Technique

The 6-3-5 method is a structured brainstorming technique aimed at generating a large volume of ideas in a short time.

• 6 Participants: Six team members participate in the session.
• 3 Ideas: Each participant writes down three ideas.
• 5 Rounds: The ideas are passed around five times, with each participant building on the ideas they receive.

The result are around 108 ideas that have been collaboratively developed. This technique encourages teamwork and builds on each other’s creativity. Each idea gets enriched by multiple viewpoints.

Facilitation

1. Setup: Write the problem on the top of the worksheet and gather six participants and provide each with a worksheet divided into three columns and six rows.
2. Round 1: Each participant writes three ideas in the top row.
3. Pass: After a set time (5 minutes), everyone passes their sheet to the person on their right.
4. Build: Each participant reads the ideas on the sheet they received and adds three new or improved ideas in the next row.
5. Repeat: This process is repeated until all six rows are filled.

This exercise is usally timeboxed for 25 minutes (5 minutes per round).