Apple’s development process in a nutshell: 2 meetings a week. One to freak out — The other to see what’s feasible. Iterate. More on this at Measuring Measures: Three Design Hacks from Apple
In fact I see a strong relation to Bill Buxton’s presentation at CHI ’08 in Florence. Not the closing keynote. The other one. Here is slide 37:


You need both: idea brainstorming and focus and evaluation.