Run better online brainstorming sessions

Spread every half-formed idea across an endless canvas and shape it together in real time, wherever your team happens to be sitting.

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ravel Let’s shape the Atlas release Board collaborator Nadia — photo by Thanh Xuan Nguyen Ly on PexelsBoard collaborator Rafi — photo by Korede Adenola on PexelsBoard collaborator June — photo by Jake Nackos on Unsplash 14 Present Share
Nadia
Live co-editing
Live co-editing
Field research
Rafi
Endless canvas
Design information architecture
Project
June
Comments
Getting feedback
Marketing
Mattias
Video chat
Run remote PI planning
Product
Leocadia
Presentation mode
Create org chart
Create org chart
Mattias Nadia Rafi
100%+ ?
Northbank. Fernvale Corvid Ottomark GRANITEBAY Halcyon Perrin
ravel Design sprint — week 12
Voting on sketches
Nadia Rafi
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Everything in one place

Pull in references, drop a spreadsheet straight onto the board and let it become a table. Build the picture with sticky notes, sketches, diagrams, clips and docs — reachable from any device you happen to have open.

ravel Ideation & brainstorming Board collaborator Mattias — photo by Ben Khatry on PexelsBoard collaborator Leocadia — photo by Foto Sushi on Pexels9 Share
Brainstorm session
Participants  Andrea – marketing · Mario – producer
Participants  Isabelle – product · Robyn – video
Group 1
Do it nowDo it next Do it ifDon’t do it Messaging options Agree flow Roles design Apps and templates for role Real-time collaboration Invite folks Team invitation option
Group 2
Do it nowDo it next Do it ifDon’t do it Marketing meeting Sales storyboard Pick an owner
Andrea Robyn
100%+ ?

Run a brainstorm session, even remotely

Facilitate a session where the quietest person in the room gets the same airtime as the loudest — whatever timezone the room happens to span.

ravel Solutions for enterprise Board collaborator Mario — photo by Prince on PexelsBoard collaborator Andrea — photo by Thanh Xuan Nguyen Ly on Pexels6 Share
Scale what already works Simplify how we hand off Lift engagement past the pilot Speed up problem-solving and alignment Host thought-leadership sessions Centralise tools and comms Andrey Bettany
100%+ ?

Give ideas room to move

The good ones rarely arrive on schedule. An endless canvas gives a team somewhere to leave half-thoughts lying around until they turn into something worth building.

Why Ravel is the right brainstorming tool

Surface the best ideas

Let people vote anonymously so seniority stops deciding what wins. Keyword search, tags and clustering mean nothing good quietly falls off the board.

One home for the “why”

Keep a single source of truth for the decisions you already made. Old boards become reference material instead of orphaned files nobody can find.

Become the facilitator

Steer ideation across the org and run workshops where everyone contributes. Photograph a wall of paper notes and Ravel turns them into editable stickies in seconds.

Track what happens next

Move ideas through the pipeline from raw note to shipped thing. Draft the plan on the same board and check in on it a fortnight later.

More than your regular brainstorming tool

Ravel is a visual collaboration platform for planning, co-creating and then actually doing the thing. Run sessions that generate more ideas and waste less of everyone’s afternoon.

Online sticky notes

A shared workspace where sticky notes behave the way they do on a good wall — only nobody has to peel them off at the end of the day.

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Teammate working at a home desk — photo by Vitaly Gariev on Pexels Teammate at a desk with a plant — photo by SHVETS production on Pexels
What are your tips for staying focused in a shared studio?
Allison Tobias Andrey Alexander

Mind map

Give scattered ideas a shape and share them across teams. The fastest way to capture, organise and branch a thought before it evaporates.

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Hiroku Sita Adria

Concept map

Link the key concepts and get the big picture in one look. Useful when a team agrees on the parts but not on how they connect.

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Igor Hannah Lise

Mood boards

Collect the references, colours and half-stolen screenshots that explain a direction faster than three paragraphs of copy ever will.

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Related templates

View all 340+ templates

Sticky Pack Template

Get everyone moving, sharing and generating ideas quickly with a pre-built pack of coloured stickies.

Learn more

Six Thinking Hats Template

Work through a decision from six angles so a team builds real agreement instead of loud consensus.

Learn more

Reverse Brainstorming Template

Flip the question and ask how you would cause the problem. The fix usually falls out of the answers.

Learn more

Crazy Eights Template

Eight sketches in eight minutes. Perfect for the point in a workshop where the room has gone quiet.

Learn more

How to run an online brainstorming session with Ravel

1. Pick a template

Start from the template picker rather than a blank board. A pre-built frame gives the session somewhere to begin and saves the first ten minutes of shuffling.

2. Give the brainstorm a shape

Write the question at the top, set a timer and mark out the areas people should fill. Constraints get more ideas out of a room than open space does.

3. Collaborate and co-create

Everyone writes at once, silently, for the first stretch. Then cluster the notes together and let the duplicates show you where the energy actually is.

4. Refine what survived

Vote, pick three, and give each one an owner and a date before anyone leaves the call. The board stays as the record of why you chose them.

See the full walkthrough
ravel Atlas release Share
Nadia
Live co-editing
Field research
Rafi
Endless canvas
Project
June
Comments
Marketing
Mattias
Video chat
Product
Leocadia
Sticky notes
Org chart
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Come at a familiar problem from a new angle with templates for mind mapping, brainwriting, reverse brainstorming and more.

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Brainstorming tool FAQs

Is the Ravel brainstorming tool free?

Yes, and no card is needed to start. Once you have an account you can add the Brainstorming Tools template from the picker, invite as many people as you like to that board, and work on it together for as long as you need.

What do you actually need for a virtual brainstorm?

A shared canvas, a timer, and a question worth answering. Everything else — voting, clustering, sketching, a call window pinned to the corner — is already built into the board.

What types of brainstorming tools are there?

Broadly: divergent tools that help a group produce more ideas, and convergent tools that help it choose between them. Ravel ships templates for both, which is usually where sessions come unstuck.

What questions should you ask during an online brainstorming session?

Open ones with a boundary. “How might we cut onboarding to under four minutes?” produces better notes than “any ideas about onboarding?” because it tells people what a good answer looks like.

How do you lead an online brainstorming session?

Send the board ahead of time, run silent writing first, cluster in the open, then vote. Close by naming three owners. The whole thing fits comfortably in 45 minutes.

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Fernvale Corvid Northbank. Ottomark Halcyon GRANITEBAY Perrin Wexley
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