Have you ever been in a brainstorming session when one team member insists on shooting down your ideas? What’s more frustrating, these naysayers rarely offer alternative ideas of their own.

It is as if they are determined to blow up the entire session.

I was invited to brainstorm ideas for writing an effective email campaign. The goal was to get people to update their security patches on their servers. I know, boring right? But it is a worthy message to ensure no one falls victim to a data breach.

For me, that’s the fun part as a working creative — take a dry topic and make it interesting for the reader to take action.

Here’s the challenge, the people responsible for getting this information are process-oriented project managers (PMs). They are more tactical rather than strategic with communications.

When the PMs shared their 690-word email with me, I was overwhelmed. The communique included over 12 talking points. It was more a training pamphlet than it was an email.

Before I began the brainstorm, I shared positive observations about the email. It included a clear call-to-action at the top, with a supporting statement as a subhead. The grammar was correct and succinct. They even inserted hyperlinks for the reader to explore more details regarding the security patches.

But that is where things broke down.

After reading the email aloud together, I asked the group if this message was in their inbox right now, would they read it? All of them answered no. One manager stated that it “…was a wall of text.”

I then asked, why was the email the length that it was? Did it actually need to be this lengthy despite having hyperlinks describing the same content?

The lead manager insisted that the email needed to be the length because of the nuanced details. When I asked why they created the supporting webpages, her answer was similar: to provide nuanced details.

I asked, then why include it in the email? She responded saying the website and the order of steps confused the readers. Again, I asked why couldn’t the website be updated to accommodate those concerns? She replied, “We needed to make sure people understood [the concept] threw an email.”

Not a satisfactory answer in my estimation. But this was brainstorming, after all. Let’s keep rolling.

I then asked, “Do you know if people actually read your email?” The lead manager said they didn’t track email open rates but pointed out that many people patched the servers.

Unfortunately, there was no evidence to show whether the patch activity directly resulted from the email or the website.

What’s more confusing is that the email was sent individually to 1,000 people. Individually!

I emphasized the importance of the website to mitigate that level of work. I suggested that, as a group, we spend more time upfront crafting a useful site, rather than lengthy emails no one will ever read.

Many in the meeting agreed and suggested alternative ways to craft a better message. Some suggested video clips or drip campaigns. Yet, the lead manager continued to provide contrarian perspectives. When I asked her to provide an alternative, she simply replied: “You’re the expert.”

Which is a cop-out.

It is true, not all ideas from a brainstorm will bring value. What it will do is jump start your critical thinking.

When you exercise, you must warm up your muscles to prepare them for a workout. For runners, this means stretching your calves or walking before a big sprint.

For our ideas and thoughts, we brainstorm — exploring outward to get our critical thinking warmed up.

Bringing an umbrella to a brainstorm is like exercising too soon. You end up getting a cramp or worse, injuring yourself unlikely to try again.

The purpose of a brainstorm is to get wet with free-flowing ideas. It is only after the session do you dry off. Here, you can begin your critical thinking where ideas can blossom.

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article we publish. This story contributed to World-Class Designer School: a college-level, tuition-free design school focused on preparing young and talented African designers for the local and international digital product market. Build the design community you believe in.