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Post-Up

Creative tools > Post-Up

When to use it | How to use it | Example | How it works | See also

When to use it

Use it when you want to create lots of new ideas.

Use it with groups to get everyone engaged together.

Use it when you have the space for everyone to get around the post-up area (smaller groups, up to about six or seven, are better for this).

Although this is primarily a group method, you can also do it yourself.

How to use it

Define the problem

Define the problem in the normal way and make sure it is visible to all of the team.

Prime the team

Tape or pin up paper on the wall. Two or three flip-chart pages together, side-by-side give a good working area.

Give everyone 3" x 5" Post-It Note pads plus fibre-tip pens. The pens should be thick enough so a posted-up note is readable from several feet away, but not so think that only a few words can be written.

Tell them to always write one idea per Post-It Note.

If you are doing this by yourself, you can scale the whole thing down by using mini-Post-It Notes and stick them on standard sheets of writing paper. You can even do it on the computer.

Silent writing of ideas

Start with everyone silently writing down ideas, one per Post-It Note.

They should not at this time stick their Post-It Notes up on the wall (the focus is on capturing ideas).

Post up ideas

The team then posts up their ideas on the wall. A good way of doing this is to have each person take turns to post one idea.  The person posting up the idea reads it out and everyone else listens.

If any posted idea triggers other ideas for anyone in the team, they can write them on more Post-It Notes and add them to their pile.

When all ideas are posted, then you can also use other creative methods to generate even more ideas.

Shuffling and exploration

When you run out of ideas, you can move the Post-It Notes around to group together ideas into themes or otherwise explore further.

Beware when combining ideas of ending up with a vague 'generalised' idea that loses the essence of some its more original constituents.

Example

How it works

The Post-Up works in several ways. First, it allows people to work in parallel, thus speeding the session and getting everyone engaged at once. It also gets people emotionally engaged as they are writing their own ideas rather than have other people write or interpret them.

Posting up one idea at a time by person ensures equality through the team and also allows that each idea is considered by all team members.

See also