Sometimes it makes more sense to use AI chatbots like more of a teammate or thought partner.
Instead of the normal “I ask a question and you tell me the answer”, what if you don’t know the question yet? You can still use a chatbot like ChatGPT or Gemini to help you brainstorm ideas.
An easy way to remember this is as the How Might We framework. This is because you can frame your problems as open-ended questions that begin with the phrase “how might we”. This encourages a wide range of solutions. If you like, you can give it a specific number of solutions to return to you.
As an example, consider a small coffee shop whose owners want to know how they can create more of a sense of community. They could start with a prompt like -
How might we foster more of a sense of community among our coffee shop patrons?
Ask me any clarifying questions you have and use the answers to create the context needed for you to help me brainstorm
Output at least 5 vastly different possibilities
From here, they can go back and forth with the chatbot. If they like an answer, then they can ask follow-up questions to go deeper. If they don’t like an answer, then they can quickly move on to the next one.
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