How to use ChatGPT for brainstorming

The scariest part of any creative project is staring at a blank screen. That cursor blinks back at you, almost mockingly, as the terrifying grip of Writer's Block tightens around your creative flow. 

When I hit that point where I'm struggling to put the proverbial pen to paper, I turn to ChatGPT for a gentle nudge in the right direction. It's not exactly a miracle cure—more like an over-the-counter supplement you reach for when you need a little help to push through blank-screen-phobia. 

Here's how to use ChatGPT for your next brainstorming session.

Table of contents:

• Engineer the right brainstorming prompts

• Choose the best model

• Ask for specific formats

• Incorporate traditional brainstorming techniques

• Ask for more of this, less of that

• Play around with parameters

• Explore custom GPTs

• Share your chats to collaborate smarter, not harder

• Integrate ChatGPT with your tool stack

• Advantages of using ChatGPT for brainstorming

• How not to use ChatGPT for brainstorming

Engineer the right brainstorming prompts

With ChatGPT, your outputs are only as good as your inputs. What you tell ChatGPT to do in your prompts determines how helpful and relevant its answers are.

ChatGPT does a better job of thinking creatively when you tell it exactly what you want—including the context. Context helps the bot narrow down the expansive list of possibilities it could generate and deliver even more relevant results. 

For example, here's what ChatGPT spits out when I ask it to give me a business name for my vegan bakery.

And here's what happens when I add more context to my prompt.

The results in the second prompt are much more relevant to the bakery's target market, and they convey more personality.

Another way to improve your brainstorming prompts is to ask ChatGPT to take on a role (your role, perhaps, or that of your target audience) and answer questions as if it were that person. This can help you explore fresh perspectives from a new angle.

You can then continue to ask follow-up questions and prompts that are immediately within the context of the specific situation you asked the bot to role-play.

Choose the best model

OpenAI recently rolled out o1—the company's newest series of large language models. As of this writing, only two of the three o1 models are available to users on a paid plan: OpenAI o1-preview and OpenAI o1-mini. But these two models pack more than enough power to process prompts that require a high level of logical reasoning or generating code—even better than GPT-4o.

If you want to brainstorm ideas or questions that require this kind of reasoning, first switch your model to o1-preview or o1 mini, and then enter your prompt.

Here's an example of ChatGPT (powered by o1-preview) acting as a travel partner, brainstorming the best way to get to Spain.

On the other hand, if you want ChatGPT to help you brainstorm an idea that requires more generalized knowledge, use GPT-4o (available to Plus or Teams users) or GPT-4o mini (available to users on a free plan).

Ask for specific formats

Imagine you're a chef about to prepare a gourmet meal. You have all your ingredients on hand, but the preparation method—how you organize them and slice and dice them up—makes all the difference in the final presentation. Just like cooking, when you interact with ChatGPT, asking for specific formats impacts the final output.

Different structured formats serve different purposes and make complex information more easily digestible. 

• Lists turn a jumble of ingredients into an orderly, step-by-step recipe. 

  

• Tables compare how items ladder up against each other, like a sommelier compares wines. 

  

• Outlines lay out the meal plan for a multi-course feast. 

  

You can even ask to sprinkle emojis for a little extra spice on top.

Here are a few ways that ChatGPT can format outputs:

• Bulleted lists

• Numbered lists

• Nested lists

• Paragraphs

• Tables

• URLs

• Code blocks (HTML, Markdown, JavaScript, etc.)

• Outlines

• Mathematical equations

• Scripts or dialogues

• Emojis

• AI-generated images (available only to ChatGPT Plus subscribers)

The key is to be specific about the format you want and which components ChatGPT should include.

Consider the following prompts: 

Incorporate traditional brainstorming techniques 

Just because you're using new-age technology for your brainstorming session, it doesn't mean you can't also incorporate traditional brainstorming techniques. 

Let's say I'm brainstorming interior design ideas for my vegan bakery. Here are a few of those traditional brainstorming methods in action. 

Play a word association game

Give ChatGPT a word that's associated with the focus of your brainstorming session, and ask it to come up with a list of related words. To make things a little more interesting, you can also prompt ChatGPT to output a word cloud. Then, use those words as a springboard for more ideas. 

Feed ChatGPT visual cues

Upload an interesting image that's related to your brainstorming session, and ask ChatGPT to make up a memory associated with that image. It's helpful if you give ChatGPT a relevant role to help narrow its perspective. 

In this example, my brainstorming prompt told ChatGPT to take on the role of a person who loves exploring new bakeries—because that's my target audience—and come up with a positive memory. ChatGPT's "memory" sparked a bunch of new ideas, including menu items and key descriptors to narrow down the aesthetics. 

Give ChatGPT boundaries (or take them away)

Sometimes, the fewer resources you have to work with, the more inventive you have to be. Take whatever problem or opportunity you're trying to brainstorm for—and amp up the difficulty. Perhaps you're planning to launch a business or product in six months. Challenge ChatGPT to map out a marketing campaign to launch your business in one month or even a few weeks. 

On the flip side, when you take away boundaries—whether that's time, money, or expertise—you have the freedom to innovate. In your brainstorming prompt, give ChatGPT free rein. Take that idea, and then scope it down.

Ask for more of this, less of that

ChatGPT does exactly what you tell it to do. You're the driver, and it's just the car. Or better yet, you're the conductor, and it's the orchestra. More trumpets! Less percussion. 

When it comes to ChatGPT, you can get more of the good stuff and less of the… not-so-good stuff by using sequential prompts to steer the bot in the right direction. Keep the parts of its output that work for you, and limit the aspects that don't. 

My favorite phrase to use is, "Try again, but…" It signals to ChatGPT that its first attempt wasn't quite right, and then I follow up with exactly what I'm looking for instead.

Say I'm brainstorming a team-building event. I'll ask ChatGPT for a list of activities to suggest.

Oops—I forgot to mention that my team is fully remote. Easy fix: I'll tell ChatGPT to "Try again, but…" with more virtual options, and fewer on-site ones.

Play around with parameters

Like fine-tuning a guitar, you can tweak almost every part of how ChatGPT answers you. The better you set it up, the sweeter the melody that comes out. You can get even more specific in your prompt engineering with parameters—the "settings" of ChatGPT.

Keep in mind that finding the right settings can require some trial and error. But sometimes, that can be part of the fun.

Here are just a few parameters that you can use to customize ChatGPT's responses while brainstorming.

Temperature

Temperature controls the randomness of responses, on a scale from 0 to 2. You can think of it as a creativity meter: a higher value will result in a more random, creative response, while a lower value will churn out a more focused, logical one.

When looking for more out-of-the-box ideas, bump the temperature up to get inspired.

Length

Sometimes, less is more. Headlines, tweets, and meta descriptions are just a few examples of cases where character and word limits are crucial. If you don't specify how long of a response you're looking for, ChatGPT can give you way too much to work with. 

You can tell ChatGPT to be concise and efficient by limiting its response to a certain length.

Frequency penalty

Frequency penalty refers to the level of repetition or redundancy in generated text, on a scale from -2.0 to 2.0. If you feel like ChatGPT is giving you the same old ideas and phrases excessively, set the frequency penalty to 1.0 or 2.0. The frequency penalty parameter can work in tandem with temperature to adjust how creative the bot can be.

Here are some business name ideas with a low frequency penalty.

And some with a higher frequency penalty.

By experimenting with frequency penalty, you can generate more unexpected, unique responses, which can be helpful for exploring unconventional ideas.

Explore custom GPTs

AI-powered brainstorming extends beyond the reach of ChatGPT alone. You can look at GPTs (essentially custom versions of ChatGPT) that offer preset ways of thinking through problems together or talking about topics. 

You can train a GPT to generate ideas, concepts, or content related to your industry, or specifically to your company or role. By doing so, you essentially teach the AI to think and brainstorm like an expert in your field. 

You can leverage existing custom GPTs—plenty of folks, including the OpenAI team, release their own GPTs for public use. 

Or you can create your own GPT to have a personal brainstorming assistant at the ready. Creating a GPT is simple; all you have to do is have a conversation with the GPT Builder and answer its questions about how you want your GPT to act and respond.

Tip: Just like any other conversation with ChatGPT, you can tweak the parameters of your custom GPT, so it's already set to max creative mode. 

After you set everything up to your heart's content, save the custom GPT and set its privacy. Keep it private by limiting access to Invite-only, or share the custom GPT with others by choosing Anyone with the link. If you're on an Enterprise account, you also have the option to make your GPT available to anyone within your company (as shown in the example below).

Share your chats to collaborate smarter, not harder

Brainstorming with ChatGPT isn't about replacing the human touch; it's about enhancing it. ChatGPT is no replacement for human ingenuity, but it can help humans brainstorm together more effectively. 

Imagine you're in a brainstorming session. Your team has brought up a couple of good ideas, but you're looking for something extra "wow." Open up ChatGPT, tell it what you've got already, and ask for additional suggestions. You'll receive different perspectives in moments.

Or, how about this: you've had a blast chatting with ChatGPT and have a treasure trove of fresh ideas to bring to the table. Create a GPT brain trust by collaborating together on an OpenAI team plan. Think of ChatGPT as a digital brainstorming hub where the responses spark even more ideas for your team, and human creativity and AI can mesh.

Integrate ChatGPT with your tool stack

Instead of going to ChatGPT for brainstorming, you can bring the brainstorming to you by integrating ChatGPT with all the tools you already use and love. 

First things first, you'll need to create an OpenAI API key to add ChatGPT to other apps. Make sure to save your secret key somewhere private and accessible, as you won't be able to view it again. You'll also need to add credits to your OpenAI account. 

Then, with Zapier, the world is your oyster. 

Here are a few examples of Zapier ChatGPT integrations to get you started.

Slack + ChatGPT = Instant idea generator

Imagine you're in a Slack channel, discussing a project with your colleagues, when suddenly, you hit a roadblock. You type a command or use a specific keyword, and voilà, your own ChatGPT Slack bot jumps in with suggestions. 

Or you could set up a ChatGPT Slack channel for brainstorming, like #chatgpt-ideas, where ChatGPT responds specifically to every message sent in that channel.

The creative boost your team needs, on call.

Trello + ChatGPT = Ideas embedded in task boards

Trello is fantastic for organizing ideas and tasks, but what if it could also help generate them? Turn your Trello boards into idea farms. Create a card with a prompt, label it, and have ChatGPT automatically comment on that Trello card with an imaginative response.

The best part is that all your brainstorming stays within context, right on each Trello card.

Google Docs + ChatGPT = Collaborative docs with AI insight

ChatGPT can supercharge your Google Docs by adding research or drafting sections of text. It's like having a co-writer who's also a walking encyclopedia.

Say you have a "Brainstorming" folder. Every time you create a document in that folder, Zapier starts a conversation with ChatGPT with a custom prompt such as "Brainstorm ideas based on the idea [Google Doc Title]." Then, Zapier can add ChatGPT's response right back into that Google Doc. (Here's my shared Zap to get you started).

It certainly saves time going back and forth copy-and-pasting between Google Docs and ChatGPT tabs. 

Learn more about how to automate ChatGPT, or you can get started with one of these pre-made templates.

Advantages of using ChatGPT for brainstorming

ChatGPT won't offer up a billion-dollar idea on a platter, but it sure can jumpstart your brain and get those creative juices flowing. Here are a few advantages of using ChatGPT for brainstorming. 

• Diverse idea generation. Since ChatGPT was trained on essentially the entire open internet and has access to real-time data via web searches, it has a deep well it can draw from to offer alternative perspectives and spark fresh ideas. 

• Efficiency. ChatGPT can generate responses to even the most complex brainstorming prompts in a matter of seconds, allowing you to speed up the brainstorming process. Plus, when you train ChatGPT on your own data, its outputs are automatically tailored to your needs—you don't have to keep feeding it critical background information for additional context. 

• Focused brainstorming sessions. Since ChatGPT responds only to a given prompt, you don't have to worry about getting lost on a tangent the way you would if you were brainstorming with human coworkers. 

• Non-judgmental environment. AI chatbots can't judge you (yet). So you have the freedom to propose and refine your most outlandish ideas without worrying about ChatGPT judging you.

• Cost-effective resource. If you don't have the budget to hire consultants or your team doesn't have the bandwidth to participate in brainstorming sessions, ChatGPT offers a budget-friendly way to come up with new ideas. 

• 24/7 availability. ChatGPT is always accessible, which makes it the ideal brainstorming partner to turn to any time inspiration strikes. 

How not to use ChatGPT for brainstorming

ChatGPT can do a lot of things, but it can't do everything. To harness ChatGPT's full creative power without stumbling into creative pitfalls, it's crucial to understand its limitations.

It can't do original research or find data to support your points

ChatGPT is a whiz at generating ideas and providing information based on its training data, but it's not a researcher in the traditional sense. If you're looking for the latest data, cutting-edge research, or real-time statistics, ChatGPT (at best) will pull information from existing sources on the web; at worst, it'll make stuff up.

You'll have to supplement ChatGPT's outputs with your own research and verify that your data comes from reliable sources. ChatGPT helps you think in new directions, but it can't serve as a primary source for the latest data or research findings.

It can augment but not replace human-to-human brainstorming sessions

ChatGPT can't replace the spontaneous, emotionally nuanced interactions that occur during face-to-face (or even asynchronous) human brainstorming. The social aspects, emotional intelligence, and personal experiences that humans bring into a brainstorming session are irreplaceable. We can embrace AI at work while still understanding that AI can't have the real thoughts and experiences that we do as people.

Use ChatGPT as a supplemental brainstorming tool, not as a substitute for the human element that is critical to truly innovative thinking.

It shouldn't work with sensitive information or data

OpenAI, by default, does record user inputs to train and improve their models, as well as ensure user compliance with their terms of service. This means you should avoid using ChatGPT for brainstorming that involves sensitive, confidential, or proprietary information. 

Always prioritize data security and privacy, and keep sensitive topics like company secrets out of your ChatGPT conversations. Stick to general topics or public information. Don't discuss anything that you wouldn't want to be potentially disclosed. 

A good practice is to treat your ChatGPT conversation as if it were semi-public, akin to discussing ideas in a café or library where others might overhear.

ChatGPT is a sounding board, not an original thinker

Use ChatGPT's ideas as a springboard for you to dive into the deep end of creative thinking. Experiment, tweak, combine, and refine the ideas and outputs it gives you. Use ChatGPT as a resource, but don't rely on it to think for you. 

ChatGPT gives you starting points, but it's up to you to take ideas to the finish line. The real magic happens when human minds like yours take AI-generated seeds and grow them into full-fledged solutions.

Related reading:

• How does ChatGPT work?

• How to train ChatGPT to write like you

• What is GPT-4o? OpenAI's new multimodal AI model family

• How to use DALL·E 3 to create AI images with ChatGPT

This article was originally published in February 2024. The most recent update, with contributions from Jessica Lau, was in December 2024.