1. Make sure you understand the game rules, penalties, animation, and think about any possible rule change to come later on.

After that, depending on the size of your team you start making decisions. If you have a very large team, then you may just want a few representatives of each subgroup displaying their ideas. If your team is in the lower numbers, then you can have an entire group discussion.

After that, write down all your ideas, and a rough draft of the robot, and start again, this time from a different point of view. Maybe now you think of an elevator with a gripper attachment instead of a roller claw, or maybe you think of a defensive robot. This helps in brainstorming ideas that would have been thought of days later once you have established a final design.

Make sure you know any possible robot roles. You could be designing an offensive robot, a defensive robot, a herder, or anything else that fits the bill.

Once you get at least 3 good ideas written out, go over the advantages and disadvantages in each. From there, say what you think will be necessary on a good robot, and what role you will be playing. After that, take the best parts of each design that will benefit your robot, and there you go.