Reverse Brainstorming Template
Reverse your thinking in order to find the solution to a problem.
About the Reverse Brainstorming Template
Reverse brainstorming is a creative problem-solving technique that involves thinking about a problem in reverse order. Instead of starting with the question, "How do we solve or improve this?" reverse brainstorming asks, "How could we possibly cause the problem or make it worse?"
This approach is used to stimulate new ideas and perspectives that might not emerge during traditional brainstorming sessions.
How to use the reverse brainstorming template
Reverse brainstorming is particularly useful when traditional brainstorming is not yielding effective solutions, or when a team is facing a mental block. Miro's reverse brainstorming template is easy to use and encourages thinking outside the box.
Follow these steps to get started with the template:
1. Identify the problem
In the first box, clearly define the problem or challenge you are facing. Describe it in a sentence or two and make sure it is clear to everyone involved in the brainstorming session.
2. Reverse the problem
In the box below, write down what the reverse of the problem would look like. For example, if the problem your team is trying to solve for involves "how to make a smartphone app more user-friendly," the reverse could be "how to create a complicated user interface for an app."
3. Collect ideas
Ask your team to generate ideas around ways in which the problem could get worse. There are no bad ideas here — jot down any ways that the problem could be exacerbated. This might involve considering actions that would lead to the opposite of your desired outcome.
To continue with the above example, some ideas could be:
Make the app interface confusing and hard to navigate
Introduce frequent, intrusive advertisements
Slow down the app’s performance with unnecessary features
4. Reverse the ideas to find solutions
By now, you have several reverse ideas. Discuss them and reverse them again, this time into solutions to those problems. This step involves looking at the reverse brainstorming results and thinking about how to avoid or counteract these negative scenarios.
For example:
Design a clean, intuitive, and user-friendly interface
Minimize or strategically place advertisements to avoid user frustration
Optimize the app’s performance for speed and reliability
5. Evaluate the solutions
Now is the time to evaluate which ideas are feasible. Use the final box of the template to discuss how these solutions could be implemented, and prioritize which ideas to start working on first.
When to use the reverse brainstorming template
Reverse brainstorming is a great method to use in several scenarios. For example, when teams are having trouble coming up with ideas, reverse brainstorming can jolt the team out of conventional thinking patterns and help generate new perspectives.
Reverse brainstorming is also particularly useful for risk management and mitigation. By considering how things could go wrong or how a situation could deteriorate, teams can better prepare for potential risks and devise strategies to mitigate them.
No matter the problem you are trying to solve, Miro's virtual canvas is a great tool for your brainstorm — and the reverse brainstorming template is a handy way for teams to address complex, stubborn, or challenging issues.
Get started with this template right now.
One-on-one Meeting Template
Works best for:
Meetings
Ensure your meetings are productive by using a one-on-one meeting template. Create and stick to your agenda items, understand what’s going well, what isn’t working, and how to improve. Discuss what’s been accomplished and what’s still in progress.
Project Review Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Project Review
The Intelligent Project Review Template in Miro is a game-changer for project management. It combines AI-driven insights with interactive features to streamline the review process, making it more efficient and collaborative. One key benefit of this template is its ability to enhance team alignment. By providing a structured format for documenting timelines, hypotheses, target audiences, success metrics, and potential blockers, it ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page, fostering a shared understanding and confidence in the project's direction.
Organizational Chart Template
Works best for:
Org Charts, Operations, Mapping
Who makes up the team? What roles do they play? Who does each member report to? An organizational chart, or org chart, can answer it all at a glance. Ideal for onboarding new employees, these visual diagrams plot out company structure and the chain of command to help your team members understand reporting relationships, their role, and how they fit into the broader organization. Our template lets you choose your own chart structure and easily plot the connections between employees, roles, and departments.
Cisco Data Network Diagram Template
Works best for:
Software Development
Cisco offers data center and access networking solutions built for scale with industry-leading automation, programmability, and real-time visibility. The Cisco Data Network Diagram uses Cisco elements to show the network design of Cisco Data Networks visually.
Affinity Diagram Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Mapping, Product Management
You can use an affinity diagram to generate, organize, and consolidate information that comes out of a brainstorming session. Whether you’re building a product, working through a complex problem, establishing a process, or piecing apart an issue, an affinity diagram is a useful and simple framework that gives each team member the opportunity to pitch in and share their thoughts. But it’s not just ideal for brainstorms—this is a great template and tool when you need to reach consensus or analyze data such as survey results.
SCAMPER Model
Works best for:
Ideation, Operations, Brainstorming
Is your team in a rut? Have you had a lingering problem that can’t seem to be solved? First introduced in 1972, SCAMPER. is a brainstorming method developed by Bob Eberle, an author of creativity books for young people. This clever, easy-to-use method helps teams overcome creative roadblocks. SCAMPER walks you through seven questions that are meant to encourage your team to approach a problem through seven unique filters. By asking your team to think through a problem using this framework, you’ll unlock fresh, innovative ways to understand the problem you’re trying to solve.