Part 1: Project Idea Brainstorming
Overview
This is the first thing for your team to do because it sets the direction for the entire project. This is perhaps one of the most exciting stages because it allows you to turn your ideas into reality. It is also very important because a good, well-thought-out idea often leads to a good project.
Depending on how your team formed, either all of you have no project idea yet, or some project idea already but it needs to be ironed out with more detail and information. Use the following information according to what your team still needs to figure out!
Complete the following:
Here are some tips that will help your team to come up with a great idea:
To start brainstorming, come up with some guiding questions to ask as a team, such as:
- What is the area/genre of interest that you’d like to develop in?
- What problem do you see in this area?
- How are you going to resolve the problem?
- How will people benefit from your project?
Also, you can ask general questions, such as:
- What skills do you want to gain?
- What is your time commitment for this project?
Communication is important! It is vital to ensure that everyone on this team is on the same track and has a mutual interest to work on the project. Therefore, we strongly recommend everyone share their ideas and ask questions about other people’s ideas until your team comes to a consensus.
Feel free to go as creative as you want! However, ensure the scope of your project is suitable for your team size and experience. For example, a small team of new Java programmers should avoid doing AI or ML just yet.
Do not hesitate to do a quick pitch to other club members or leads to get feedback. You are not alone in this club!
Remember you can always come back to this stage if you find the idea not feasible or for any other reasons in later stages. So don’t overthink during this stage and start doing some quick research will surely help.
As a last resort, if you want inspiration, look through the following document which has various kinds of project ideas and short descriptions to get you started thinking.