Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which a group tries to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing a list of ideas spontaneously contributed its members. The term was popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in 1953 through the book Applied Imagination. In the book, Osborn not only proposed the method brainstorming but also established effective rules for hosting brainstorming sessions.

Since then, brainstorming has become a popular group technique and it aroused researchers’ attention in the academia. Multiple researches were then conducted to test the accountability of Osborn’s statement of brainstorming being more effective at generating greater quantity and quality of ideas than individuals working alone. Some researchers proved the statement to be false (brainstorming is not effective) while others found flaws in the researches above and suggested that more studies must be done to reach an official conclusion.

From all the above academia controversies, reasons of why brainstorming wouldn’t work and under what circumstances it would work were being studied and discussed. Furthermore, researchers made modifications or proposed variations of brainstorming as an attempt to improve productivity of brainstorming. However, there hasn’t been empirical evidence of which variation is definitely more effective than the original brainstorming technique.