Early in your design phase, explore wide rather than deep. Come up with several possible solutions to a given problem before fixing on one and developing it vertically into a finished design. The obvious advantage of lateral thinking is that it lets you compare the merits of various solutions before committing to one. A less obvious advantage is that it allows you to synthesize multiple solutions into an even better solution. A third advantage is that one idea can lead to another. When you sketch laterally, you don’t have a specific agenda for where your sketching explorations should lead. Later in the process, when the time does comes to evaluate, it will be much easier to reel in crazy ideas than to extend tame, lame, safe ideas