A good idea can come from anyone.

At interactive agencies, there is usually a strong tendency for Creative team members to actively ignore, or even suppress, ideas that are generated "outside of the Creative" team. I am guilty of this crime, but am now actively trying to keep my mind open to new perspectives. Client initiatives need to accomplish a wide variety of business, user, and brand objectives, therefore, ALL agency disciplines should be invited into the brainstorming session. As long as certain rules are followed, and the project budget can accommodate it, clients will benefit from the agency using a multi-disciplinary approach to solve their challenges...even their Creative ones.

Rules are important to brainstorm sessions, however, and the following are really important ones:

1. Ensure that disciplines outside of the Creative Team are not using time that they need to be spending elsewhere, to engage in a Creative brainstorm. If all else is on schedule, by all means, use their brains too.

2. Define, and constantly remind everyone, of the specific goals and objectives that the ideas generated are trying to accomplish. Once more, I emphasize that "Design is not Art." Only ideas that can produce measurable results, and accomplish client objectives, will be considered.

3.  A team member who is skilled in brainstorm moderation should guide the sessions. The most useful ideas will be produced when a thought-leader facilitates the brainstorm. Ideas are generated as a result of the rules of the brainstorm, not in spite of them.

4.  Each team member must come prepared to present the client's challenges to the internal team, from the perspective of their respective discipline.

5.  Final decisions with respect to how much effort and emphasis is placed on specific ideas rest in the hands of the Creative discipline leads. Project Managers and Developers may propose IA and Design tactics, but the level to which these ideas are presented to clients need to be moderated by the Information Architect and Art Director on the team.

In addition to paying attention to the rules of Creative brainstorming, it is important to begin identifying and channeling the type of feedback offered from "non-Creative (from an organization perspective, not based on the individual)" disciplines: 

Roles of Non-Creative Disciplines in Creative Brainstorms

• Account Managers - AMs should be the most familiar with the client's business challenges and objectives. Additionally, they understand the client's budgetary constraints and cycles better than anyone on the team. Harness this knowledge and look at all ideas through the Account Manager lens. Will a tactic accomplish a key client objective? Will the client ever be able to pay for the development of a specific idea?
• Project Managers - Given a specific client objective, PMs can be extremely useful in sequencing the types of ideas brought to the table. Their knowledge of the project timeline and budget can help the Creative Team prioritize tactics based on the reality of when tactics can realistically be deployed.
• Developers - Innovative companies view the Tech team as a Creative discipline. The fabric of Interactive Design is Code. The performance and elegance of the Design is dependent on the decisions of developers and architects. Pay close attention to their ideas and respect their point-of-view about the level of effort to develop each volunteered tactic. 

Learn to be "open," when it comes to listening and considering ideas from unexpected sources, as "openness" a fundamental element of Creativity. It takes practice and patience, but, ultimately results in better Design for your clients.