"So, what do you think?" is a nice enough, and open enough, question. But in Innovation, it's also a highly unhelpful question.
If I may be so bold, I'd suggest you do everything in your power to resist the temptation to ever ask it again.
Instead, ask people to share their thoughts, their feedback, their observations on your idea, on any idea - innovation, design, strapline, positioning statement, CVP, activation, whatever frankly - using a very simple structure.
First, ask them to share their opinions starting their comments with the words: "I love it, because..."
Then, once everyone has had their say, ask them to move onto the second construct: "I love it, but..."
Of all the facilitation tools and techniques and methods that I've used over the years, this is the one that I have come back to again and again and found to be the most useful.
There are so many reasons, related to all of the cognitive biases that we all carry around and are influenced by, that make it so good. Creating consensus, allowing people to have their say, suspending disbelief, embracing ambiguity...
But the main one is because it nudges people to find a "because", a bit of rationale or a bit of logic to support their opinion, rather than simply expressing a personal preference or liking / disliking. The requirement for a "because", lifts their assessment from the personal (which is unlikely to be useful as typically they are not the customer) to the strategic (which is infinitely more useful, however incomplete).
Yes there are biases inherent within the construct, and first impressions, gut-reactions, intuitive responses do, of course, matter. (I mean, if you have a visceral hatred of, I don't know, the colour blue, you probably do need to raise it - and you can in the "I love it but..." part of the conversation.)
Yes and, the biases in the construct outweigh, IMHO, the biases that come from just letting people shoot from the hip when responding to "What do you think?" - or worse "Do you like it?" - type questions.
Credit to Graham Harding and Paul Christopher Walton who first introduced me to this tool...Thanks Graham, thanks Paul.