A lot of times we face the same challenge: it's good fun to ideate, but when it comes to getting conclusions, it all gets fluffy, complicated, and it's hard to get things done.

Having effective brainstorming is not only about filling a room with post-its, but selecting bright ideas that will work. So how do you summarise ideas with a solid shape without too many details? 

We advise you to use an idea canvas.

A canvas it's just a structure, a format, that helps you put down to earth abstract concepts. The most important thing is to choose what are the essential elements you need, create a list with them, and try to fill them as direct as possible.

Here is the example we use. It works great for most of advertising, services, products and design ideas.

You can download a printable PDF here.

As you can see it has only four sections:
1.  What is it? (The idea)
2. How does it work? (The mechanics)
3. Where does it happen? (The format, if it's a website, an app, magazine…)
4. Who is it for? (The target group)

The canvas won't take too long to fill, and at the same time, will have all the information you'll need to take the idea to the next phase and conclude with a tangible result.

Of course, feel free to change those questions to fit your project.