9 Best Brainstorming Tools for Startups & Entrepreneurs in 2022

Are you a person like us who breaks the head for creative ideas? It feels so strange when great work is being put up for your responsibility. We know how hard it is when there is no one to hear or ask your ideas. What is the solution? Brainstorming tools. But, what is brainstorming?

Brainstorming is defined as the collection of ideas and opinions on a single subject. Team collaboration, defence mechanism, adjusting to criticism are some of the statements that could be dealt with this topic. Brainstorming can illustrate your ideas into reality, and also helps you to learn what other people think of a particular perspective.

By the way, on reading this article, you will be able to

• Retrieve the benefits of brainstorming.
• Understand the values of online brainstorming tools.
• Identify which brainstorming technique is an exact match for you.
• Determine the best online brainstorming tools.

How brainstorming can benefit your work?

Fetching qualitative ideas can be prioritised over quantitative ideas. It is a well-known fact that each individual in this globe has a different perspective on a single object. Coming to the protagonist, brainstorming is an umbrella term that has various concepts to deal with. Most important vitality of brainstorming could depend upon the type of thinking either. 

Brainstorming would never entertain defensiveness when these kinda situations happened. Whenever a contrast in the ideas occur, teammates can indulge in deeper analysis of each of the contrary ideas, getting down the pros and cons of each individual idea, evaluating the purpose with real-time instances could be a great deal. Many benefits are interrelated with brainstorming which could be discussed in the upcoming words. 

• Jotting down ideas from various people of various mentalities.
• Helps to improve your analytics skills by involving deeper analysis.
• Literally saves your time and energy upon inventing a new solution.
• Quality of teamwork skills would be increased.
• Used to sort out the best and outdated ideas.
• Emergence of new ideas from existing ideas is stimulated in a brainstorming session.
• Able to fix any flaws in upcoming solution as well.
• Brainstorming makes your final product more effective with accommodation of ideas.
• 360-degree idea retrieval occurs.
• Thought process of the teammates increase dramatically.
• Decrypts the causes of the problem being discussed.
• Brainstorming demands instant ideas, that in turn make one answer all types of questions of the problem like “why”, “what”, “when”, “how”, “who” and “where.

Why should I prefer online brainstorming?

The AI system strikes the boundary of human thoughts that in turn produces quality tools to interact with one’s ideas. In a similar way, brainstorming doesn’t begs only paper sheets to store their valuable information.  

It even extracts the benefit of technology to align the sophistication of idea-providers to blab their odd opinions. Online brainstorming tools, otherwise pronounced as brain netting, can be useful for the hosts to connect with various idea providers. Online brainstorming tools eradicate any geographical barriers. Furthermore, these online brainstorming tools could let them integrate with various other visual softwares to further strengthen your ideas. 

The approaching phrases would elaborate the pros and cons of offline and online brainstorming tools, elucidating the value of the latter. 

Offline brainstorming session

Pros

• Could be a one-to-one discussion
• No dependence on digital screens
• Feel the emotions of other members of the session.

Cons

• Cannot integrate with any visual and its benefits
• Defensive scenarios might occur 

Online brainstorming tools

Pros

• Introverts’ buddy towards idea presentation
• Easy to collaborate with
• No geographical barriers
• Interaction with huge number of people
• Time saving
• Easy idea storage system when large amounts of ideas are being generated.

Cons

• Absence of the presence of other people might be a drawback

Common brainstorming techniques that only you should know

The common sequence in a brainstorming technique would run like this: Finding a problem or theme-defining many ideas to fix it-combining into a powerful solution. Retrieval of Ideas can be done in many ways. Consider this simple example on how brainstorming differs from person to person. “Don’t eat junk foods”- the most repetitive statement from your valuable elders. 

But we don’t understand how the information impacts us until we face a problem. In a similar way, brainstorming grasps ideas with different tools. To be honest, ideas have multiple mothers to breed from, but still unacknowledged by many. It could be due to a monotonous way of analysing problems. The next session of this paragraph will demonstrate the variations of brainstorming sessions happening around this globe.

1. Figure storming

Thinking from another one’s perspective and issuing ideas from that person’s view. 

2. Reverse brainstorming

Enables one to find the list of problems associated with the theme of the brainstorming session and try to find the cause of problems. It results in the discovery of new ideas. 

3. Rapid ideation 

Jotting down Ideas and discussing it individually.

4. SWOT Analysis

Digs the strength, weaknesses, opportunity, and threats of the theme and discuss accordingly.

5. Driver’s analysis

Similar to reverse brainstorming, Driver’s analysis helps to find the driving factors of the subject of the session and fetch all information regarding it. 

6. The five whys 

Asking questions repetitively beginning with “why”.

7. Brainwriting

Jot down the idea individually and share the information with each of them to analyse the pros and cons. It even benefits introverts to share and get feedback on their ideas as well.

8. Starbusting

Answering the questions beginning from ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘where’ about the subject of brainstorming. 

9. Step ladder techniques 

Once the team is being shared about the topic, everyone needs to leave the session except the two who first discuss among themselves regarding the topic. Then, another person comes in and shares ideas about the topic. By the same way, it happens and the best ideas will be filtered.

Top online brainstorming tools 2022

1. Coda

Unlike niche workflow tools, Coda comes with a set of powerful building blocks, so you can create the tools your team needs. As teams grow or plans change, you can use Coda’s building blocks to evolve your doc seamlessly—like when a to-do list graduates to a beautiful task board. With connected data, tables talk to each other and edits show up everywhere. So you can roll-up your team’s plan to an executive dashboard and sync updates automatically.

Features

• Project workback
• Meeting notes
• Project tracker
• OKR tracker
• Voting

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases

• Pro=$10 per month
• Team= $30 per month
• Enterprise= Custom sales

2. Ideanote

Ideanote is finally opening up the world with a long-awaited integrations marketplace, integrated with 2000+ other apps. Automate the repetitive work in seconds so you speed up your innovation and implement the right ideas faster. Track the progress of your innovation-led growth from day one. Identify top innovators, track your impact and easily communicate your innovation success with our inbuilt advanced analytics dashboard. Move ideas through your fully customizable funnel, prioritize ideas and implement the best. Collect ideas from any audience with goal-driven idea-collections that help you focus your innovation and uncover opportunities.

Features

• Idea collection templates
• Shareable links
• Idea widget
• Cover images
• Anonymity

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases

• Business= $49 per month
• enterprise= Contact sales

3. Aha

Empower your community to vote and comment on the product ideas they want most. Add in-app feedback widget to capture ideas while customers are actively using your product. Review, organize, and score ideas so you can determine which ones are the most valuable. Encourage sales and support teams to share ideas that customers want via proxy voting. Host empathy sessions to bring groups of people together for an online conversation. Capture qualitative and quantitative insights so you can truly understand what your customers need and why.

Features

• Polls
• Record sessions
• CSV importation
• Feedback polls
• Proxy voting

Pricing

• Essentials= $39 per month
• Advanced= $59 per month

4. Xmind

The non-linear manner of mind map and Xmind’s intuitive features give everyone the ability to spark creativity and create mind maps for just about anything. A smart combination of multiple structures on the same branch makes your mind map more cohesive and balanced especially for complex issues or large projects. With practical layouts and auto-generated smooth transitions, pitching ideas becomes effortless. ZEN Mode helps you stay concentrated on one mind map, eliminate distractions and be more productive.

Features

• Presenter view
• Audio notes
• Tree table structure
• Logic chart 
• Brace map

Pricing

• All platforms= $59.99 per month
• Academia= $39.99 per month
• Team plan= contact sales team.
• Enterprise= contact sales team
• NGO/NPO/Governmental= $41.99 per month

5. Wisemapping

WiseMapping is perfect for individual note-taking, collaborative planning, teamwork, and classrooms. Wise Mapping is the web mind mapping open source tool that leverages the power of Mind Maps mixing open standards technologies such as SVG and React. 

Features

• Embedding feature
• Collaboration
• Exportation of PVG,SNG, and JPG
• Integration with linking facility
• Open source software

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases.

6. Lucidcharts

Lucidchart is an intelligent diagramming application that brings teams together to make better decisions and build the future. Individuals and teams can easily and quickly map out where they are, what’s missing, and what’s next. Quickly visualize your team’s processes, systems, and organizational structure. Intelligent diagramming lets you visualize complex ideas faster, clearer, and more collaboratively.

Features

• Optimize business processes.
• Visualize technical systems.
• Brainstorm with remote teams.
• Design a superior user experience.
• Plan and deploy new features faster.

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases

• Individual= $7.95 per month
• Teams= $9.00 per month
• Enterprise= contact sales

7. Mindmeister

Mind mapping starts with the main idea in the center of your mind map. Create unlimited subtopics and explore your thoughts, color coding for clarity and style. As your map takes shape, add context to topics with attachments, embedded media, and more. MindMeister’s features guide you through your first mind maps onto maximum creativity. Their intuitive editor allows you to map your big ideas together with your team, quickly and beautifully. From project planning, to brainstorming, to meeting management, set your collaborative creativity free and create epic mind maps.

Features

• Integration 
• Secure privacy protections
• Map layouts 
• Easy export and sharing
• Custom style of themes

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases

• Personal= $2.49 per month
• Pro= $4.19 per month
• Business= $6.29 per month

8. Scapple

Scapple is a virtual sheet of paper that lets you make notes anywhere and connect them using lines or arrows. Join up your thinking however you want. Scapple doesn’t force you to make connections—every note is equal, so it’s up to you which notes have connections and which don’t. You have complete freedom to experiment with how your ideas fit together.

Features

• Full-screen mode
• Drag and drop functionality to connect ideas
• Stack notes column

Pricing

Starts from $16.47 per month

9. Bubbl.us

Bubbl.us makes it easy to organize your ideas visually in a way that makes sense to you and others. This editor is designed to help you stay on task and capture your thoughts quickly. Thousands of people use Bubbl.us daily to take notes, brainstorm new ideas, collaborate, and present more effectively. One of the most important things while brainstorming is avoiding distractions. This user interface is designed to help you stay focused on tasks by keeping the number of visible buttons to a minimum as you work.

Features

• One-click presentation
• Browser based
• Distraction free editing
• Easy sharing 
• JPG and PNG supporting files

Pricing

Starts free with in-app purchases

• Premium= $4.91 per month
• Team= $59 per year per 3 members

The Bottom line

We think that this article would provide you valuable information regarding the parent term of idea collection – Brainstorming tools. Specifically, when talking about online brainstorming tools, they provide much sophisticated ways to produce your ideas. This article wouldn’t guarantee you that online brainstorming tools can help you to produce quality ideas and pull your ideas in the vision of many people. The quality of ideas purely depends upon the producers – YOU. Online brainstorming tools serve as a medium to communicate ideas.