Creative Problem Solving with SCAMPER

Description

SCAMPER is a technique you can use to spark your creativity and help you overcome any challenge you may be facing. In essence, SCAMPER is a general-purpose checklist with idea-spurring questions — which is both easy to use and surprisingly powerful.

In this posting, I present a complete SCAMPER primer, along with two free creativity-boosting resources: a downloadable reference mind map and an online tool that generates random questions to get you out of a rut whenever you need.

SCAMPER Primer

SCAMPER is based on the notion that everything new is a modification of something that already exists. Each letter in the acronym represents a different way you can play with the characteristics of what is challenging you to trigger new ideas: = Substitute = Combine = Adapt = Magnify = Put to Other Uses = Eliminate (or Minify) = Rearrange (or Reverse)

To use the SCAMPER technique, first state the problem you’d like to solve or the idea you’d like to develop. It can be anything: a challenge in your personal life or business; or maybe a product, service or process you want to improve. After pinpointing the challenge, it’s then a matter of asking questions about it using the SCAMPER checklist to guide you.

Consider, for instance, the problem "How can I increase sales in my business?"

Following the SCAMPER recipe, here are a few questions you could ask:

S (Substitute): "What can I substitute in my selling process?"

C (Combine): "How can I combine selling with other activities?"

A (Adapt): "What can I adapt or copy from someone else’s selling process?"

M (Magnify): "What can I magnify or put more emphasis on when selling?"

P (Put to Other Uses): "How can I put my selling to other uses?"

E (Eliminate): "What can I eliminate or simplify in ...

Original URL

http://litemind.com/scamper/

http://litemind.com/scamper/