Brainstorming templates
Create a space for the best ideas to rise with our brainstorming templates collection. Facilitate processes offering teams the space and tools they need for blue-sky thinking.
Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Brainstorming, Ideation
Coming up with a topic for a research project can be a daunting task. Use the Research Topic Brainstorm template to take a general idea and transform it into something concrete. With the Research Topic Brainstorm template, you can compile a list of general ideas that interest you and then break them into component parts. You can then turn those parts into questions that might be the focus for a research project.
KWL Chart Template
Works best for:
Education, Brainstorming, Retrospectives
Sharing and learning new knowledge is the fuel in the tank of any ambitious team or organization. A KWL chart is a graphical organizer that powers the learning process. This easy template lets you design and use a KWL, with three columns: Know, Want to Know, and Learned. Then you and your team will fill in each column by following three steps: Take stock of what you know, document what you want to get out of your session, and finally, record what you’ve learned.
Idea Funnel Backlog
Works best for:
Design, Brainstorming, Agile Workflows
An Idea Funnel Backlog enables you to visualize your backlog and restrict the number of backlogged items at the top. In doing sos, you can prioritize items on your list without having to engage in unnecessary meetings or create too much operational overhead. To use the Idea Funnel Backlog, break up the funnel into different phases or treat it like a roadmap. Use the Idea Funnel Backlog as a hybrid model that combines your roadmap and backlog into one easily digestible format.
Crazy Eights Template
Works best for:
Design Thinking, Brainstorming, Ideation
Sometimes you just need to get the team’s creative juices flowing for a brainstorm—and get them thinking of as many ideas as they can, as fast as they can. Crazy Eights will do it in a hurry. Favoring quantity over quality, this sketch brainstorming exercise challenges them to come up with eight ideas in eight minutes, which leaves no time to second guess ideas. It’s perfect for early stages of development, and it’s a team favorite for being fast paced and fun.
Card Sorting Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, UX Design, Brainstorming
Card sorting is a brainstorming technique typically used by design teams but applicable to any brainstorm or team. The method is designed to facilitate more efficient and creative brainstorms. In a card sorting exercise, you and your team create groups out of content, objects, or ideas. You begin by labeling a deck of cards with information related to the topic of the brainstorm. Working as a group or individuals, you then sort the cards in a way that makes sense to you, then label each group with a short description. Card sorting allows you to form unexpected but meaningful connections between ideas.
Brainwriting Template
Works best for:
Education, Ideation, Brainstorming
Brainstorming is such a big part of ideation. But not everyone does their best work out loud and on the spot, yelling out thoughts and building on others’ ideas. Brainwriting is a brilliant solution for them—creative thinkers who happen to be more introverted. This approach and template invites participants to reflect quietly and write out their ideas, and then pass them to someone else who will read the idea and add to it. So you’ll get creative ideas from everyone—not just the loudest few.
Mood Board Template
Works best for:
Design, Brainstorming, Ideation
When you’re kicking off a creative project, it’s sometimes important to communicate the mood you’re trying to evoke — but it’s so hard to do it with words. So create a mood board and use images, color palettes, textures, and typography. Mood boards are also perfect for gathering inspiration and sketching out and pitching ideas, and they’re not just for designers — your content writers, sales teams, and product teams can use them too, and this template makes it easy for all of you to get started.
Product Vision Canvas
Works best for:
Product Management
Bring value to your users and develop better products using this Product Vision Template. Help teams craft a killer product vision statement and improve your business and customer experience.
Mad Sad Glad Retrospective
Works best for:
Brainstorming, Ideation
It's tempting to measure a sprint’s success solely by whether goals and timelines were met. But there’s another important success metric: emotions. And Mad Sad Glad is a popular, effective technique for teams to explore and share their emotions after a sprint. That allows you to highlight the positive, underline the concerns, and decide how to move forward as a team. This template makes it easy to conduct a Mad Sad Glad that helps you build trust, improve team morale, and increase engagement.
Perceptual Map Template
Works best for:
Marketing, Desk Research, Mapping
To shape your messaging, tailor your marketing, improve your product, and build your brand, you have to know your customers’ perceptions — what they think of you and your competitors. You can gain those insights by exploring a perceptual map. This simple, powerful tool creates a visual representation of how customers rank your price, performance, safety, and reliability. Put this template to work and you’ll be able to size up your competition, see gaps in the market, and understand changes in customer behavior and purchasing decisions.
Lotus Diagram Template
Works best for:
UX Design, Ideation, Diagrams
Even creative thinkers occasionally need help getting their creative juices flowing. That's where a lotus diagram comes in. It'll empower you to run smoother, more effective brainstorming sessions. This creative-thinking technique explores ideas by putting the main idea at the diagram center and ancillary concepts in the surrounding boxes. This template gives you an easy way to create Lotus Diagrams for brainstorms, as well as an infinite canvas for the endless ideas generated.
What? So What? Now What? Template
Works best for:
Agile Workflows, Retrospectives, Brainstorming
The What? So What? Now What? Framework empowers you to uncover gaps in your understanding and learn from others’ perspectives. You can use the What? So What? Now What? Template to guide yourself or a group through a reflection exercise. Begin by thinking of a specific event or situation. During each phase, ask guiding questions to help participants reflect on their thoughts and experience. Working with your team, you can then utilize the template to record your ideas and to guide the experience.
T-Chart Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Operations, Strategic Planning
T-Charts can help you compare and contrast two different ideas, group information into different categories, and prove a change through “before” and “after” analysis. T-Charts are visual organizational tools that enable you to compare ideas, so you can evaluate pros and cons, facts and opinions, strengths and weaknesses, or big-picture views versus specific details. Designers and content creators can use T-Charts to turn possibilities into actionable ideas. T-Charts are useful for discussing differences and similarities with your team or clients and can help you to reach a decision together.
Parking Lot Matrix Template
Works best for:
Project Management, Ideation, Meetings
When the creative energy is flowing, a workshop or meeting will yield a lot of new ideas — but not all are on-topic or currently feasible. Roll them right onto a parking lot matrix, a simple, effective tool for separating the best ideas from those that are promising but could use more research or discussion. This template will let you easily make your own parking lot matrix, which will come in especially handy during long meetings (and when you have teammates who tend to go off-topic).
Meeting Reflection Template
Works best for:
Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.
Customer Problem Statement Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Design Thinking, Product Management
Put yourself in the shoes of your consumers with a customer problem statement. Figure out their problems and how your product or service can solve those problems and make their lives easier. As a bonus, you’ll better understand your customers throughout the process.
How Now Wow Matrix Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Product Management, Prioritization
There are no bad ideas in a brainstorm — but some are more original and easier to implement. The How Now Wow matrix is a tool that helps you identify and organize those great ideas, as well as reinvigorates your team to think creatively and take risks (a taller order as you scale). Grab this template to create your own matrix, then rank the ideas you generated in a brainstorm as “How” (difficult to implement), “Now” (easy to implement), or “Wow” (both original and easy to implement).
Disney Creative Strategy Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Ideation, Brainstorming
Know who knew a little something about coming up with ideas that set imaginations alight? Walt Disney. And he inspired the Disney Creative Strategy, an approach that establishes three types of thinkers—dreamers, realists, and critics—and gives each the space to do clear thinking. Your team will go through an engaging exercise of adopting the three mindsets, where they’ll focus on a specific aspect of the idea. The Disney Creative Strategy has a way of yielding brilliant ideas and great products. That’s why it’s used successfully by organizations of all kinds and sizes.
Concept Map Template
Works best for:
Education, Mapping, Brainstorming
Use the concept map template to create new ideas, structure your thoughts, and bring your innovations to life. It allows you to explore connections between concepts and let your creativity flow in an organized format. As a result, you’re able to visualize how to bring your new ideas to reality and how various concepts relate to each other.
4P Marketing Mix Template
Works best for:
Marketing, Brainstorming, Workshops
Product, Place, Promotions, and Price. Starting with this template (and those 4Ps) you can choose the best way to take your product or service to market. The secret is to create just the right mix—deciding how much each P needs in terms of investment, attention, and resources. That will help you build your strengths, adapt to the market, and collaborate with partners. And our tool is the perfect canvas to create your marketing mix and share with teams and across your organization.
Double Bubble Map Template
Works best for:
Diagramming, Mapping, Brainstorming
Double Bubble Map Template serves as a powerful tool to facilitate teamwork and streamline idea exploration. This adaptable template empowers teams to brainstorm, analyze, and compare concepts with ease, making it an invaluable asset for enhancing creativity and fostering clarity among team members.
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.
Reverse Brainstorming Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
Reverse brainstorming is a technique that prompts a group to think of problems, rather than solutions. Because we naturally think of problems, it’s a great way to get a group to anticipate problems that may occur during a project. To engage in reverse brainstorming, start by identifying the problem, and then think of things that might exacerbate it. Ask your team to generate ideas around ways in which the problem could get worse. Reverse the problems into solutions again, and then evaluate your ideas.
Six Thinking Hats Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Brainstorming
The Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward de Bono was created as an alternative to argument, it is designed to help teams explore and develop ideas collaboratively. Use this template to boost creative thinking and get different perspectives so you and your team can make better-informed decisions.
Mandala Chart Template
Works best for:
Planning, Brainstorming, Goal setting
The Mandala Chart Template helps you visualize the relationships between a central theme and its sub-themes. One of the key benefits is how it fosters a holistic understanding of any topic. This perspective ensures every detail is noticed, making it an invaluable asset for those aiming for comprehensive insight and thorough planning or a better understanding of their goals.
Semantic Map Template
Works best for:
Brainstorming
The Semantic Map Template is a helpful tool that helps teams efficiently process and structure complex information. Its intuitive design promotes shared understanding, allowing multiple users to contribute and refine ideas simultaneously. This collaborative approach streamlines brainstorming sessions and creates a synergistic environment where collective intelligence thrives. By visually mapping out concepts and their interconnections, the template ensures that every team member is on the same page, which improves group dynamics and leads to more cohesive and comprehensive outcomes. The Semantic Map Template is a valuable tool for team-based project management and learning, thanks to its ability to foster collaboration and enhance productivity.
Synoptic Table Template
Works best for:
Brainstorming
Reduce complexity and bring clarity to your teamwork with the Synoptic Table Template by Miro. Break down abstract concepts into clear, manageable components.
Mind Map Template
Works best for:
Planning, Mind Mapping, Education
We see you, visual learners. You grasp concepts and understand data easier when they're presented in well-organized, memorable graphics. Mind mapping is perfect for you. This powerful brainstorming tool presents concepts or ideas as a tree — with the central subject as the trunk and your many ideas and subtopics as the branches. This template is a fast, effective way for you to start mind mapping, which can help you and your team become more creative, remember more, and solve problems more effectively.
Sticky Note Packs Template
Works best for:
Brainstorming, Meetings, Workshops
Use Miro’s Stickies Packs template to facilitate your brainstorming and group sessions. Use them to organize your ideas, collaborate as a team, and encourage participation from everyone involved.
Random Words Template
Works best for:
Ideation, Brainstorming, Mind Mapping
Random word brainstorming is a simple, creative technique using random words to generate new ideas and creative solutions to your problems. Using random word prompts allows you to step beyond traditional boundaries and address challenges from a different direction. Random word brainstorming allows your team to unlock their creativity to solve business problems, create new inventions, improve existing ideas, or just think about problems in a new way.
Spider Diagram Template
Works best for:
Diagramming, Mapping
Perfect for brainstorming sessions, project planning, or simply organizing thoughts, the Spider Diagram Template allows you to create 'legs' branching out from a central idea, representing related topics or subtopics.
Tier List Template
Works best for:
Graphs
A Tier List Template is a ranking tool that allows teams to organize different items into specific categories, or "tiers," based on their significance, quality, or performance. This template is a visual tool that aids in making decisions and prioritizing tasks. Use it to power your brainstorming, strategic meetings, and planning.
Weekly Planner Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Project Planning
A weekly planner is a schedule that outlines your plans and activities for the week ahead. It helps you manage your time, keep track of your tasks, and organize your team on a day-to-day basis. Unlike traditional planners, which are often non-customizable, this weekly planner can be modified to suit your specific needs.
UX Presentation Template
Works best for:
Presentations, UX Design
Create a stunning UX presentation with Miro’s memorable slide deck. Customize your slide deck to display your UX research in the perfect format for your audience. Add charts, images, and visuals to present your findings.
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Sign up freeAbout the Brainstorming Templates Collection
Brainstorming is a crucial part of the creative process, and Miro's brainstorming templates collection is designed to make this process seamless and effective. Whether you're working on a new project, solving a complex problem, or simply looking to generate fresh ideas, our templates provide a structured approach to brainstorming. With various templates tailored to different needs, you can easily find the right one to kickstart your brainstorming session.
Why you'll love our brainstorming examples
Using Miro's brainstorming templates offers many benefits that can improve your team's creativity and productivity:
Structured approach: Our templates provide a clear framework, ensuring that your brainstorming sessions are organized and focused.
Time-saving: Pre-designed templates save you time, allowing you to dive straight into the brainstorming process without having to set up a structure from scratch.
Collaboration: Miro's templates are designed for collaboration, enabling team members to contribute ideas in real time, regardless of their location.
Versatility: With a wide range of templates available, you can find one that suits any type of brainstorming session, from mind mapping to SWOT analysis.
Visual appeal: The templates help visualize ideas better, making it easier to understand and build on each other's ideas.
How to use the brainstorming templates in Miro
Using Miro's brainstorming templates is straightforward and user-friendly. Follow these steps to get started:
Select a template: Navigate to the Miro template library and choose a brainstorming session template that fits your needs. You can browse through various categories to find the perfect match.
Customize the template: Once you've selected a template, customize it to suit your specific requirements. You can add, remove, or modify elements to tailor the template to your session.
Invite team members: Share the template with your team members by inviting them to the board. Miro allows for seamless collaboration, so everyone can contribute in real-time.
Start brainstorming: Begin your brainstorming session by adding ideas to the template. Encourage team members to use sticky notes, comments, and other Miro tools to share their thoughts.
Organize and prioritize: After generating ideas, use Miro's features to organize and prioritize them. Group similar ideas, highlight key points, and create action plans.
Save and share: Once the session is complete, save the board and share it with stakeholders. You can export the board in various formats, such as PDF or image files, to ensure everyone has access to the final output. Additionally, you can generate a shareable link to the board for easy access.
Follow-up: After the brainstorming session, it's crucial to follow up on the ideas and action plans generated. Assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and schedule follow-up meetings to track progress. Miro's task management features can help you keep everything organized and ensure accountability.
Reflect and improve: Finally, take some time to reflect on the brainstorming session. Gather feedback from participants on what worked well and what could be improved. Use this feedback to refine your approach for future sessions, ensuring continuous improvement in your brainstorming processes.
By following these steps, you can make the most out of Miro's brainstorming templates and drive effective, collaborative ideation sessions with your team.