Elaboration — for facilitators

Samvinas

• Pipe in the shortlist — connect the Source to your focusing tool, filtering to (say) the top-voted ideas.
• Set a Prompt that guides the deepening: "What would it take to make this work?"
• Let people choose which ideas to elaborate; Sign Up pairs well for ownership.
• Export the elaborations for follow-up after the session.

Elaboration consumes idea items from any upstream tool; the developed write-ups — Markdown and sketches — are what you export and carry beyond the event.

Paper and pen

You need: one flip-chart sheet per shortlisted idea, fat markers, and wall space to spread out.

• Head each sheet with one idea from the shortlist; write the guiding prompt underneath.
• People sign their name on the sheet they'll develop. Cap it at three or four names per sheet — otherwise the favourite drains the room and the rest go undeveloped.
• Small groups work at their sheets for 15–20 minutes: who, what, first steps, a sketch. Present tense helps — "what I see us doing is…".
• Reconvene with a gallery walk: two minutes per sheet from its authors.
• Harvest: photograph every sheet; the sheets go home with the people who signed them.

When & why

Reach for Elaboration once convergence has done its work — the group holds a few promising ideas that are still one-liners, and the session's value now depends on making them concrete. In four-stages terms, this is Develop.

• Ownership drives quality: people elaborate hardest on ideas they chose themselves.
• Push for specifics — an elaboration without a first step is still a wish.
• What usually follows: PPCO to strengthen a developed proposal, Sign Up to attach names to actions, or straight to the export and the follow-up meeting.