This process is concerned with how we come up with a pool of ideas, analyse them and then divide them into a set of JIRA issues that will form the start of the development process to take them to implementation. It involves the filtering of the pool based on some measure or intuition of realism and the breakdown of what's left into clearly defined tasks.
Coming up with New Ideas
There are many ideas that will be conceived by individuals outside of any official call or process. These should be collected and not forgotten and the place they should go is here: Road Map Ideas
Ideas Call (monthly)
A more formal time in which to develop ideas is the monthly call. This will be used for brainstorming and without being too prescriptive, will broadly follow the Six Hats of Critical Thinking method, which encourages looking at problems from different angles, represented by a hat colour.
White hat
We start by sharing the information about the problem.
- What is the available information?
- What facts do we have?
Yellow hat
We then think optimistically about the problem or suggestion, highlighting the advantages and benefits.
- What are the benefits?
- Why is it workable?
Black hat
We then think cautiously to identify the disadvantages of the suggestion and why it might not work.
- What are the risks?
- Why is the suggestion not workable?
Red hat
We then consider our gut reaction towards the suggestion without attempting to understand the reason behind the feeling.
- What is your hunch about the suggestion?
- What do you like/dislike/love/hate about it?
Green hat
This represents the creative thinking part of the discussion. During the critical thinking discussion, this hat fuels the stakeholders’ thinking to innovate a thinking creative solution for the problems or look to the suggestions from a creative perspective. Creative tools can be applied to drive creativity during the conversations such as the Lego Serious Play and brainstorming techniques.
Blue hat
This is the process control plan where the meeting leaders manage difficulties during the discussions. It makes sure that the guidelines of the six thinking hat process is applied. This hat can be used to drive the thinking process to better routes. For example, if there are no ideas, the facilitators can direct the discussion to the green hat route.
The blue hat is a control hat during the critical thinking discussions, it can also act as a moderation hat before and after each circle of thinking.
While the resources did not indicate a specific sequence between the hats, the sequence indicated above is similar to De Bono’s six thinking hats website.