6-8-5

The objective of 6-8-5 game is to overcome the challenge of creating ideas. It helps generating a lot of ideas in a short time rather than perfecting a few ideas. The name, 6-8-5, refers to the gameplay: generating 6-8 ideas in 5 minutes.

Before a session, you need to prepare several sheets of paper with a 2×2 or 2×3 grid. You want to create boxes big enough for players to sketch their ideas in, but small enough to constrain them to one idea per box. Prepare enough paper for everyone to have about 10 boxes per round.

When the papers are distributed to everyone, start a 5-minute timer. During that time, the players individually write or draw as many ideas on the paper as they can come up. When the time runs out, the players should share their sketches with the rest of the group.

Then, repeat another few rounds of 6-8-5. Players can further develop any ideas that were presented by the group as a whole or can sketch new ideas that emerged since the last round. They can continue to work on separate ideas or begin working on the same idea.

This way it is possible to get many ideas without worrying about the details or implementation of any particular idea. The game is designed to keep players on task by limiting them to sketch in small boxes and work fast in a limited amount of time. Therefore, it works great in the early stages of the ideation process.