Best Brainstorming Tools To Make Your Ideas Happen [2023]
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Brainstorming is one of the most successful methods for developing new features.
However, not all brainstorming sessions are the same. When conducting a brainstorming session, you need to employ the proper techniques and tools.
Here is the list of the most used brainstorming and mind-mapping software you can use to develop great ideas.
Brainstorming tools, often known as mind-mapping software, enable you to digitize the entire process of brainstorming ideas and collaborate with your colleagues on projects more efficiently while maintaining your creativity.
Online brainstorming essentially allows you to generate ideas and discuss them with your team members in real-time. Imagine not having to look for a pen and paper every time your imagination strikes.
Mind mapping software is a diagramming software that allows users to organize brainstorming sessions into topics and relationships.
Mind maps are diagrams that arrange essential words and lines to divide cognitive processes into subjects, subtopics, and relationships between them.
While this can be done by hand, brainstorming applications are accessible on various platforms, allow for convenient digital saving, and may include other features that support cooperation.
Why Should Your Team Be Using Brainstorming Apps?
Top Brainstorming Tools
1.
Miro is a collaborative brainstorming tool running in the cloud for small and medium organizations. A digital whiteboard is included in the solution, which can be used for brainstorming, ideation, developing customer journeys and user story maps, wireframing, and a variety of other collaborative tasks. Users can utilize the solution’s whiteboard toolkit to build mockups and schemes, write down ideas, and leave feedback on other members’ contributions. Pre-loaded templates can be used to construct boards, which can then be transformed into a presentation or saved as a PDF.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Pricing page: https://miro.com/pricing/
2.
Lucidspark
Lucidspark is a web-based whiteboard tool that allows teams to work together on projects and share ideas. Users can utilize the collaborative platform to share ideas, establish plans, collaborate on projects, organize activities, and assess ideas in a flexible environment. Sticky notes, commenting, freehand sketching tools, a built-in timer, up-votes, dot voting, and other collaboration and brainstorming elements are available in Lucidspark. It integrates with a variety of third-party apps, including Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom, as well as Lucidchart for converting ideas into practical workflows, to help streamline workflows.
Pricing: Free/ Paid
Pricing page: https://lucid.app/pricing/lucidspark
3.
XMind is an idea management and mind mapping solution that allows companies of all sizes, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations to assess, connect, and present their ideas using built-in templates such as fishbone charts, matrix diagrams, gantt charts, timelines, organizational charts, and more. Local network sharing, multi-page printing, map merging, map shot, audio notes, password encryption, and other capabilities are among the platform’s features.
Pricing: Paid
Pricing page: https://www.xmind.net/pricing/
4.
Whimsical is a collaborative brainstorming tool that allows users to create project wireframes, flowcharts, mind maps, and sticky notes to help them come up with new ideas. Multiple stakeholders can collaborate on a single document and create user flows using markdown shortcuts, buttons, checkboxes, and inputs. Whimsical allows users to create and edit files, enable viewers to access to comment on shared files and invite guests to view them, collaborate on specific files, build a personal or organizational workplace, and much more.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Pricing page: https://whimsical.com/pricing
5.
SimpleMind is a world-class mind mapping software that makes the process of structuring, evaluating, and presenting ideas much easier. It is a cross-platform mind map editor, which implies that visual thinking may be done on a variety of devices, including Windows PCs, Mac computers, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. SimpleMind has basic functionality such the ability to construct subject branches, edit topic texts, freely move topics around, rotate topic branches, and pick multiple items. Advanced capabilities of the mind map editor make it easier for users to visualize their ideas and customize the appearance of their mind maps.
Pricing: Free/ Paid
Pricing page: https://simplemind.eu/features-pricing/
6.
MindMeister is a cloud-based service that helps companies manage their innovation pipelines by facilitating brainstorming, collaboration, visualization, and other activities. It includes a tool that allows businesses to visualize mind maps through presentations and export them in various formats. Employees and other stakeholders can also use the platform to run online brainstorming sessions and make them accessible to remote team members for input.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Pricing page: https://www.mindmeister.com/mind-map-pricing
7.
MindMaster is a full-featured collaborative mind mapping and brainstorming platform with multiple themes and functions that enable users to build content-organized and style-rich mind maps for various purposes such as brainstorming, project management, knowledge management, and business presentations, among others. MindMaster provides complete flexibility with several apps available to download and use instantly, whether you need to work online or offline, at any time and from any location with any device.
Pricing: Paid
Pricing page: https://www.edrawmind.com/pricing.html
8.
Bubbl.us is a cloud-based mini-mind mapping tool for project management, brainstorming, and collaboration. It takes advantage of Macromedia Flash to provide web browsers with free-form brainstorming capabilities. Bubbl.us eliminates the need to install an app, resulting in lower operational costs and more work performed. You may create fascinating and attractive mind maps with Bubbl.us and save them as an HTML file or an image.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Pricing page: https://bubbl.us/pricing
9.
IdeaBoardz is a community-based platform that allows users to create IdeaBoards by adding sticky notes, often known as ideaz. Users can create an endless number of IdeaBoards on various subjects and can construct subtopics by adding different columns to an IdeaBoard. Then can discuss and express their ideas by adding as many Ideaz as they wish. IdeaBoardz is an excellent team-building tool since it allows users to work remotely from anywhere in the world. Ideaboardz can help with communication, cooperation, social knowledge creation, and brainstorming.
Pricing: Free
10.
Canvanizer is a cloud-based, collaborative business model canvas maker. It’s a visual business and SWOT modeling tool for business brainstorming and modeling. It’s simple to build and fine-tune your business ideas with Canvanizer, brainstorm with friends and coworkers, and choose from a variety of pre-built canvas templates.
Pricing: Free
11.
MindNode is a mind mapping software, on macOS and iOS devices, that helps businesses brainstorm and visualize ideas. Teams can use the app to collect, organize, and share new ideas in the form of text, images, or documents. Managers may connect or unlink several ideas, discover new connections, display relationships using an outline view, and gather documents in the cloud. It allows enterprises to integrate with a variety of third-party applications, letting them to pull and push data across platforms. It also has an auto-sync feature that allows users to automatically update documents across several devices. Notes, a focus mode, visual tags, task monitoring, and more are among the other features.
Pricing: Free/Paid
12.
Stormboard helps you to organize your meeting beforehand, capture, organize, and exchange ideas in real-time, then assign tasks and track progress in a digital workspace that you can access at any time. Built-in templates for Agile, Project Management, and other business processes help you streamline your operations, and all of your work can be exported into one of many dynamic reporting alternatives right away. Stormboard may be used on any device, ranging from a 4-inch phone to an 85-inch Microsoft Surface Hub.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Pricing page: https://www.stormboard.com/pricing
13.
GitMind is a sophisticated online mind mapping software that lets users brainstorm ideas for concept mapping, project planning, and other creative tasks. It is a complete tool that assists in the visualization of complex concepts, the generation of new ideas, the creation of lists and presentations, and thus the improvement of productivity. For saving and securing files, the tool enables secure cloud storage. GitMind allows remote teams to collaborate on mind maps in real-time via online file collaboration.
Pricing: Free/Paid
Is Mind Mapping Really Effective?
Mind mapping works because it is more than just a visual representation of information; building a mind map fuses connections in your long-term memory, aiding recall. This is because you are participating in active learning. Passive learning occurs when you stare at a mind map on a poster, which means that very little to no information is retained in your long-term memory.
Color-coding the branches as you build the mind map aids your brain in categorizing and sorting the information. Using visual representations of ideas instead of words allows for a multi-sensory approach to learning, which improves your capacity to remember and recall information over time.
Thanks to the branches and sub-branches, you can learn a wide range of cross-references, relationships, and connections. This is characterized as “radial” learning, as opposed to “linear” learning; mind-mapping needs a broader set of skills to develop (than, say, a list) and process, and as a result, is a very effective learning tool.
What Are the Brainstorming Techniques Alternatives to Traditional Mind Mapping?
- cluster diagramming
- graphic organizing tools, e.g., Fishbone Diagram, Venn Diagram, etc
- visual tools designed for graphic facilitation
- rich pictures or creative doodles
- rapid viz
- causal loop diagramming, as practiced in systems thinking;
- matrices often used in business applications, like 2×2 matrix, nine block matrix, etc
Wrap Up
You can use tools to make brainstorming a creative and productive moment for you and your colleagues, no matter where you sit at the table.
It’s also possible to learn other skills to help your leadership and contribution abilities grow to their full potential.
An effective brainstorming session can be an opportunity for people to get inspired, discuss challenging issues, exercise deep listening, and solve difficulties.
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