grammarlyMar 27, 2026

What Is AI Chat? Definition, How It Works, and Key Benefits (opens in new tab)

AI chat enables open-ended, context-aware conversations with systems that generate responses dynamically rather than following fixed scripts. Powered by large language models (LLMs), it supports tasks such as writing, brainstorming, learning, summarizing, planning, and coding. Its flexibility comes with limitations: responses reflect learned patterns rather than true understanding, so users should provide clear context and verify results. ## What AI Chat Is - AI chat allows users to ask questions naturally and refine requests through follow-up messages. - It can answer questions, explain complex subjects, draft and revise text, summarize documents, generate code, and provide feedback. - Unlike fixed chatbot flows, it handles unstructured requests and evolving conversations without requiring users to restart. ## How AI Chat Works - **LLM training:** Models learn language patterns from massive text datasets rather than memorizing a fixed set of answers. - **Natural language processing:** The system analyzes prompts to infer meaning, intent, tone, and context beyond exact keyword matches. - **Response generation:** The model predicts and selects text one word at a time based on the prompt and patterns learned during training. - **Conversation context:** Recent messages help the system interpret follow-up requests, such as understanding that “make it shorter” refers to a previously generated summary. - **Ongoing refinement:** Fine-tuning and human feedback improve safety, accuracy, and alignment. Models generally do not learn from individual conversations in real time. ## AI Chat Compared with Traditional Chatbots - Traditional chatbots commonly use rules, decision trees, and scripted responses. - They work well for narrow, repeatable tasks such as FAQs, appointment booking, and order tracking. - AI chat is better suited to open-ended activities including brainstorming, drafting, explanations, and problem-solving. - “Conversational AI chatbot” usually describes a chatbot interface powered by generative AI, making it more flexible than a fully rules-based system. ## Common Uses - **Writing and editing:** Draft emails, rewrite passages, adjust tone, improve clarity, and revise reports or presentations. - **Brainstorming:** Generate ideas, outlines, alternatives, and new perspectives through iterative discussion. - **Learning and planning:** Explore unfamiliar topics, simplify complex information, and develop plans. - **Coding support:** Generate code, explain technical concepts, and help troubleshoot problems. ## Effective Use - Write clear prompts and provide relevant context. - State the goal, desired format, audience, and preferences. - Use follow-up questions to refine the response. - Review outputs for factual errors, bias, and inappropriate assumptions. AI chat is most useful as a flexible assistant rather than an unquestionable authority. Use it for exploration and productivity, but verify important information and apply human judgment before relying on its output.

brainstormingllmmachine-learningnlp+4

figmaFeb 12, 2024

The Anatomy of a Super Bowl Ad | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Duolingo’s five-second Super Bowl ad succeeded by turning a severe budget constraint into a creative advantage. Its deliberately absurd “unhinged Duo” gag, paired with a real lesson reminder, was designed to create a memorable WTF moment and generate conversation beyond the broadcast. The campaign depended on close coordination between marketing, engineering, and the brand studio. ## Aiming for Culture and Conversation - Duolingo saw the Super Bowl as a chance to reach the year’s largest live U.S. audience. - The goal was not merely exposure, but earned media, virality, and word-of-mouth. - Previous data showed that major broadcasts could drive language-learning activity: - Users completed lessons during Eurovision breaks. - A prior Super Bowl push notification produced the app’s highest engagement. - The team decided to make the ad itself function as a lesson reminder. ## Turning a Budget Constraint into a Format - A 30-second Super Bowl commercial cost about $7 million on average in 2023. - Rather than compete with longer, more expensive ads, Duolingo pursued a five-second spot. - The team looked to short ads such as Reddit’s 2021 commercial as examples of compact ideas that could expand through social media. - The intended result was tens of millions of social impressions generated by a highly shareable moment. ## Designing the “WTF Moment” - The ad featured Duo sitting in a white frame before turning around and revealing an exaggerated, balloon-like backside. - A second Duo emerged with a flatulent sound, followed by the message “Do your Duolingo.” - Simultaneously, users received a push notification reminding them to complete a lesson. - The crude humor built on Duo’s existing reputation as both wholesome and “unhinged,” matching the brand’s relationship with its online community. ## Cross-Functional Brainstorming - The first of three brainstorming sessions began in September after the ad slot was secured. - The brief asked: “How do we hack and own the Super Bowl conversation in 5 seconds?” - Marketing, engineering, and brand teams divided into breakout groups and developed concepts in FigJam. - Ideas were evaluated for whether they would: - Produce a strong reaction and social buzz - Fit Duolingo’s tone and strengthen the brand - Support additional campaign content - Demonstrate Duolingo’s product capabilities - Groups nominated their best ideas, and the wider team voted on them using FigJam stickers. ## Aligning on a Big Idea - One brainstorm was not enough to reach agreement. - The teams reconvened in another FigJam session to evaluate concepts through different strategic approaches, including ways to exploit the five-second television format. - The eventual campaign required several weeks of synchronized work across creative, marketing, engineering, and design. Duolingo’s approach demonstrates how a sharply defined constraint can produce stronger creative work. A short, distinctive concept—when aligned with existing brand behavior, product functionality, and coordinated distribution—can outperform a conventional expensive commercial.

brainstormingfigjammobile-apppush-notifications+2

figmaJan 29, 2024

Peter Yang: 10 Rules for Making Products that Customers Love | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Peter Yang argues that great product management is a craft, not an instinct or checklist. Product managers must continually develop product sense, deeply understand customers, think strategically before executing, and protect quality through difficult trade-offs. The goal is to build products customers genuinely value, even when that requires delaying milestones or abandoning a beloved project. ## Product Sense Must Be Cultivated - Product sense is the ability to create products or changes that have the intended impact on users. - It is not a permanent, intuitive skill; markets and customer needs constantly change. - PMs should continually improve through: - Empathy - Creativity - Attention to craft - Humility and ongoing learning ## Use Empathy to Diagnose the Problem - Teams often rush into solutions before clearly understanding the customer or business problem. - Peter cites empathy as a product manager’s superpower. - PMs can build empathy by: - Treating customers like members of the team - Speaking directly with them - Personally using the product as customers do, even for just an hour - Accurate problem diagnosis should come before defining a vision or solution. ## Start with Big Ideas Before Daily Execution - Once the problems are understood, teams should pause before getting absorbed in execution. - Collaboratively define: - Mission - Vision - Strategy - Brainstorm ambitious, “blue-sky” ideas and prioritize them. - Seek simple solutions—potentially a few clear steps—that best address customer needs. - New learning may require changing priorities and making trade-offs. ## Protect Quality and Know When to Change Course - Quality may require missing a launch date or short-term OKR. - In one example, Yang chose to add an important feature identified through customer conversations, even though it meant missing a quarterly deadline. - Craft means obsessing over details, trade-offs, bugs, and the extra work required to create a worthwhile experience. - Product managers must also recognize when a project should be canceled. - At Reddit, Yang worked on Reddit Talk, a well-loved live audio product, but the project was ended during an economic downturn because it did not improve the company’s most important metrics. - Good product judgment includes considering the company’s broader needs rather than becoming attached to a particular product. The practical recommendation is to keep customer understanding and product quality at the center of decision-making, while remaining flexible enough to delay, redirect, or stop work when the evidence demands it.

brainstorminguser-researchproduct-managementproduct-strategy+3

figmaNov 6, 2023

Introducing AI to FigJam | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam’s new AI features are designed to solve practical collaboration problems rather than serve as a novelty. Users can generate meeting templates and diagrams from plain-language prompts, summarize brainstorms, and automatically organize sticky notes. Figma argues that this lowers the barrier to visual collaboration while helping experienced users move more quickly from ideas to action. ## AI-Powered FigJam Features - Generate templates for weekly syncs, brainstorms, reviews, and other meetings. - Create visual timelines and organizational charts from a simple prompt. - Summarize the contents of a brainstorm or meeting. - Sort and group sticky notes by theme automatically. - Customize generated outputs based on common workflows and best practices. ## Lowering the Barrier to Visual Collaboration - FigJam AI lets users describe their goals in everyday language instead of learning specialized design software. - A prompt such as “I need a meeting with four people” can produce an initial meeting template. - This approach makes visual collaboration more accessible to people without design backgrounds. - It supports Figma’s goal of “lowering the floor and raising the ceiling”: making the product easier to use while expanding what users can accomplish. ## Solving the Blank Canvas Problem - Starting with an empty FigJam file can make users unsure how to begin. - AI acts as an initial brainstorming partner, helping users move toward actionable next steps. - Tasks such as summarizing complex discussions or synthesizing ideas into categories can take significant manual effort. - Automating this work allows teams to focus on discussion, decision-making, and higher-level collaboration. ## Building AI Around Real User Problems - Figma says its product team drew on its own experience using FigJam to identify useful applications. - The features focus on everyday collaboration needs rather than adding AI for its own sake. - Templates and prompts are based on established practices and common use cases. - The article presents generative AI as a way to make visual tools more useful and approachable across disciplines. FigJam AI is positioned as a practical assistant for getting started, organizing information, and reducing repetitive work. Its main value is helping more people participate in visual collaboration without requiring them to master design tools first.

brainstormingaigen-aifigjam+2

figmaJul 25, 2023

Shopify’s secret for staying ahead of the game | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Shopify encourages teams to pursue bold, unconventional ideas instead of settling for incremental improvements. The company challenges standard practices in product discovery, planning, and decision-making, using visual collaboration tools to create more creative and inclusive discussions. Its approach suggests that deliberately disrupting familiar workflows can produce stronger, more original outcomes. ## Challenge Documentation-First Product Work - Traditional roadmapping often begins with a written document outlining the problem and proposed direction. - Shopify’s Katarina Batina argues that this method can reinforce habits rather than clarify the real problem or uncover broader opportunities. - Starting in a collaborative visual workspace such as FigJam helps teams “break their brains” out of linear thinking. - Roadmap templates make metrics, key problems, proposed solutions, principles, assumptions, and dependencies explicit. - This structure allows teams to explore possibilities more freely instead of simply reacting to a finished document. ## Plan How You Plan - Shopify adapted a FigJam template for an annual in-person planning session among largely remote colleagues. - Team members completed the template beforehand, creating a shared baseline for discussion. - During the meeting, they updated the plan in real time as strategic decisions were made. - The shared workspace preserved the outcomes digitally, avoiding the need to photograph scattered sticky notes. - The team considered this approach its most effective planning session to date. ## Democratize Strategic Discussions - Shopify treats design tools as the primary setting for discussing strategic product decisions. - Visual collaboration gives people more ways to express ideas than written documents alone. - This is especially important for employees who may have strong ideas but do not excel at articulating them in prose. - In large meetings, participants can communicate through links, images, project snapshots, and sketches rather than relying entirely on text. - The approach makes decision-making more inclusive and helps teams develop a forward-looking vision. ## Sketch Ideas Instead of Overexplaining Them - The article begins a further section arguing that sketching can help teams develop ideas that are difficult to express verbally. - The provided text ends before this section is completed. Shopify’s broader recommendation is to intentionally disrupt familiar processes: replace rigid documents with visual exploration, make planning collaborative and continuous, and give teams multiple ways to communicate ideas.

brainstormingfigmafigjamux-design+2

figmaFeb 22, 2023

Can design make work, work? | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

The post argues that people managers should redesign their work rather than accept today’s overloaded, meeting-heavy norms. By reclaiming time, making feedback visible earlier, and creating better asynchronous collaboration practices, managers can help teams work with more focus and flexibility. The central recommendation is to question existing routines and deliberately build a more effective future of work. ## Reclaim Time by Reducing Meetings - Shopify began 2023 by eliminating recurring meetings with more than three participants, later restoring only the most essential ones. - The goal was to protect uninterrupted time for independent work, especially in a fully remote organization spanning multiple time zones. - Asynchronous collaboration through tools such as Figma and FigJam allows people to contribute when they are available. - Managers should examine how they actually spend their days and compare that with what leadership expects them to do. - Collaboration tools, visual planning, and brainstorming can replace some meetings—or make remaining meetings more focused on relationships, shared values, and team culture. ## Make Feedback Cycles More Manageable - Sharing early drafts helps prevent late-stage “swoop and poop” feedback from stakeholders. - Posting screenshots or work-in-progress material in FigJam lets colleagues annotate, add sticky notes, and react with emojis without interrupting the team’s workflow. - Early visibility creates a manageable feedback loop rather than requiring the team to respond to every comment immediately. - Visual brainstorming also documents decisions and makes collaboration easier to revisit. - Teams benefit from repeatable processes, but they also need structured opportunities to identify what is not working. - At Super, anonymous suggestions during monthly retrospectives led to operational improvements, including a new bug-reporting system and short weekly sessions for testing new features. Managers can improve team performance by removing unnecessary meetings, shifting more work asynchronously, and inviting feedback early and continuously. The broader lesson is to treat management practices as redesignable systems rather than fixed workplace traditions.

brainstormingfigmafigjamremote-work+2

figmaApr 27, 2022

What’s new in Figma: April 2022 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s April 2022 update focuses on making FigJam more structured, customizable, and playful for collaborative workshops, brainstorms, and retrospectives. The release adds organizational and formatting tools alongside expressive features such as Washi tape and artist-designed stickers. Together, these updates aim to help teams create clearer boards while preserving the informal energy of digital collaboration. ## Structure and Customize FigJam Files - Users can organize boards with dedicated sections. - Stickies and shapes now support more colors, including custom colors. - Sticky notes can be made proportional and visually consistent with other content. - Adjustable font sizes make it easier to establish hierarchy for titles and labels. - Improved snapping helps users arrange and align objects precisely. - Multiple objects can be locked or unlocked simultaneously. ## Add More Personality to Collaborative Work - Figma made cursor chat more expressive. - New sticker packs were added, created by Figma Community artists Jiro Bevis, Diana Marmol, Rooney, and Fanny Luor. - The stickers provide playful ways to react, encourage teammates, and personalize FigJam sessions. ## Washi Tape Returns Permanently - Washi tape, previously introduced as an April Fun Day feature, became a permanent FigJam tool. - The update includes dozens of newly designed tape patterns. - Users can upload their own patterns. - The feature is intended to recreate the creative, tactile feel of decorating physical workshop materials. These changes make FigJam more adaptable for organized facilitation without sacrificing creativity. Teams can use sections, consistent formatting, and alignment tools to improve clarity, then add custom colors, stickers, and Washi tape to make collaborative sessions more engaging.

brainstormingfigmafigjamui-design+2

figmaFeb 27, 2022

What’s new in Figma: February 2022 | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s February 2022 updates focus on making design collaboration easier, from finding files to brainstorming in FigJam. Search now offers previews and file-type filters, while FigJam—now out of beta—adds more flexible editing and clearer collaboration tools. Overall, the release aims to keep teams aligned and help ideas move smoothly from brainstorming to implementation. ## Updated Search and Discoverability - Search results now include file previews, making it easier to identify the correct design. - Users can filter recents, team pages, and search results by Figma or FigJam file type. - These changes reduce the time spent locating current designs and resources. ## FigJam Collaboration Improvements With FigJam available to all teams, Figma added several refinements for brainstorming and diagramming: - **Centralized resource menu:** Components, templates, widgets, and other resources are now accessible from one simplified toolbar menu. - **Flexible font sizing:** Text can be resized to any size by dragging the corners of a text box, supporting clearer hierarchy and emphasis. - **Persistent stamps and highlights:** Reactions and highlights stay attached to the objects they reference when content is moved. - **Faster color and shape changes:** Updated toolbar icons make it easier to swap colors and shapes while building diagrams. - **Image borders:** Users can add borders to images to draw attention to selected visuals. - **Simpler selection borders:** Thinner borders and larger selection corners make objects easier to select and resize. Figma’s release reinforces its broader goal of bringing more people into the design process while keeping collaboration organized, discoverable, and visually clear.

brainstormingfigmafigjamui-design+2

figmaJul 21, 2021

How the Figma PM team builds products and processes | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s product management team treats product development as a transparent, collaborative process rather than a sequence of isolated PM tasks. Its culture emphasizes trust, reflection, inclusion, and transparency, bringing cross-functional partners into brainstorming, prioritization, communication, and decision-making. Tools such as FigJam help turn these values into repeatable team practices. ## Collaborative Brainstorming and Idea Development - PMs use cross-functional brainstorming to gather ideas from across teams and move from ambitious concepts toward actionable solutions. - Effective brainstorming requires more than idea generation: teams need clear decisions, follow-up actions, and alignment. - FigJam supports the process from initial ideation through execution and retrospectives. ### “Buy a Feature” Prioritization - Participants receive a limited amount of fictional currency and invest it in proposed product ideas or focus areas. - The exercise connects prioritization to time and resources rather than producing only a ranked list. - It reveals how strongly people would invest in different opportunities and helps teams decide what to pursue. ### Alignment Scales - Team members place their FigJam profile stamps along scales representing opinions about product directions or beliefs. - Comments and discussion explain the reasoning behind each position. - This makes differences in conviction visible and creates a basis for productive debate. ## Communication Beyond Status Updates - Figma’s PMs use weekly stand-ups to share more than completed tasks and outstanding work. - Meetings begin with executive updates and ad hoc contributions, then each PM responds to three prompts: - What personal issue or thought has been on your mind? - What are you worried or excited about? - What hard or interesting problem have you been considering? - These prompts create space for personal context, uncertainty, and problem-solving—not just project reporting. ## Transparency and Cross-Functional Trust - Because PMs work at the center of product development, they must build fluency across functions and deliberately include partners in their processes. - Opening up discussions and decision-making helps teams understand priorities, surface disagreement, and contribute earlier. - Regular reflection and candid communication reinforce trust while keeping product work aligned. Figma’s approach suggests that strong PM processes combine structured exercises with openness and human connection. Teams can adopt similar practices by making prioritization visible, using collaborative tools for alignment, and designing recurring meetings to address both work and the people doing it.

brainstormingfigmafigjamuser-research+3

figmaJun 7, 2021

Inside Figma: how our PM team uses FigJam | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s product management team uses FigJam throughout the product-development lifecycle, not just for early-stage brainstorming. They rely on collaborative templates to shape strategy, generate ideas, plan roadmaps, run retrospectives, and stay aligned in weekly meetings. The broader conclusion is that a flexible visual workspace can strengthen both execution and team rituals, especially for distributed teams. ## Developing a Product Vision - The team uses a product vision board to define short- and long-term priorities. - The board connects user needs, potential features, and business goals. - Visualizing these elements helps validate strategy and show how individual plans support broader objectives. - FigJam makes it easy to capture rough ideas without focusing prematurely on wording or polish. ## Brainstorming Ideas with Crazy 8s - The PM team uses the “Crazy 8s” framework to generate many ideas quickly. - Participants have eight minutes to create eight possible solutions to a problem. - The emphasis is on speed and quantity rather than detailed refinement. - Afterward, the team shares ideas and discusses which concepts are worth pursuing. ## Building and Visualizing Roadmaps - FigJam supports structured planning as well as freeform exploration. - The team uses a Gantt chart to map projects and build product roadmaps. - A visual timeline clarifies each project’s scope, reach, staffing needs, and resource requirements. - It also exposes conflicts and helps the team identify when priorities need to change. ## Running Retrospectives - Product, engineering, and design teams use recurring templates to review product execution. - Marketing, support, and product education teams apply similar retrospectives to go-to-market work. - Sessions focus on what went well and what could improve, creating visibility across teams. - The team also retrospectives its internal processes to ensure they continue working as the organization grows. ## Staying Connected in Weekly Meetings - The PM team meets weekly in a shared FigJam file to exchange updates and maintain alignment. - Prompts cover difficult problems, exciting or concerning developments, and personal updates. - Cursor chats, stickers, and emotes make remote meetings more interactive. - Figma turned this meeting structure into a reusable template for other teams. Figma presents FigJam as a workspace that can support the entire product process. Teams can start with the provided templates and adapt them for strategy, collaboration, planning, reflection, and remote communication.

brainstormingfigmafigjamproduct-management+3

figmaApr 20, 2021

Introducing FigJam | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

FigJam is Figma’s online whiteboard for collaborative brainstorming and early-stage design. Figma argues that remote work and the shift toward cross-functional collaboration have created a need for more informal, shared online spaces—not just tools for producing finished designs. FigJam addresses this with a lightweight, approachable environment that connects directly to Figma. ## Why Figma Built FigJam - Remote work has reduced in-person collaboration and increased reliance on online tools. - People were already using Figma for activities beyond interface design, including games, icebreakers, meal planning, and brainstorming. - These uses showed that teams wanted a place to share ideas and connect without necessarily designing products. - Figma concluded that these interactions needed a dedicated space where non-designers felt welcome while designers still felt at home. - The product also supports Figma’s broader goal of making design accessible to everyone by involving more people earlier in the design process. ## FigJam’s Role in Early-Stage Design - FigJam is described as a lightweight, easier-to-learn version of Figma for ideation and brainstorming. - Teams can use it to: - Define user problems - Gather inspiration - Explore product ideas - Map user flows - Build and document processes - Multiplayer tools include sticky notes, emojis, drawing tools, stamps, and cursor-based chats. - Shapes, lines, and connectors make diagramming and systems thinking easier. ## Collaboration and Connection - Built-in audio lets teams discuss ideas without switching to a phone or video call. - FigJam integrates seamlessly with Figma, allowing work to move from initial concepts through final prototypes in one ecosystem. - Expressive features such as emojis, stamps, and cursor chats are intended to make collaboration feel warmer, more spontaneous, and more enjoyable. - The product is designed to combine practical functionality with the informal energy of “hanging out” together online. ## Early Users and Pricing - Teams at Stripe, Netflix, Salesforce, Twitch, and Discord tested FigJam during its development. - Discord’s design leadership praised it as a focused, uncomplicated version of Figma suitable for brainstorms, retrospectives, and similar activities. - FigJam was free for everyone through the end of 2021. - Planned 2022 pricing included free and paid plans costing $3 and $5 per editor per month. FigJam’s central promise is to give distributed teams an inviting, collaborative space where product ideas can emerge before formal design work begins.

brainstormingfigmafigjamcollaboration+3

figmaMar 2, 2021

Inside Figma: tips from the team that builds Figma | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma’s team uses the product for far more than interface design, including brainstorming, branding, team activities, and remote research. The post presents practical methods and templates that make creative collaboration more approachable, regardless of design experience. Its central recommendation is to use Figma as an open, flexible space for exploration rather than focusing immediately on finding the “right” answer. ## Figma for More Than Product Design - Figmates across engineering, product, design, and research shared favorite workflows in a livestream. - Topics included: - Keyboard shortcuts and speed tips - Brainstorming exercises - Templates for different skill levels - Blend modes and easing curves - The team also uses Figma for team-building and remote user research. ## Brainstorming with Mind Maps Brand designer Remilla Ty recommends a “mind map sketchbook” for gathering inspiration and exploring creative directions. - **Prompt:** The project name or a statement describing the work. - **Image:** Visual references and sources of inspiration. - **Keywords:** Words connected to the images and the original prompt. - The framework helps teams identify themes and turn them into creative concepts. - Figma used this approach while developing branding directions for Figma Community. - The goal is open exploration rather than judging ideas as right or wrong. ## Lists and Mood Boards A second brainstorming method combines structured prompts with visual references. - **Prompt:** A literal description of the project. - **Beyond:** A more abstract interpretation of the project. - **Look and feel:** The emotions the finished work should create. - Teams extract recurring themes and keywords from the lists. - They then build mood boards using images and color palettes. - The resulting visual direction can be distilled into a concept statement and eventually a brand identity. - Figma used this process for its remote Maker Week branding. ## Creating a More Comfortable Research Environment Researcher Nannearl Brown describes using Figma to make participant activities feel less intimidating. - The research team prioritizes helping participants feel comfortable sharing information. - Participants may receive Figma trading cards as pre-work. - The cards encourage them to introduce themselves and prepare for the session. - Questions cover both Figma-related topics—such as favorite features and use cases—and personal information. The practical takeaway is to use Figma’s collaborative canvas not only for polished design work, but also for low-pressure ideation, visual thinking, and human-centered research.

brainstormingfigmauser-researchremote-collaboration+2

figmaMar 30, 2020

How to run a remote brainstorm | Figma Blog (opens in new tab)

Figma argues that remote brainstorming requires more deliberate structure than in-person sessions, especially when teams can no longer rely on spontaneous huddles or whiteboards. Clear goals, shared tools, advance preparation, and smaller breakout groups help remote participants contribute more comfortably and creatively. The central recommendation is to preserve space for ideas while adding enough organization to keep the session focused. ## Why Remote Brainstorms Are Different - Fully distributed teams lose many informal collaboration habits, such as quick conference-room discussions. - Brainstorms require more creative energy than routine status meetings. - Uncertainty and remote-work challenges can make it harder for people to generate and share ideas. - Remote sessions therefore need both structure and room for exploration. ## Preparing the Session ### Define the Goal - Decide whether the session should produce many new ideas or refine a few existing options. - Tailor the level and type of input requested to the project’s current phase. - Communicate the goal clearly so participants understand how they can contribute. ### Set Up the Tools - **Video conferencing:** Put the call link in the calendar invite and encourage cameras where possible to create stronger personal connection. - **Shared Figma file:** Create one central workspace with edit access for all participants. - Use separate pages or frames for different themes. - Share a dedicated brainstorming file rather than relying on scattered documents. - **Chat channel:** For ongoing work, create a Slack channel for updates, notes, and follow-up feedback. - Add the working-document link to the channel topic for easy access. ### Share Materials in Advance - Send the brainstorming file the night before or the morning of the session. - Explain what the group should accomplish. - Add initial ideas or questions for participants to review and develop. - Allow people to ask questions privately or leave comments in the file before the meeting. ## Running the Brainstorm ### Start with Context and Guardrails - Restate the goal and explain what kind of help is needed. - Expect the conversation to go off track; enthusiasm can be a positive sign. - Create a “Parking lot” in the shared document for relevant but out-of-scope ideas to revisit later. ### Use Structured Exercises and Small Groups - Structured activities are generally more effective than completely freeform discussion when everyone is remote. - Divide participants into groups of two or three during video calls. - Smaller groups make it easier for quieter people to participate. - They also reduce technical and communication problems. - In each group, appoint a lead to report key takeaways to the wider team. - Share the Figma file on screen or have participants follow along using Observation mode. - Use video-conferencing breakout rooms when available. A successful remote brainstorm combines thoughtful preparation with a collaborative shared workspace. Teams should define the desired outcome, distribute materials early, use small-group exercises, and capture tangential ideas without letting them derail the main discussion.

brainstormingfigmaslackremote-collaboration+2