How to Run a Crazy Eights Brainstorming Session

Imagine you're in a meeting, the clock is ticking, and your team needs a breakthrough idea – or several – right now. The pressure is on, and the usual brainstorming methods feel slow, leading to predictable results. This is a common challenge for UX designers, project managers, and team leads who need to generate a high volume of ideas quickly, especially under tight deadlines. When you need to push past obvious solutions and ignite rapid creativity, a crazy eights brainstorming session can be your most effective tool.

What exactly is Crazy Eights? It's a rapid ideation technique, a core component of design thinking, where participants sketch eight distinct ideas in eight minutes. As a quick technique, it forces individuals to think expansively and capture a wide range of concepts without overthinking. This structured time constraint is designed to overcome creative blocks and generate a significant volume of potential solutions in a very short period.

Why It Works: The Psychology of Time-Constrained Creativity

The effectiveness of the crazy 8s exercise lies in its strict time limit. This constraint isn't meant to stifle creativity; rather, it's a psychological trick to bypass self-censorship and perfectionism. When you have only one minute per idea, you don't have time to judge or refine. Instead, you're compelled to simply get the idea down, no matter how rough or "crazy" it might seem.

This method encourages participants to push themselves and the boundaries of their creativity, leading to a large volume of concepts. It forces the brain to move beyond the most obvious or conventional ideas, which are often the first to surface. By committing to eight unique sketches in eight minutes, you tap into deeper wells of imagination, often uncovering truly innovative solutions that might otherwise remain hidden.

Step-by-Step Guide to Running a Crazy Eights Session

Running a successful crazy eights brainstorming session is straightforward, but requires clear facilitation. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do crazy eights effectively:

1. Define the Problem Clearly

Before you begin, ensure everyone understands the specific problem or challenge you're trying to solve. Write it clearly on a whiteboard or a shared screen. A well-defined problem statement helps focus the ideas and prevents participants from drifting off-topic. For instance, instead of "Improve our app," try "How might we make our app's onboarding process more engaging for first-time users?"

2. Gather Your Materials

Each participant will need a sheet of paper and a pen or marker. If you're doing this digitally, ensure everyone has access to a shared digital whiteboard or sketching tool. Instruct participants to fold their paper into eight equal sections, creating eight distinct frames for their sketches.

3. Set the Timer (and Stick to It!)

This is the most critical step. Announce that you will set a timer for eight minutes. Explain that for each minute, they will sketch one idea in one of the eight frames. Emphasize that the goal is quantity and speed, not artistic quality. "Crazy eights is basically a quick technique... it's a quick eight minute technique where you sketch out eight ideas," so strict adherence to the timer is essential.

4. Sketch, Sketch, Sketch!

Start the timer. For the next eight minutes, participants should rapidly sketch one idea per minute in each of their eight frames. Encourage them to be visual—even stick figures and simple diagrams are perfectly acceptable. The aim is to capture the essence of an idea quickly. Remind them not to get stuck on any one idea; if they finish an idea before the minute is up, they should immediately move to the next frame and start a new concept.

5. Share and Present Your Ideas

Once the eight minutes are up, the timer stops, and pens go down. Have each person share their eight ideas with the group. This can be done by going around the room, with each person briefly explaining their sketches. This sharing phase is vital for cross-pollination of ideas and for the team to understand the breadth of concepts generated. Avoid critical feedback during this initial sharing; the focus is on understanding what was created.

Pro-Tips for Facilitators

As a facilitator, your role is to create an environment where ideas can flow freely without judgment. Here are some insights to maximize the effectiveness of your crazy eights brainstorming session:

• Emphasize Quantity Over Quality: Remind participants repeatedly that the goal is to generate as many diverse ideas as possible. Crude sketches are fine. The pressure of time is meant to prevent overthinking and encourage raw output.
• Do Not Dismiss Anyone's Ideas: Foster a safe space where every idea, no matter how unconventional, is considered valuable. Premature judgment can shut down creativity. Remember, the "crazy" in Crazy Eights is an invitation to think outside the box.
• Think Big, Think Crazy: Encourage participants to challenge assumptions and explore truly disruptive concepts. Sometimes, the most outlandish ideas can spark practical innovations or lead to entirely new directions.
• Highlight the Power of Volume: Explain to your team the exponential power of this exercise. For instance, "you've got like five people in your team, everyone has eight minutes to come up with eight ideas, what you've done in the next eight minutes is you've come up with 40 ideas." This demonstrates the sheer volume of ideas generated, far exceeding what traditional brainstorming often yields.
• Manage Time Strictly: Be firm with the one-minute-per-idea rule. A gentle reminder to move on can be helpful if someone appears to be dwelling too long on a single sketch.

When evaluating ideas later, it's important to be aware of potential biases that can influence decision-making. Learning to identify and mitigate issues like confirmation bias in hiring, for example, can also apply to how you assess new concepts, ensuring a fairer and more objective review process.

What to Do After the 8 Minutes: Sorting and Refining Your Ideas

Generating a large volume of ideas is only the first step. To make your design thinking exercises truly actionable, you need a process for sorting, discussing, and refining these concepts. Here’s how to proceed:

• Group Similar Ideas: After everyone has shared their ideas, look for common themes or similar concepts. You can group these physically by placing sketches on a wall or digitally on a shared board.
• Dot Voting: A popular method for quickly identifying preferred ideas is dot voting. Give each participant a set number of "votes" (e.g., 3-5 sticky dots) to place on the ideas they find most promising, innovative, or feasible. This quickly highlights the group's collective interest.
• Discussion and Refinement: Focus on the top-voted ideas. Discuss their merits, potential challenges, and how they could be further developed. This is where you can start to merge, combine, and refine concepts into more concrete solutions. Providing constructive feedback examples for managers can be a useful skill here, ensuring discussions are productive and encouraging further development rather than criticism.
• Next Steps: Assign ownership for further development of the selected ideas. This could involve creating more detailed prototypes, conducting user research, or outlining implementation plans.

Crazy Eights is a powerful technique for teams looking to break through creative blocks and generate a wealth of ideas rapidly. By embracing its time-constrained nature and focusing on quantity, you can unlock your team's collective creativity and move towards innovative solutions much faster. For those interested in delving deeper into structured innovation and problem-solving methodologies, Juno School offers a free certificate course on Design Thinking: Ideas to Innovation, which covers various techniques to foster creativity and drive meaningful change.