If you want to impress your boss with a little innovative thinking then get SCAMPERING. This ideation technique is one of my favourites because once you’re aware of it you can start to spot it in action - see the expert examples below for what I mean here.
SCAMPER is based on the notion that everything new is built on something that already exists. This technique forces you to look at your idea/product/challenge from 7 different perspectives.
SCAMPER is a mnemonic that stands for:
Substitute?
Combine?
Adapt?
Maximise? Minimise?
Put to other uses?
Eliminate?
Rearrange? Reverse?
By questioning, challenging and building on ideas that already exist, we can develop new ideas or improve old ones.
How to do it:
Identify the subject you want to think about and use SCAMPER to prompt questions, to see what new thoughts and ideas emerge.
What could I substitute?
Could this be combined with something else?
How could this be adapted to make it more appealing?
Can this be maximised? Or, minimised?
Is there any other purpose that this could be used for?
What if I eliminate something from it?
Can it be rearranged?
What happens if I reverse it? / What would be the opposite of this?
Use the SCAMPER method to find new ways of looking at things - you'll begin to see things that you usually miss.
Expert examples:
- The England Rugby team substitute players at the end of the game with 'Finshers' - players who are fresh off the bench.
- The mobile phone was combined with the MP3 player and the camera.
- Roll-on deodorant was adapted from the ballpoint pen.
- 'All you can eat' maximises a resturant's offering.
- Ryanair has minimized their service offering.
- Play-Doh was originally a wallpaper cleaner before it was put to other uses by under-5s.
- Apple eliminated the headphone jack.
- McDonalds rearranged/reversed how their resturants work by asking customers to pay first
If you test out any of these techniques with interesting results or think of more expert examples please share them below 👇