one. As a result, the team gets more quickly involved in the activity.

To warm up for this brainstorming session, participants try to find as many phrases that rhyme with "the girl with the dragon tattoo" as possible.

Fill in the field of Spontaneous ideas

Leave here anything that comes to mind but doesn't fit into any of the other stages of the brainstorming: questions, ideas or illustrations. Fill in the field during the warm-up, brainstorming and voting.

Make creative lines

This stage is split into 4 steps, each of them stimulating creative thinking and enabling the search for unexpected ideas:

Step 1. Recall as many random proverbs, sayings and idiomatic expressions as possible.
6 minutes

Step 2. Recall any famous movie, literature or song quotes
6 minutes

Step 3. Select as many words and expressions that rhyme with the name of the object or its derivatives as possible. For example, honey - money, cheesecake – short snake.
8 minutes

Step 4. For 2 minutes, look through all the stickers with sayings, quotes and rhymes. Based on them, make as many creative slogans or expressions about the object as possible.
13 minutes

Role storming

This is the second part of the creative storming session, during which participants try on the roles of different characters and look at the problem from their perspective. To hold role storming:

Distribute stickers with numbers among the participants.
Cast everyone a role from the list of "Role storming characters" according to the number. Participants need to dive into the role for this storming to take place.
Put down the participants’ roles and names on stickers.
After all the brainstorming members immerse themselves into their characters, each describes on the stickers:
- the situation when they first became acquainted with the object or product;
- the way they apply it in their daily lives;
- a story about how the product has changed their lives dramatically.

Descriptions for a role playing brainstorm. Change them based according to the request and your audience:

Young mother. Takes online courses and freelances while on maternity leave. Follows blog content for mums enthusiastically. Loves to make everything in a fancy way: cares a lot about her looks, rearranges and decorates the house quite often.
Young father. An IT specialist with a high income. Conscious about his appearance, good-looking. He provides for his wife who is on maternity leave, and hardly ever says ‘no’ to his own needs or to his beloved ones. Loves traveling, often lives with his family in different locations.
Seventh-grader. Spends free time with his classmates in fast food restaurants, hanging out there after school. Likes anime and computer games. Often rebellious and is sometimes reprimanded for his misbehaviour. Secretly in love with his desk mate.
Bank employee. Works in the consumer loans department, very reliable, but is unhappy with the mandatory dress code at the bank. Sensitive: a dissatisfied client can easily ruin her day. She meets with her friends in cafes on Fridays. Travels twice a year: her favourite destinations are Turkey and Egypt.
Mum with two kids. Stay-at-home mum, graduated from university 10 years ago and almost immediately went on maternity leave. Loves her children, gives them a lot of care. In her spare time, she watches TV shows, shops for inexpensive goods on marketplace websites for herself and her loved ones.
Graduate student. Vegan, feminist and animal rights activist. She follows current trends, volunteers, changes her image often, likes experimenting. No bad habits, rents a flat with a friend.
Ninth-grader. She is fond of dancing, creates videos on TikTok, dreams of becoming a make-up artist. She copes with her school studies, but is not too involved in them. Spends her pocket money on clothes and cosmetics. Dates a boy from the 10th grade.
Retired woman. Lives in the countryside, comes to the city to see and babysit her grandchildren. Loves to indulge them with presents. In her free time, she watches TV, does crossword puzzles. She is into her vegetable garden, dreams of getting a milk goat or starting her own small farming business.
Entrepreneur, owner of several outlets with takeaway coffee. Married, two children. Active in sports, no bad habits. Develops his business, follows the footsteps of leaders in this area: subscribed to well-known entrepreneurs, attends local meetings to take after the colleagues’ experience. Saves up money for a new car.
Young man who dropped out of university in his 2nd year. Interested in music, writes and publishes his own cloud rap tracks. Seizes the day, spends all the money he earns on entertainment and music. Believes that the most important thing is creative realization and self-expression.

Role storming assessment

Staying in character, participants read the stickers of the others and leave ideas or suggestions on behalf of their own character.

Discuss the options

Everyone chooses 2 ideas or lines that are most memorable and jots them down on stickers. Participants vote distributing emoji among the stickers and then discussing the results out loud and recording new ideas if any emerge. Each participant has 6 emoji for voting:

Follow-up

Distribute the tasks and responsibilities and set a deadline.