[Garrett.d.w]

We do something that we call the 7 ways. It works great for us because it gives everyone, even the mentors (though they generally opt out) an equal opportunity to present and comment ideas.

I like to break this down into a few simple steps.

1). Individual brainstorm.
Each person goes off and draws or describes a solution to a problem.

2). Presentation
Each person gets a brief slot of time to present their ideas and then a slot of time to answer questions.

3). Listing of pro's and cons
The team brainstorms the pro's and cons of all of the solutions, normally we have already axed 3/4 of the ideas at this point, so we are not overworking ourselves.

4). Vote!
The team votes for their favorite solutions. From here we take two or three solutions and mock them up in plywood, just as a proof of concept.

This process can take our team about a full day to complete. We generally only have to do it once per season to figure out our general build strategy.