Mastering the Art of Ideation: Using Sticky Notes to Fail Fast and Find Success (2024)

A solution to rapid exploration

As a designer at IBM, I rely on various tools to bring my ideas to life. But one tool stands out above the rest when exploring new ideas during the design process: the humble sticky note. These sticky squares of paper may seem simple, but they offer endless potential for rapid ideation and low-commitment sketching.

About four years ago, I changed my habits for exploring, sketching, and iterating within my design process. I have design thinking to thank for this. At IBM, we employ Enterprise Design Thinking, which is a creative problem-solving approach that involves empathy, experimentation, and iteration for complex teams and organizations — and if you’ve ever been in a design thinking workshop, you know that the main tools available are a stack of Post-it Notes and Sharpies.

Designing with sticky notes is a way to quickly iterate and communicate ideas and scenarios using low-fi wireframes. This approach provides a visual storyboard of the user’s journey, allowing designers to keep it simple by sketching rough ideas and concepts without getting bogged down in the details of the aesthetics. Lower fidelity artifacts make it easier to hone in on the flow instead of the visuals.

One of the best things about using sticky notes as a tool in your design process is their flexibility. They can be rearranged, added to, and removed quickly, allowing for rapid iteration and experimentation. This is especially useful when working with a team, as it allows for swift and efficient communication of ideas.

Think inside of the sticky box

When designing with sticky notes, starting with a concept is essential. Concepts are simple metaphors that help people understand how a system will work before getting too attached to the components. A good tip is to use phrases such as “It’s kinda like…” to help bridge the gap between existing examples that people can relate to based on user behavior and expectations.

I like to start exploring concepts by creating a visual storyboard of the user journey. I’ll start by sketching out rough ideas and concepts individually and then arrange them to represent the flow of the user experience. This gives me a high-level view of the design and lets me see how all the elements fit together.

When concepting, start with the most radical ideas first. These out-of-the-box ideas will have more opportunities to thrive in the early stages of the design process. As you progress through the project, you will become more risk-averse to cutting-edge designs, so try experimenting with wackier stuff at the beginning to push innovation. Steve Jobs’ philosophy nails this idea of thinking differently:

“Design is about exploring new ideas and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

After diverging and sketching out various concepts, you also need to be strategic by discarding any ideas that aren’t working and focusing on the ones that show the most promise. You can use a prioritization grid for your big ideas to help narrow down the concepts, which involves mapping them to importance to the user and feasibility for the product team. As Julie Zhu advises, it’s crucial to prioritize and cut early in the design process because otherwise:

“When the discussion becomes, ‘should we ship this mediocre thing, or should we spend additional time that we don’t have to make it better?’ the battle has already been lost. The thing we failed to do weeks or months ago was cutting aggressively enough. Either this thing matters, in which case make it great — don’t make it mediocre. Or it doesn’t, in which case, don’t work on it in the first place.”

The IBM Enterprise Design Thinking website has excellent toolkits for drafting big ideas and prioritization by focusing on the intersection of importance and feasibility. This is where the constraint of the sticky note enables helpful, rapid ideation with very low commitment. I can play around with different ideas and concepts without devoting myself to one. It’s easy to throw away an idea that isn’t working, and it encourages us to think creatively and explore outside the box.

Zoom out, then zoom in

To ensure that your designs are viable, it’s crucial to think through a human-focused narrative by initially zooming out and eventually zooming in when your concept is strong, your team is aligned, and it creates value for the user. Sketching out ideas on sticky notes forces your brain to slow down and focus more effectively on the user's needs rather than be distracted by pushing pixels.

To “zoom out” means to step back and consider the overall end-to-end experience and how the different pages or screens fit together. This can involve thinking about the user journey and how other interactions and layouts contribute to that experience.

To “zoom in” means to focus on the details, such as the layout of a single page or the design of a specific component. This involves testing concepts in different fidelities to see how they work at a more detailed level.

By zooming in and out throughout the design process of exploration, you can ensure that you are creating a compelling experience that considers both the big picture and the individual components. This can involve testing concepts with users, verbalizing your thoughts, and collaborating with your team to get a wide range of perspectives and ensure that your designs are viable. Documenting your design process can also help you uncover potential issues and improve the overall quality of your ideas. Developing this habit will ultimately grow your skillset as a stronger and more successful designer.

Sticky notes are a valuable asset I use daily throughout my design process. They allow me to fail fast, iterate quickly, keep my focus on the big picture, and diverge before committing to any one particular idea. So the next time you’re working on a project, grab a stack of sticky notes and give them a try!