Tips for brainstorming

On this page

• Share team content using one address
• Brainstorm together in a shared document
• Store brainstorm documents in one place
• Prepare team members for meetings
• Discuss ideas in a video meeting
• Vote for winning ideas
• Keep track of ideas & tasks
• Build your brainstorming site
• Present a powerful pitch

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Share team content using one address

Need to share the same information with your team members across the globe? Make communication about ideas and developments easier by creating a Google Groups email list for your team. Then, instead of emailing people individually, use the group’s email address to send everyone status updates and share resources—such as team calendars in Google Calendar and documents in Google Drive.

Learn how

Email a group

1. In Gmail, on the left, click Compose .
2. Next to To, instead of adding each team member’s email address to your email, just enter the group’s email address.

Create a team calendar

You can only create new calendars from a browser and not from the Google Calendar app. Once the calendar is created, you can find it on your browser and in the app.

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. On the left, next to "Other calendars," click Add other calendars  Create new calendar.
3. Add a name and description for your calendar.
4. Click Create calendar.
5. If you want to share your calendar, click on it in the left bar, then select Share with specific people.

Share a file from Drive

1. On your computer, go to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Vids.
2. Double-click or right-click the file you want to share.
3. Click Share .
4. Enter a recipient.
5. Click Send .

Learn more at the Google Groups Help Center

 

Brainstorm together in a shared document

Brainstorming ideas is easier when everyone can share information in one place and give instant feedback. Create a document that serves as a blank canvas for your team's ideas using Google Docs. Outline the information to be collected in the document and share with everyone (such as through your Groups email address). Edit together in real-time, chat within files, and get targeted feedback using comments and suggestions. Then, invite each team member to mark the ideas they like best–the idea with the most votes is the winner.

Learn how

Create a document

To create a new document:

1. On your computer, open the Docs home screen at docs.google.com.
2. In the top left, under "Start a new document," click Blank .

You can also create new documents from the URL docs.google.com/create.

Share content with a group

1. Create a file in Google Drive, or open an existing file.
2. In the file, click Share.
3. In the Invite people field, enter the group's address.
4. Select the level of access you want to provide the group: Editor, Commenter, or Viewer.
5. Click Send.

 

Store brainstorm documents in one place

Want an easy way to securely store and share your team’s brainstorm resources? In Drive or shared drives, save all your team’s files in one folder, then share them instantly with your team’s Groups email address. When someone makes a change, Drive shows you what files have changed. Team members can securely access the latest files remotely on any device, at any time.

Learn how

Add files to Drive

On your computer, you can upload from drive.google.com or your desktop. You can upload files into private or shared folders.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. At the top left, click New File Upload or Folder Upload.
3. Choose the file or folder you want to upload.

Add files to a shared drive

Requires at least Contributor access

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
2. At the left, click Shared drives and double-click one of your shared drives.
3. At the top left, click New.
4. Click the type of file or folder you want to create or upload from your computer. 

Any files you add are owned by the team. If you leave the shared drive, your files remain.

Share content with your team

1. Create a file in Google Drive, or open an existing file.
2. In the file, click Share.
3. In the Invite people field, enter the group's address.
4. Select the level of access you want to provide the group: Editor, Commenter, or Viewer.
5. Click Send.

Get started with Google Drive

 

Prepare team members for meetings

Prepare team members by giving them a chance to preview relevant files before brainstorming sessions. When you send a meeting invitation to your co-workers in Calendar, attach documents, spreadsheets, presentations, agendas, and more—so everyone on the team is ready to contribute ideas.

Learn how

Attach files to a meeting invite

1. On your computer, open Google Calendar.
2. Create an event, or open an existing event.
3. If you create a new event, click More options.
4. At the bottom, in the description box, click Add attachment .
5. Choose a file that's already in your Google Drive. To add a file from your computer, click Upload.
6. When you finish, click Select or Upload.

Get started with Google Calendar

 

Discuss ideas in a video meeting

Want to brainstorm live with your remote team members? Start a Google Meet video meeting. Prepare everyone in advance by sharing a document outlining agenda items. During the meeting, showcase an idea by sharing your screen. With Meet, you can use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups. Team members can participate in smaller group discussions before rejoining the original meeting.

Learn how

Create breakout rooms in advance on Calendar

In calendar.google.com choose either:

For a new meeting:

1. Create a new Google Calendar event.
2. Click Add Google Meet video conferencing.
3. Add participants.
4. Click Change conference settings .
5. On the left, click Breakout rooms .
6. Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:
   • Drag participants into different rooms.
   • Enter names directly into a room.
   • Click Shuffle to mix the groups.
7. Click Save.

For an existing meeting:

1. Open an existing Google Calendar event.
2. Click Edit event .
3. Under Event Details, click Change conference settings .
4. On the left, click Breakout rooms .
5. Choose the number of breakout rooms, then choose an option:
   • Drag participants into different rooms
   • Enter their name directly into a room
   • Click Shuffle to mix the groups
6. Click Save.

Create breakout rooms during a video meeting

1. On your computer, start a meeting. 
2. At the bottom right, click Activities   Breakout rooms.
   • Tip: To prevent students from having the ability to create breakout rooms, admins should reserve Meet creation privileges for faculty or staff only.
3. In the Breakout rooms creation panel, choose the number of breakout rooms. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in a call. 
4. Call participants are distributed across the rooms. To manually move people into different rooms, you can:
   • Enter the participant’s name directly into a breakout room.
   • Drag and drop a participant’s name into another breakout room. 
   • Click Shuffle  to randomly mix up the groups.
5. At the bottom right, click Open rooms.

Get started with Google Meet

 

Vote for winning ideas

After you’ve narrowed down the top ideas from a brainstorming session, ask your team to pick the winning idea in a Google Forms survey. View survey responses in Forms or Google Sheets—the built-in data summaries and charts make it easy to see which ideas are the most popular.

Learn how

Create a form or quiz

1. Go to forms.google.com.
2. Click Blank form .
3. Name your untitled form.

View responses in Sheets 

If you store your responses in a spreadsheet, Google Sheets automatically puts your data in a table. It gives your data format and structure. Learn how to use tables in Google Sheets.

1. Open a form in Google Forms.
2. At the top, click Responses Summary.
3. At the top right, click More Select destination for responses.
4. Select an option:
   • Create a new spreadsheet: Creates a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
   • Select existing spreadsheet: Select the existing spreadsheet that you want to store the responses in.
5. Click Create or Select.

 

Keep track of ideas & tasks

Keep everyone on the team up-to-date on brainstorming sessions by tracking ideas and assigning tasks. Use Sheets to list ideas and allocate tasks to team members as the project takes off. Now, everyone can access the latest concepts, assignments, and due dates in one place and stay informed about new ideas and changing schedules.

Learn how

Create a project plan

1. In Google Drive, click NewGoogle SheetsBlank spreadsheet.
2. Click Untitled spreadsheet and enter a title for your project plan.
3. Add columns. For example, you might add columns for tasks, task owners, due dates, status, and comments.
4. Add content to track the tasks in your project.

Get started with Google Sheets

 

Build your brainstorming site

Want to better manage future projects arising from your team’s brainstorming sessions? With Google Sites, you can keep track of brainstorming discussions by creating a dedicated project site that team members can update. Easily embed brainstorm documents, meeting notes, project schedules, and more so you can watch the whole project evolve over time.

Learn how

Create a site

1. On a computer, open new Google Sites.
2. At the top, under Start a new site, select a template.
3. At the top left, enter the name of your site and press Enter.
4. Add content to your site.
5. At the top right, click Publish.

Get started with Google Sites

 

Present a powerful pitch

Want to present a winning idea to your team in a brainstorming session? Have a winning idea already but need to get buy-in from external stakeholders? Create a powerful presentation to get your message across using Google Slides. Add graphs, images, videos, and links to make an impactful presentation. Share ideas with your team and get constructive feedback instantly. If your organization has Gemini for Google Workspace, you can use Gemini in Slides to generate slides and images. Or, use Google Vids to create, edit, update, and collaborate on a video pitch.

Learn how

Add an image to your presentation

1. On your computer, open a document or presentation in Google Docs or Slides.
2. Click Insert  Image.
3. Choose where to get your image from.
   • Upload from computer: Insert an image saved on your device.
   • Search the web: Search the web for an image.
   • GIFs and stickers: Insert a GIF or a sticker to your slide.
   • Drive: Use an image saved to your Google Drive.
   • Photos: Use an image from your Google Photos library.
   • By URL: Insert a link to your image or insert a .gif.
4. Click Insert or Open.

Learn how to add images in Sheets.

Create images based on slide content with Gemini

1. On your computer, open Google Slides.
2. At the top, click Ask Gemini .
3. In the side panel, you can:
   • Create an image based on a selected slide: For example, you can enter Create an image or Suggest images for this slide.
   • Select a suggested prompt: Gemini in Slides might suggest images based on the content of your slides.
   • Create your own prompt: For example, you can ask Create an image of a dog with glasses.
4. Press Enter.
5. Point to a specific image and click Insert .
6. (Optional) To send feedback about the image, click Good suggestion or Bad suggestion .
7. You can also:
   • Edit the prompt: Click Edit Prompt .
   • Generate more images: At the bottom, click Generate more .

Get started with Google Slides

Generate a new slide with Gemini

You can use the Gemini in Slides side panel to generate a new slide.

1. On your computer, open Google Slides. New slides are generated using your current theme.
2. At the top, click Ask Gemini .
3. In the side panel, select a prompt or create your own. To create a prompt with the name of your file, insert @ before the name. For example, Create a slide about how to optimally train for a marathon or Create a slide about @Company 2023 Goals deck.
4. From the generated slide, you can:
   • Get a different version: From the menu, click Retry .
   • Add the slide to your presentation: From the menu, click Insert .
   • Refine the generated slide: From the menu, click Close . On the side panel, write a new prompt.
   • Send feedback: From the menu, click Good suggestion or Bad suggestion .

Get started with Slides

Create a video with Vids

1. On your computer, open Google Vids.
2. Choose an option:
   • Help Me Create: Create a video with AI in Google Vids. 
   • Select a template: Build your video based on a template that you select. 
   • Start with a recording: Build your video with a video, audio, or screen recording. 
   • Upload media: Build your video by recording yourself (audio narration or a full video recording), your computer screen, or both. 

Get started with Google Vids

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