brainstormer

A brainstormer is a person who participates in or facilitates brainstorming sessions to generate ideas for solving problems or exploring opportunities. The term emphasizes quantity, variety, and creative thinking over immediate feasibility. Brainstormers are commonly found in business, education, design, advertising, and research contexts.

Role and techniques: In a session, a brainstormer may ensure a constructive environment, enforce ground rules such as deferring judgment, encouraging wild ideas, and building on others' contributions. They may use methods like round-robin sharing, brainwriting, mind mapping, rapid idea generation, or structured prompts to stimulate thinking. They are often responsible for recording ideas, organizing them, and guiding the group toward actionable concepts.

Effectiveness: The value of brainstorming depends on clear goals, diverse participation, psychological safety, and skilled facilitation. After generation, ideas are typically evaluated and refined using criteria such as impact, feasibility, and alignment with objectives.

Etymology and usage: The noun derives from the verb brainstorm, with the agentive suffix -er. The term is informal; in practice, the role is often described as facilitator or ideation lead rather than “brainstormer” in formal contexts.

See also: Brainstorming, ideation, creative facilitation.