25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Rapidly collect, score, and rank an idea pool anonymously without status bias.

Use it when: Use when a group of 12 to 24 people needs to prioritize many fresh ideas quickly after a generative session.

Skip it when: Skip when the group has fewer than 12 people, when proposals require complex data review, or when the team needs full consensus.

Group arrangement: Whole group milling individually; odd participant counts work smoothly because cards pass individually hand-to-hand rather than in locked pairs

Timing: WorkshopBank lists 30 minutes; UWT suggested duration is 25 minutes for groups up to 24.

Materials and tools

• 1 standard blank index card per participant
• 1 pen per participant
• Flipchart and marker to record top scores
• Digital countdown timer
• Shared digital spreadsheet (for remote or hybrid delivery)

Before participants arrive

1. Clear an open floor space where participants can walk and pass cards easily.
2. Place one blank index card and one pen on each chair.
3. Write the 1 to 5 rating scale visibly on a flipchart: 1 = lowest potential, 5 = highest bold potential.

Say this to open

Write one bold, actionable idea responding to our prompt on the blank side of your card. Keep it to one legible sentence and do not write your name. You have three minutes.

How to run it

1. Write bold ideas 3 minutes

   State the challenge prompt and start the digital countdown timer for 3 minutes. Participants write individually and silently. Neutral example: 'Offer a 15-minute weekly peer clinic to review tricky cases.' At 1 minute remaining, remind everyone to keep cards anonymous and legible.

2. Explain milling and run round 1 3 minutes

   Ask everyone to stand with their card. Explain the exchange: walk through the room and directly swap your card with anyone you pass, ensuring cards circulate. Start the timer for 30 seconds and tell everyone to begin milling. Call 'Stop.' Start the timer for 45 seconds. Have each person hold one card, read it silently, write a score from 1 to 5 on the back, and turn it face down.

3. Run scoring rounds 2 through 5 6 minutes

   Run 4 identical rounds. For each round, announce 'Start milling' and run the timer for 30 seconds of continuous swaps, call 'Stop,' then set the timer for 45 seconds to pause, read the card, and record one score from 1 to 5 on the back. At the end of round 5, have everyone confirm their card has five separate scores on the back.

4. Tally scores and capture top ideas 8 minutes

   Ask everyone to sum the 5 numbers on the back of their card. Scores range from 5 to 25. Call out scores starting from 25 downward: 'Does anyone hold a 25? 24? 23?' When someone claims a score, invite them to read the idea aloud. If a reader prefers not to read, the facilitator reads it. Write the top 5 to 10 ideas with their scores on the flipchart.

5. Debrief prioritized ideas 5 minutes

   Start the timer for 5 minutes. Direct attention to the top-scoring proposals on the flipchart. Invite up to 3 brief group observations addressing the debrief questions.

Debrief questions

• What common patterns or themes do you notice across the highest-scoring ideas?
• Which top-rated idea seems most feasible to test this week?
• Did any surprising ideas surface that an open discussion would have missed?

Finished output: A ranked list of the group's top 5 to 10 ideas scored on a 25-point scale, recorded on a flipchart or shared display.

Remote

Set up a shared spreadsheet where column A lists participant names (rows 1 to N), column B holds ideas, and columns C through G represent Rounds 1 through 5. To assign raters simply, populate the scoring cells with participant names using a cyclic offset: for Round 1 (col C), row 1 has Participant 2, row 2 has Participant 3, through row N with Participant 1. In Step 1, participants type their idea into column B. During each round, participants locate their name in that round's column (e.g., Participant 2 in C1), read the idea in column B of that same row (e.g., B1, which is Participant 1's idea), and overwrite their name in the scoring cell with a score from 1 to 5. Column H computes =SUM(C2:G2).

Hybrid

Run in-person and remote participants in separate parallel scoring streams. In-person participants use physical index cards and mill on the floor. Remote participants use the pre-formatted cyclic offset spreadsheet. In Step 4, combine all scores from physical cards and the digital spreadsheet into a single ranked list. Call out scores from 25 downward across both streams. When a score is claimed, invite the holder (in-person or remote) to read the idea aloud. Record the combined top 5 to 10 ideas on the shared display.

Access and participation choices

• Participants who prefer not to walk can sit at a stationary exchange station; passers swap cards with them as they mill.
• Participants may pass or have the facilitator read the card aloud during the top idea call-out.
• Typing assistance or oral dictation to a partner is welcome during the writing step.

If the session gets stuck

A participant receives their own card during a milling round.

Have them immediately hand it to someone nearby and take a different card before reading or scoring.

A card finishes round 5 with fewer or more than 5 scores.

If a card has 4 scores, multiply the sum by 1.25 to normalize to 25. If it has 6 scores, discard the final score.

Terms used here

• Milling: Moving continuously around a room while directly swapping items to ensure random distribution.
• Crowd Sourcing: Collecting input and ratings directly from an entire group rather than relying on a committee.