Brainstorming for consultants who get paid for the thinking

The best brainstorming approach for consultants is structured divergence followed by a convergence you can defend to a client. Generate a wide set of genuinely different options first, cluster them into two or three territories, then score impact against effort and recommend one with reasons. Brainstormer does the first half from a single problem statement: around twenty tagged directions plus a shortlist of the three strongest with the reasoning written out. The clustering and the scoring stay yours, but you do them to real material.

That structure matters because clients do not pay for a brain dump, they pay for judgment. The idea generator handles the divergence, forcing angles you would not reach alone, and the Skeptic's pass usually writes most of the objections the client will raise on Thursday, before you build the slide.

Consulting runs on named methods, and this is not one of them: Brainstormer does not run Six Thinking Hats or SCAMPER, and you would still run those yourself. What it does is put six standing points of view on the challenge at once, and the Skeptic's answer is usually most of the objections the client will raise on Thursday.

The output arrives already shaped like the front of a recommendation: a shortlist of the strongest directions and one named winner with its reasoning in sentences. For the deciding half in general, see idea clustering and idea prioritization. For live facilitation, keep your usual toolkit; running the room is not something this does.

Client problems are private by default, never used to train models, and deletable on request, which is the sentence your MSA and your client's procurement team want to read. Solo consultants run on the $16 plan; small practices take Team at $99 per month for five seats with unlimited brainstorms for the account. One recovered afternoon of billable time covers the year.

Consultants who also advise founders and product leaders lean on the sibling pages built for those rooms: brainstorming for founders and for product teams. Start with a real client problem in the studio above.