The 'What if?' workout

Key idea: AI can help you explore possibilities - not just answer questions. That's especially useful when you're stuck or short on creative energy.

Scenario: Your team is trying to improve customer engagement. The problem? Engagement with your email newsletter and self-service help pages is low. Lots of effort is going in - not much is coming back. You've brainstormed a few ideas, but they all feel a bit… safe. And you're stuck.

Your task

Open ChatGPT (recommended) or Copilot Chat. You're going to use AI to break the pattern and unlock new ideas. Give it some background, then ask a 'What if?' question - something that flips the usual approach:

What if we had to solve this without spending any money?
What if we only had 48 hours to fix it?
What if we let customers redesign the process themselves?
What if we were banned from using email altogether?

Let the AI suggest wild ideas. Don't worry about feasibility yet - you're here to stretch your thinking. Once it gives you some ideas: ask it to pick the best one and build it out, or combine two ideas into something new, or add constraints (e.g. "Make this work for people who hate technology").

🔁 Keep this in mind

This isn't about getting the right answer. It's about shaking loose the obvious ones - and surfacing ideas you wouldn't normally reach. Ask "What if…", then nudge, then build.

💬 Reflection

Write your favourite "What if…" question from this exercise. What kind of ideas did it generate - and how were they different from your usual thinking? Would you try this kind of prompting again?