What is the best way to brainstorm domain name ideas with an experienced team without exposing it to the general internet community.
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M$2 Answers
While everyone is talking, I'll sit quietly, listen and jot down the words that are said more often then not in a straight column down the left hand side of the page.
If you need to stage a conversation to spur discussion, bring in a new person that doesn't have any direct knowledge of the project. Ask everyone to thoroughly explain the product and also ask the new person to ask questions about it.
After the meeting, I'll start a new column on my notes page with descriptive words that match or sound good with the keywords I pulled from the meeting.
A third column will be formed with synonyms.
I'll interconnect the words drawing lines with a couple of different colors of pens and when a viable combination is found, I'll check for their availability by using command line whois and register any that are available right away.
When I have a really tough time, I take those 3 columns and consult this (albeit paid) visual thesaurus: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
If I need something very quick, I'll consult one of the automated services like Nameboy: http://www.nameboy.com/
Here are 3 good sites for further information:
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/how-to-brainstorm-domain-names.html
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/top-tools-for-domain-name-brainstorming/7208/
http://seoblackhat.com/2006/09/25/brainstorming-for-a-better-more-brandable-domain-name/
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
http://www.dimdim.com/
next to better organize, and so everyone can basically take a whiteboard with them, set up a Mind Map. We used this on in the games industry and it works great, also free for 30 days.
http://www.mindjet.com
The last piece of advice is have an organized Manager for this task, what I mean by that is let everyone know your goal, that you want all feedback and suggestions and you write everything down. Sometimes even the smallest idea can spiral into a huge mind map that you never thought was possible.
Lastly, put a cap on each task, in my experience you need to quantify the meeting time to get maximum buy in. After this is done, take one day max to look at the information and have a triage meeting to go over the data. You will be amazed how well this will work!
Experience using Scrum, organizing brainstorming in the gaming world
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M$
Darth... I don't know if there is some mysterious power at work here or what... but I can't tell you how many times I've needed to research something for work and found a question posted about the EXACT same thing here.
I wonder if by "human powered search", what Mahalo really means is that they have tapped into the spy satellites that can listen to our thoughts?
Cool answer; I was just thinking of this question topic earlier today, and what a nice surprise to find it posted here!