Organizing a productive brainstorming session isn't just about sitting everyone down in front of a canvas and throwing out ideas nonstop; the key is to make the Ask the right questions, record the best insights, and guide them toward a specific goal.And when you also take the session to a digital environment like Freeform (see our First steps with FreeformHaving good templates and workflows makes the difference between a chaotic meeting and a high-impact creative workshop.
In this article I'm going to tell you, in great detail, how you can get inspiration from the best practices of tools like Miro, FigJam, Jamboard, Lucidspark or MURAL to create Templates and workflows for brainstorming sessions in Freeform that work just as well (or better). We'll look at question types, dynamics, board structure ideas, and how to adapt all of this to remote teams working in real time.
Why questions are the driving force behind a good brainstorming session
The difference between a mediocre brainstorming session and a memorable one often lies in the facilitator's ability to formulate ideas. open-ended questions that guide the conversation towards a very specific challenge.If you base your session on yes or no questions, you'll kill creativity in seconds.
A closed question like “Do you like this idea?” barely generates debate; in contrast, a richer formulation such as “How could we improve this idea to make it more useful for the client?” opens the door to proposals, nuances, associations and new perspectivesTherefore, before setting up your template in Freeform, it's worth taking a few minutes to define the list of key questions.
It's also easy to go to the other extreme: questions that are too generic (“What could we do better in the company?”) tend to scatter the conversation and generate ideas that are not very actionable. The ideal is to find a balance: broad questions, but anchored to a very specific goal or problem.
Some examples of open-ended questions you can include in your Freeform template, inspired by the practices of leading brainstorming tools, would be: “What do we want to achieve as a team in the next quarter?”“How can we improve the user experience with our product?” or “What new features would be truly valuable to our customers?” Each of these can occupy a section of the canvas, with space for sticky notes around it.
For these questions to really work, it's important that each one has a clear intention aligned with the challenge you are trying to solveIt's perfectly fine to adapt the question on the fly if you see the team getting lost; the important thing is that the question serves as a springboard for generating relevant ideas.
Types of questions that spark creativity on Freeform
When designing your templates, it's worth mixing several types of questions to approach the problem from different angles and achieve a more critical and creative thinkingIn online environments this is especially useful, because it keeps the team connected and eager to participate.
The classic "what if...?" questions are perfect for opening your mind: "What if our product were 10 times faster?"“What if we had to launch this feature in two weeks?” These kinds of questions help break inertia and get the team out of their comfort zone.
Associative questions like “What does this remind us of?” or “What other brand does something similar and what can we learn from it?” also work very well. These types of questions encourage the creation of ideas. new connections between ideas, sectors or previous experiences, something fundamental to arriving at truly original proposals.
Once you have a clear topic for the session, you can delve into the details with more specific questions such as "What exactly is the project's objective?" or "What main problem do we want to solve for the user?" Reserve a block on the Freeform canvas for define the objective and success criteria It saves a lot of misunderstandings later on.
If you ever run out of inspiration for formulating questions, you can draw inspiration from the vast library of templates offered by tools like Miro or MURAL. Many of them structure brainstorming around... blocks of very clear and visually organized questionswhich you can easily replicate or adapt on your own Freeform boards.
Advantages of a visual and collaborative canvas for brainstorming
A large part of the success of platforms like FigJam or Miro lies in their focus on open, wide, and highly visual canvaseswhere the team can express themselves with sticky notes, images, links, freehand drawings, and real-time comments. Freeform fits perfectly into this philosophy if you know how to structure your templates.
Unlike traditional documents or slides, which confine you to a rigid format of text and basic shapes, a free canvas reproduces better the feeling of having a physical whiteboard in front of the teamYou can group ideas, order blocks, draw connections between concepts, and reorganize content on the fly, without worrying about margins or slides.
In tools like FigJam, in addition to sticky notes, teams can chat, draw, react, or even give a virtual "high five" on the board itself. This type of small interaction can also be simulated in Freeform by combining text, colors, emojis, and areas for voting or prioritizing ideas.
Another strength of these environments is that they allow you to work synchronously or asynchronously: Each person can contribute ideas whenever it suits them best.And everything is saved on the same canvas. When setting up your workflows in Freeform, try to ensure the template supports both modes: spaces for individual brainstorming and collaborative brainstorming sessions.
Always keep in mind that a good brainstorming board is not just a pretty canvas: it should help participants to follow a logical sequence of stepsFrom understanding the problem to prioritizing proposals and defining the next steps, this is where workflows come into play.
Remote brainstorming: why it can be even more productive
More and more teams are working remotely or in a hybrid format, and they're wondering how to replicate traditional in-person brainstorming sessions without losing their creative spark. Several studies, including the research cited by Harvard Business Review, suggest that Online brainstorming sessions can be even more productive than face-to-face ones.provided they are well designed.
The key is that digital tools reduce certain social barriers: More introverted people feel more comfortable contributing ideas in writing.Anonymous voting can be used to prioritize, and it's easier to give everyone a chance to speak. Furthermore, a perfect record is kept of the work that has been done.
If you've ever participated in a well-facilitated brainstorming session, you'll know that creativity accelerates and ideas begin to emerge riskier or more disruptive ideasThis also applies remotely, provided the team has a suitable digital whiteboard and a clear workflow.
That's why it's important not to give up on organizing these kinds of activities just because your team is geographically dispersed. Drawing inspiration from the best tools on the market and adapting their best practices to Freeform will help you to Maintain agility, collaboration, and an innovative spiriteven if you never meet in the same room.
Let's now see how these leading tools are organized and what you can copy into your own templates.
Key online brainstorming tools and what you can learn for Freeform
There are many solutions designed to facilitate remote brainstorming and visual projects. Even if you'll primarily be working with Freeform, it's worth exploring them because They offer structures, dynamics, and templates that you can replicate. without needing to change the main tool.
1. MindMup: simple mind maps for the early stages of the project
Mind Mup It's a mind mapping tool designed to help you Focus on your ideas without distractionsIt allows you to create unlimited maps for free, save them in the cloud, and access them from any device, which is very useful for long projects.
Although not designed exclusively as a brainstorming tool, it is perfect for the initial phases of a complex projectwhere you need to explore concepts and connections. Their mind mapping approach is easy to replicate in Freeform: a central node with the main challenge and branches toward ideas, problems, opportunities, and solutions.
Among its advantages are the ability to attach files, add images, collaborate as a team, and use pre-designed templates. Furthermore, it can be integrated with Google applications, so that The brainstorming results can be saved directly to Google Drive or convert to PDF or PowerPoint.
The free version allows you to save maps up to 100 KB for six months, and paid options expand storage and integrations (for example, with Microsoft 365). When designing your templates in Freeform, you can mimic this logic. central node plus thematic branches to better organize the ideas.
2. Mindomo: Mind and concept maps with a focus on projects
Mindomo It's another mind mapping solution, very much geared towards teams that want brainstorm online and plan projects from scratchIt goes beyond simple brainstorming and helps to connect dots and understand complex processes through concept maps.
Its great virtue is that it provides a linear flow of ideas and facilitates translate the brainstorming into an action planIt offers real-time collaboration, email notifications, automatic task rescheduling, and shared folders, making it an ally for ongoing projects.
The free version only allows three mind maps, but subscription plans extend this limit and add advanced features, including a desktop version. For Freeform, you can use this combination as a reference: ideation zone and planning zoneFirst, ideas are generated, then they are connected, prioritized, and tasks are assigned.
3. Miro: the most popular infinite whiteboard
Miro It has become one of the best-known and most widely used online brainstorming tools. Its flagship feature is a infinite whiteboard on which each participant can work with complete freedomwhether it's for a quick brainstorming session or to map the entire flow of a project.
With Miro, teams can use digital sticky notes, flowcharts, agile frameworks, and much more. Many large companies, such as Deloitte and Dell, use it for Organize brainstorming sessions, planning and agile work management from one place.
One of its most striking features is the ability to "read" a physical sticky note with the camera and convert it into an editable digital note in seconds, making it easy to combine in-person and online interactions. It also includes Kanban templates, user stories, roadmaps, and other models that allow uniting ideation and execution on the same platform.
Miro offers several subscription plans depending on the number of boards and features, but you can try it for free. If you're going to work with Freeform, you can look at how Miro organizes its templates: very clear blocks for generating ideas, voting on them, grouping them, and turning them into tasks—something you can visually emulate.
4. Jamboard: Google's lightweight whiteboard
jamboardingGoogle's digital whiteboard offers a very simple collaboration experience for teams already comfortable with the Google Workspace ecosystem. It allows you to Create a "Jam", edit it from any device, and share it with others in seconds..
In a Jam, you can add sticky notes, insert photos, import files from Google Drive, highlight elements, and write or draw freely. All each participant needs is... a Gmail account and a device with access to the web or the app, which greatly lowers the barrier to entry.
To start a new brainstorming session, simply click the create button, generate a new Jam, and share the link with the team. It's ideal for spontaneous brainstorming sessions that arise without much planningbecause it is automatically saved to your account and does not require complex setup.
Its biggest advantage is that it's completely free and very intuitive. When creating templates in Freeform, you can use Jamboard as inspiration for your design. lightweight structures for quick sessions: challenge title, quick ideas area, selection area and a small block for next steps.
5. Lucidchart: diagrams for decisions and processes
Lucidchart It's more focused on diagram design than traditional brainstorming, but it's a very powerful tool for visualize information, processes, and workflowsThis is key when you want to connect the results of brainstorming with business decisions.
With Lucidchart you can create shared visual boards in real time, integrate diagrams with Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft or Atlassian, and use predefined diagram templates to speed up workThe free version allows three editable documents, up to 60 figures per document, and access to 100 templates.
If you lead remote teams, this tool helps everyone better understand the flow decided upon in the brainstorming session. By transferring this approach to Freeform, you can dedicate a portion of the canvas to outlining. the process or customer journey that you want to improve, and another to place ideas around each stage.
6. MURAL: templates, visual design and facilitation
MURAL It has become very popular among teams using design methodologies and agile approaches because it offers Speed, ease of use, and a huge catalog of templates designed for workshops, design sprints and, of course, brainstorming sessions.
Among its strengths are its intuitive visual tools, interactive polls, voting systems, integrated timer, and small celebratory effects that liven up the sessions. It also offers Courses and resources to learn how to facilitate more impactful meetings.
It positions itself as a very complete yet simple option, with a proposal that, in many plans, can be used at no cost. For your Freeform workflows, you can copy its most typical structures: blocks for "Warm-up," "Idea Generation," "Grouping," "Voting," and "Action Plan," organized in columns or rows within the canvas.
7. MindMeister: pure and simple brainstorming in mind map format
MindMeister It is designed almost exclusively for conduct online brainstorming with collaborative mind mapsAll contributions are updated in real time and, at the end, all material (documents, videos, PDFs, images, external links, etc.) is saved in a single space.
If you also need a task management tool, you can easily connect to MeisterTask for Turning ideas into actions, with assigned responsibilities and deadlinesTheir free basic plan includes up to three mind maps, real-time collaboration, email support, and the ability to work with multiple teammates.
This dynamic, collaborative mind-mapping logic fits perfectly with Freeform: you can reproduce a central outline and allow participants to... Add branches and sub-branches during the sessionusing different colors to group themes or to distinguish the most promising proposals.
Strategies to optimize your remote brainstorming sessions and apply them in Freeform
Having a good tool is important, but if you don't define a basic strategy for your sessions, you'll be wasting its full potential. The best-performing platforms always rely on... clear structures, well-defined agendas, and simple rules of the game which you can copy into Freeform without any problem.
Prepare a clear agenda for each session.
Before opening Freeform and starting to add notes, take a few minutes to write one. a simple agenda with the key points you want to coverThis helps both to align expectations and to better manage timelines.
Try to be as specific as possible: what challenge you will work on, what results you expect at the end of the session, how much time you will dedicate to each phase (context, ideation, grouping, voting, next steps, etc.). Share this agenda in advance It helps participants come with prior ideas and contribute higher quality content.
It's also advisable to define the total duration of the session and allocate time blocks to each activity. The goal isn't to rush, but to... to prevent the meeting from dragging on without focus and diverting to secondary topicsA timer (like the one incorporated in MURAL or Miro) is easy to imitate in Freeform, even if it's just with a simple reminder on the board and by controlling the clock.
Include a small "Game Rules" section in your template with basic agreements: respect turns, don't judge ideas during the divergence phase, encourage everyone's participation, and remember that All ideas are welcome in the first phasehowever far-fetched they may seem.
Choose the right tools and formats for your team
The list of brainstorming tools is almost endless, and new options appear every year. That doesn't mean just any tool will be a good fit for your team; you need the right one. evaluate which features are essential for your usual routines.
If your priority is having many ready-to-use template models, something like Miro or MURAL might suit you; if your focus is on mind maps, MindMeister or MindMup are natural choices; if you want deep integrations with Slack, Google Workspace or Microsoft, Lucidchart or Lucidspark might be more interesting. The important thing is that the tool doesn't become an obstacle. and don't waste your time on technical details.
In the case of Freeform, the decision is simpler: you probably already have it integrated into your Apple ecosystem, so the challenge lies in making the most of its canvas. You can draw inspiration from the best practices of these leading platforms to set up Reusable templates that meet your team's needs: from quick 20-minute sessions to workshops lasting several hours.
Also consider the limitations and digital experience level of your team. If some people are unfamiliar with online whiteboards, opt for highly visual, clear structures with few complex elementsThe less they have to think about the tool, the more energy they can dedicate to ideas.
Rely on training and talent development
No tool, however powerful, can replace the need for teams capable of working in collaborative environments and harnessing creative dynamics. Corporate training platforms like Crehana focus on this. train professionals in soft skills (communication, creativity, teamwork) and in innovation methodologies.
Investing in this type of training helps you close talent gaps within the organization because so that people know how to actively participate in a brainstorming session, how to build on other people's ideas and how to move from ideation to action.
In addition to content on effective brainstorming, many talent management solutions allow you to track performance, strengthen internal culture, and detect which teams need more support to adopt new digital tools. This combination of technology and training makes the adoption of templates and workflows in Freeform much smoother.
Transfer these best practices to your templates and workflows in Freeform
With everything we've seen, you now have a solid foundation for designing your own brainstorming templates in Freeform, inspired by the best of Miro, FigJam, Lucidchart, MURAL, and others. The idea is that each board becomes a mini “visual script” of the session, who can guide the team without the need for endless explanations.
A very common structure you can recreate in Freeform would be to divide the canvas into columns or blocks with titles such as: “Context and Objective,” “Key Questions,” “Free Ideas,” “Grouping,” “Voting,” and “Next Steps.” In each block, you leave space for sticky notes and comments, so that The workflow is directly visible on the board itself..
Another option, closer to mind mapping tools, is to start with a central node representing the main challenge and then branch out to include “Users,” “Problems,” “Possible Solutions,” “Risks,” or other categories relevant to your project. This structure helps to visualize the complexity of the challenge and organize the ideas without losing the overall vision..
Don't forget to add a short guide to the template itself, with examples of open-ended questions and the types of contributions expected (ideas, doubts, risks, opportunities). This reduces initial friction and makes it easier for even those less accustomed to these types of sessions to participate. encourage participation from the very first minute.
Finally, always reserve a clear area of the canvas to record agreements, tasks, and responsibilities. The biggest mistake many brainstorming sessions make is that they end when time runs out, without defining what will be done next. If you integrate that actionable closure within your workflowYour brainstorming sessions at Freeform will cease to be just a creative exercise and will become a real catalyst for change in your projects.
