Over my 15 years building digital products, I’ve learned to visualize product management skills as a versatile toolkit. Much of my growth as a PM stemmed from adding tools to my kit and mastering how to select the right one for each job. This mindset encouraged me to always understand the “why” behind different techniques and frameworks. I frequently sought insights from one of my product mentors, an expert facilitator, constantly asking her for the “meta” behind her methods. I distinctly remember feeling both shocked and empowered when she revealed that most of her techniques were simply variations on Dump and Sort.

Reflecting on my own toolkit, I realized that she was right. Although its elements can be tailored for different contexts, Dump and Sort is at the heart of most creative problem solving techniques. I like to extend the model to include Decide, which I find further enhances its utility. Building on last week’s post^[1], Dump, Sort, Decide functions as a “diamond kit” — guiding you through the divergent, convergent, and decision phases, whether you’re in the Opportunity or Solution stage.

In this guide, you’ll learn actionable steps to implement Dump, Sort, Decide (DSD) in your workflow, and how it can transform your approach to product development and creative problem solving more generally. Whether you’re aiming to develop the next great product or advance an idea in another field, DSD provides a structured framework that will enhance your creative process and bring your ideas to life.

DSD — An Overview

As the name implies, DSD is a collection of three sequential meta-techniques:

• Dump, commonly referred to as a brainstorm, involves generating a wide range of ideas quickly and without judgment. It is a divergentprocess designed to give you a variety of ideas to work with.
• Sort focuses on organizing and categorizing these ideas into coherent themes. This is the convergent process, aimed at making it easier to understand the broader landscape of your brainstorming session.
• Decide entails prioritizing these themes and identifying what they mean for your next step. This maps to the decision points at the edge of each diamond.

I say meta-techniques because each method has a wealth of variants and lends itself well to improvisation. My goal with this article is to teach the essentials of each technique and provide my own tips, so that you are empowered to adapt this framework to your own workflow.

Before we dive into each technique, there are two crucial factors to consider when preparing for a DSD session. First, having a skilled facilitator is essential for group DSD sessions. The facilitator's role is to keep the session on track, ensure equal participation, and maintain an impartial stance. While it's possible to self-facilitate, I've found that having an experienced, neutral party can significantly elevate the effectiveness of the session. This is often the role that I play with my clients — it helps extract the knowledge within the team without bias. If you don’t have a third-party facilitator or are conducting a solo session, be conscious of what “hat” you’re wearing from moment to moment — are you acting as the facilitator or a participant? This simple awareness can help prevent accidentally putting your thumb on the scale.

Second, aligning on a clear goal before the session is paramount. Your goal will inform various aspects of the DSD process, particularly the inputs for the Dump phase. Common goals for DSD sessions include:

• identifying themes within a problem /opportunity space, especially after a round of user interviews or research
• pinpointing major risks to an idea so that you’re positioned to address them
• building consensus among a team on the right next steps for a project
• generating and prioritizing ideas for a solution

By establishing a well-defined goal upfront, you'll ensure that the session remains focused and productive. Take time to discuss and refine the goal with your team, considering the desired outcomes and how they align with your broader objectives. A well-crafted goal will serve as a north star throughout the DSD process, guiding your team towards meaningful insights and actionable decisions.

Dump — The Meta

The Dump phase kicks off the DSD process, serving as a divergent thinking exercise that lays the foundation for the entire creative journey. <strong>The goal of this phase is generating a wide variety of ideas</strong>, and the key is having a clear prompt that encourages the team to explore diverse perspectives within the context of your objective.

When implementing the Dump phase, consider the following:

• Prompts:
  • Tailor your prompts to the specific goal of the session. A well-crafted prompt will spark creativity and encourage the team to explore various angles, while keeping them focused on the goal. Keep prompts open-ended and avoid leading questions that may bias the responses.
  • For opportunity identification, use prompts like "What are the biggest challenges our users face when interacting with our product?" or "What are the most significant pain points in our current workflow?"
  • For solution-oriented brainstorming, try prompts like "How can we provide the most value to our target users?" or “What are ways that we can solve this specific user pain-point?”
  • You can also use Dump to synthesize research or reflect on work with prompts like “What were your takeaways from the latest round of user interviews?” or “What did we learn over the last month of the project?”
• Time Management:
  • Shorter sessions (5 minutes or less) are great for capturing raw, initial thoughts and are particularly useful when you want to identify the most pressing issues or gut inspiration.
  • Longer sessions (up to 10-15 minutes) allow for more in-depth exploration and can be beneficial when you want to dive deeper into a problem space or generate more comprehensive solutions. I find that longer sessions are useful for multi-stakeholder sessions when people are concerned about being heard — this session enables everything to end up on the table.
• Tools:
  • Sticky notes are a simple and effective choice for in-person sessions. Each idea gets its own note, making it easy to organize and rearrange them later. I find digital collaboration boards like Miro and FigJam are excellent for these types of sessions.
• Participation:
  • Encourage equal participation from all team members, regardless of their role or seniority.
  • Create a safe and non-judgmental environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas. Emphasize that there are no bad ideas!

In one project with an early-stage team, we used a 10-minute Dump session to gather all of the ideas for the team’s first major product. The prompt, "What are the core user needs that we are uniquely positioned to solve?", helped inspire ideas while keeping in mind their own strengths. The generated ideas formed the basis of their product roadmap, demonstrating the power of the Dump phase in quickly generating a diverse pool of ideas to explore and prioritize in the subsequent Sort and Decide phases.

Sort — The Meta

Once you have a wealth of ideas from the Dump phase, the Sort phase helps bring structure and clarity to the creative process. The goal of this stage is to organize ideas into common themes, making it easier to understand the broader landscape and identify patterns. This convergent thinking exercise is crucial for synthesizing the raw output of the Dump phase and preparing for effective decision-making.

When conducting the Sort phase, keep the following tips in mind:

• Group De-duping
  • When dealing with a large volume of ideas, save time by setting a short timer and having the team quickly remove duplicates on their own, rather than discussing every idea in detail.
  • Encourage team members to ask questions if they're unsure about whether ideas are duplicates, but generally, this process should move swiftly.
• Focus on Identifying Themes:
  • The primary goal of the Sort phase is to group ideas into common themes.
  • Start by picking one sticky note at a time, reading it aloud, and asking the author to clarify if needed or the group if they have any questions.
  • After discussing an idea, ask if there are any related sticky notes that could form a theme. This approach helps quickly identify groups without necessarily having to read every single note.
• When in Doubt, Ask:
  • If an idea seems related to a theme but not quite a perfect fit, it's worth asking the group for their input.
  • By asking questions and encouraging discussion, you may uncover additional nuances within a theme or even identify a new theme entirely.
  • Fostering open communication during the Sort phase can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the ideas and their relationships.
• Theme Granularity:
  • During the sorting process, you may encounter themes that feel too broad (e.g., 2-3 themes with 10-20 sticky notes each) or too narrow (many isolated sticky notes).
  • In these cases, ask the group if there are nuances that can be added or removed to adjust the granularity of the themes.
  • Keep your overall goal in mind when determining the appropriate level of detail for themes. If the themes don't seem useful for achieving your objective, it's usually a good idea to modify the granularity.
  • Finding the right balance in theme granularity is more art than science, and this is where a skilled facilitator can add significant value by guiding the discussion and helping the team find the most meaningful groupings.

By following these tips and actively engaging the team in the Sort phase, you can effectively organize ideas, uncover valuable insights, and set the stage for impactful decision-making. Remember, the Sort phase is a collaborative effort, and encouraging participation from all team members can lead to a more robust and comprehensive understanding of the problem space.

Decide — The Meta

The final phase is where you package up the work from your session into actionable next steps. The goal of Decide is to prioritize the themes you’ve identified, so that the team can leave the session aligned on a focused execution plan. While you’re not necessarily allocating resources or putting together a detailed timeline, you want to walk away knowing which path you will be going down next.

When navigating the Decide phase, consider the following tips:

• Selecting a Decision-Making Framework:
  • When choosing your decision-making framework, you want to consider the complexity of the decision, the diamond you’re in, and the level of consensus required. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorites:
    • 2x2 prioritization (a variation on the Eisenhower Matrix) is a powerful and flexible tool for strategic decisions, allowing teams to evaluate ideas based on two key criteria. In the Opportunity phase, you might assess ideas based on opportunity vs risk. In the Solution phase, you could evaluate solutions based on user value vs technical feasibility or alignment with business goals vs. development time.
    • Dot-voting is a quick and simple method for achieving consensus, particularly when dealing with a large number of ideas. Each team member is given a set number of dots to vote on their preferred ideas. This framework is useful when you need to make decisions quickly or when there are many stakeholders involved.
    • Ranking is useful for detailed prioritization, where ideas are ordered based on their relative importance or potential value. This framework is best suited for situations where you need to create a prioritized list of ideas. You can use a simple stacked rank, or build a more detailed ranking matrix if you’re facing a complex, multifaceted decision.
• Safety Question:
  • One of the most powerful tools is also the scariest — asking the team "do we have enough information to make an informed decision?" Remember that DSD is designed to pull existing information out of your team’s heads, and it’s entirely possible that your team hasn’t gathered enough knowledge to fully align on the next step.
  • If the answer is no, it may be worth pivoting the Decide step to figure out what additional information is missing. Focus on getting the team to identify the blind spots, and make the meeting’s next steps about gathering the necessary information before revisiting DSD.
  • I find that this can often happen in the Opportunity diamond, especially when you’re synthesizing research. If you’re making a large decision and feel like you don’t understand the space well enough, it’s often more efficient to go back and fill in the gaps before mobilizing your team.

By selecting the right decision-making framework, asking critical questions, and adapting the process to the specific context, teams can make informed decisions that drive their projects forward and maximize the value of their creative efforts. The Decide phase is where insights transform into actions, setting the stage for successful implementation and impact.

Pulling it all together

Dump, Sort + Decide (DSD) is a versatile and powerful method for navigating creative processes, ensuring a structured approach to problem-solving and idea generation. By separating divergent and convergent thinking, DSD enables teams to generate a wide range of ideas, identify key themes and insights, and make informed decisions that drive progress. Whether you're in the early stages of opportunity identification or deep into solution development, the DSD process can be adapted to suit your specific needs and goals.

Implementing DSD in your organization can lead to numerous benefits, including:

• Improved idea generation and creativity
• Increased efficiency and productivity in problem-solving
• Enhanced collaboration and communication among team members
• More effective decision-making based on data and insights
• Greater alignment and focus on strategic priorities

If you're interested in exploring how Dump, Sort + Decide can be applied to your unique context, I'm here to help. As a seasoned facilitator, I've seen firsthand how this method can transform the way teams approach problem-solving and idea generation. Whether you're looking to implement DSD for the first time or refine your existing processes, I'm happy to share my experiences and provide guidance tailored to your specific needs.

If you'd like to discuss further or have any questions, feel free to send me an email or book a time to chat. I'm always excited to connect with fellow professionals and explore how we can leverage structured creativity to drive meaningful progress. Together, we can find ways to adapt and optimize DSD for your team, ensuring that you're well-equipped to tackle complex challenges and uncover new opportunities.