Stop Brainstorming and Generate Better Ideas

Teresa Torres argues that product leaders should not be the sole decision-makers on what to build, and that a company should instead empower its whole team to generate and evaluate ideas. She contends that brainstorming, a popular method, produces fewer and less diverse ideas than individuals working alone, citing social loafing, conformity, production blocking, and downward norm setting. Her alternative is a shared, always-on system for capturing ideas from everyone, visible to all, and easy to build on and cross-pollinate. Because it shapes how well a product stays coherent as organizations grow, the piece matters to PMs building idea processes.

01Key takeaways

• Scale product decisions by empowering others rather than deciding everything yourself.
• Set clear vision, goals, and boundaries before asking anyone for ideas.
• Individual idea generation tends to outperform group brainstorming in volume and diversity.
• Let people capture ideas whenever they occur, and make every idea visible and easy to build on.
• Include people across the company, since diverse perspectives produce better ideas.

02Key sections

Moving beyond the product leader as sole decider

Torres questions the common model where a founder or PM decides everything, and notes that this stops scaling as the company and product grow. The goal is to empower others to make good product decisions in the leader's absence.

Framing the problem with clear boundaries

Good idea generation starts with a clear vision, a strong goal, and explicit limits on acceptable approaches. Constraints help teams produce ideas the leader would actually consider.

Why brainstorming underperforms

Citing research, she explains that individuals working alone generate more and more diverse ideas than groups brainstorming. Social loafing, conformity, production blocking, and downward norm setting all undermine group sessions, which also create a false sense of effectiveness.

A system for sourcing ideas from the whole team

She recommends capturing ideas as they occur, making all ideas visible and extendable by everyone, drawing on diverse perspectives across the company, and letting ideas cross domains. Tools like wikis or dedicated idea apps can support this.

03From the post

“On many teams, either a founder decides what to build or the product team does. This makes sense. In early stage companies, founders are often the product leader. The product leader should decide what should be built. Or should they? We often use the metaphor, the product leader as CEO”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.