Neurotypica

Collect inspiration in rough‑and‑ready moodboard format to make creative thinking easier. Use references that are adjacent, analogous, or delightfully unrelated to widen the search space before generating ideas.

What

Create a visual collage of prompts (screenshots, photos, sketches, headlines) that you can juxtapose to trigger fresh associations. Treat it as a stimulus, not a solution.

When to use

Early exploration, when the challenge feels under‑defined or stale and you need variety and surprise before diverging on ideas.

Preparation

• Set a 45–60 minute timebox.
• Pick a collage surface (Figma, Miro, Keynote, or paper) and agree where to save it.

How

1. Explain the goal: collect diverse prompts, not answers. Scrappy beats polished.
2. Spend 45 minutes hunting references: analogous “entry” or “welcome” experiences, unexpected metaphors, and a few wild cards with no obvious link to the brief.
3. Spend 10–15 minutes arranging finds into a rough moodboard. Cluster by vibe, function, or tension.
4. Review together for 5 minutes using a quick pass like “Like, Wish, Wonder” to surface promising sparks to take into ideation.

Why it works

By broadening inputs, you increase the chance of forming new links between existing chunks of knowledge (see heuristic: Links and Chunks). You also feed the brain’s prediction machinery with varied cues so it can generate more candidate patterns (see heuristic: Prediction Engine).

Outcomes

• A shared moodboard and 3–5 sparks to explore next.