Excellent article on using mind mapping for brainstorming. This is one of my favorite uses with mind mapping software. It makes the job of organizing and expanding ideas extremely quick.

Thomas added some great insights with his comment above. There are many ways to use mind maps for brainstorming effectively, just let our imaginations run wild, then use mind maps to tame the ideas into something useful.

John Stiles

The basic idea is to transfer concepts from other areas to the problem at hand – it’s often called analogy technique.

Step 1: I prepare two main branches, one called “concept areas” and another one called “ideas”.

Step 2: I add a subbranch to “concept areas” with a broader area in which I have some basic knowledge, like “beekeeping”, “internet” or “orchestra”. The chosen area may or may not be close the the domain of your problem.

Step 3: For the area I’ve chosen in step 2, I collect a number of major concepts. In the orchestra example, these could be “conductor”, “string instruments”, “wind instruments”, “sheet music” etc.

Step 4: I try to transfer the concepts from step 3 to my problem. If I had to come up with ideas for an electric toothbrush, wind instruments might lead to the idea of using pressurized air to cleanse teeth, or string instruments might lead to the idea of an electric version of dental floss. I collect these ideas in subbranches of the “ideas” branch from step 1. I can also add other ideas that come spontaneously to my mind.
These initial ideas can be worked out and assessed later.

Step 5: I add new concept area as in step 2 and repeat the process until I feel I have collected enough ideas.

If the “concept area” is close to the problem domain, then usually the transfer of ideas is easier, but the new ideas are less surprising.