Random stimuli is a very useful technique that helps you generate fresh ideas or new perspectives during a brainstorming or a creative session. It is a technique for linking another thinking pattern into the one we are using. During random stimuli, participants use free association in connection with an arbitrary word or image to generate new ideas. A random stimulus indeed can be any kind of signal—a word or image, even a sound or smell—that forces you to move your thoughts to a new place outside of your current focus and associations.

Techniques like random stimulus initially might seem too disconnected in the way they lead to new ideas, but this disconnection from one's mental inertia is exactly what is needed. Humans naturally establish logic patterns as they process information over time, so creative thinking actually becomes unnatural. The only way to spark it is to move away from these patterns, and using random stimuli is one way to do that.

There are several random stimuli techniques. Here a selection for you:

  • Super Heroes where participants pretend to be a fictional (or real) super-hero and use their 'super' characteristics to trigger ideas.
  • Photo boost that prompts the use of evocative images to elicit idea production during creative sessions. You can download the IDEActivity method cards from the IDEActivity page along with all the other Infographics in the course.
  • Biomimicry that pushes to think for analogies
  • Random word stimulation that invokes words at random.