When brainstorming new ideas, features or products, it can be very easy to get bogged down asking the wrong questions or trying to solve the wrong problems. A key component of this may in fact be the language being used to define these problems, which can cause creativity to be stifled.

An example is using statements like "how can we do this?" or "how should we do that?". In both cases, these statements are implying judgement, and seeding the idea of "can we really do this?" or "should we be doing this?" - again all statements that have a big potential to close down creativity.

A very simple solution to this is the 'How Might We...' methodology. Originally developed at Procter & Gamble, this method is now employed by Google, Facebook and IDEO to jumpstart their creativity, so it has very good pedigree