Lotus Blossom

Purpose

• Provides a framework for idea generation and brainstorming
• Provides a visual representation of ideas and pushes participants to explore related concepts and ideas
• Helps a group develop areas of focus

Facilitation Instructions

• Facilitator provides context and begins with a description of the activity: the lotus blossom is a creativity technique that consists of a framework for idea generation that starts by generating eight concept themes based on a central theme. Each concept then serves as the basis for eight further theme explorations or variations.
• In a physical space, this activity would be accomplished by utilizing a single sheet of eight 3x3 squares or post-it notes. In an online space, we use a set of digital “sheets” arranged in a slide deck through Google Slides.
• As a group, we will explore our work in this group thus far by breaking down our design question into sub niches and coming up with related ideas, concepts, opportunities, or even challenges that may present itself as we attempt to figure out where we go from here.
• We will do so by brainstorming eight concepts or ideas that relate to or otherwise inform our design question. Each of these ideas becomes its own theme or lotus blossom to explore. The lotus blossom could continue unfolding indefinitely or until we entirely run out of ideas!.
• The provided grid is our first lotus blossom. In it, you will see that a single central theme is at the heart of the blossom. Our task is to write a problem, a theme, an idea, or a design question into the center of the diagram. As a group, we will then brainstorm eight related concepts or ideas that tie into the central theme. By the end of this activity, our goal is to have eight core ideas. Each of those core ideas will have eight related ideas to explore. That means we will have a whopping 64 ideas or concepts that are merely, at most, one or two degrees removed from our design question.
• Once we have our eight core ideas set, we will take some time to do a virtual dot-voting exercise and use the Insert Shapes function of Google slides to vote on your favorite, the most compelling, the most exciting, or the most valuable ideas on the board.

Products Generated

• A set of 8 core ideas/themes and 64 related ideas/themes.

Reference

Media Lab Design Methods Toolkit