Round Robin template

A way to iterate on ideas as they move from person to person

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Round Robin

Round Robin template FAQs

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Brainstorm

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This round robin template, built by LUMA Institute, guides you through a collaborative session where every team member contributes multiple ideas, making it great for brainstorming and exploration. Use this template to generate and iterate on ideas across your whole team.

With the round robin approach, team members are not only encouraged to think of original solutions to problems, but also build upon the ideas of other participants, helping add context and refine your brainstorming.

The round robin template helps you:

Engage every participant and ensure that all voices are heard
Encourage collaboration and teamwork
Produce a lot of ideas through individual and team brainstorming
Identify weaknesses, provide feedback, and refine your ideas in the same session

How to use the round robin template

To get started using the round robin template, follow the below steps with your team. The session is designed to be broken down into segments of 10, 5, and 20 minutes.

Step 1: Define the problem

Before you begin, it’s important to succinctly describe the problem you’re trying to solve through brainstorming. This will ensure that your session is focused and productive. Enter the problem at the top of each section, in the ‘Challenge’ box.

Step 2: Begin individual brainstorming

Have each participant spend 10 minutes considering the problem and suggesting a potential solution using sticky notes, shapes, icons, images, GIFS, or even drawings.

Step 3: Identify potential weaknesses

Have each participant shift over one space to the right, and examine their teammates’ ideas for 5 minutes. What potential issues are there with the proposed solutions? Why might they fail? This segment of the session is meant to offer constructive feedback that will help each participant refine their original ideas.

Step 4: Develop a final concept

Using the feedback from the other participants, have each team member return to their original ideas and develop a final concept, addressing the potential threats to success and potentially integrating refinements from the round of critiques.

Tips for running a round robin session

Because of the complexity of the session, with multiple stages and coordination across the whole team as you move through the steps, it’s important to consider the following:

Assign a facilitator to help guide everyone through the session, and use features like the timer to keep things on track
Using private mode in a mural ensures that you’ll avoid groupthink
Once your team has developed their final concepts, run an anonymous voting session to help determine the best solutions and ways to move forward

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Round Robin template FAQs

What is the round robin brainstorming method?

The round robin brainstorming method is a collaborative activity where every team member contributes ideas, making it great for brainstorming and exploration. With the round robin approach, team members are not only encouraged to think of original solutions to problems, but also build upon the ideas of other participants, helping add context and refine your brainstorming.

What is the advantage of round robin brainstorming?

The advantage of using the round robin brainstorming method is that it encourages collaboration and teamwork in a way that makes sure that every participant has a voice that is heard. This method allows for a significant number of ideas to be generated through individual and team brainstorming, which can help to identify potential weaknesses, provide feedback, and refine ideas, all within the same session.

One of the key advantages of the round robin approach is that it enables team members to not only think of original solutions to problems, but also to build upon the ideas of other participants. This process of building on each other's ideas can lead to a more comprehensive and refined set of brainstorming outcomes.

Another advantage of the round robin brainstorming approach is that it offers a structured process that is designed to keep the session focused, productive, and on track. By breaking the session down into segments of 10, 5, and 20 minutes, participants are able to stay engaged and focused throughout the entire brainstorming process. Additionally, the process of shifting over one space to the right and examining their teammates’ ideas, followed by providing constructive feedback, helps ensure that each participant’s ideas are thoroughly evaluated, and that any potential issues are identified and addressed.

Can round robin be used in larger groups?

Yes! To run a round robin brainstorming session with a larger group, simply break down the group into teams of 2-4 people. This way, each person will be sure to get a round of feedback from a colleague, before having the chance to create their final concepts for a broader audience.