Creativity Techniques Reference

Creativity Techniques Reference

Step-by-step guides for each technique.

Table of Contents

1. SCAMPER
2. Random Word Association
3. Reverse Brainstorming
4. First Principles Thinking
5. Six Thinking Hats
6. How Might We (HMW)
7. Morphological Box
8. Analogical Thinking
9. Challenging Assumptions
10. Forced Connections
11. 6-3-5 Brainwriting
12. Oblique Strategies
13. Jobs to be Done
14. Incubation Cycling (NEW 2025)
15. Combinatorial Creativity Engine (NEW 2025)
16. Constraint Injection Protocol (NEW 2025)
17. Multi-Persona Parallel (NEW 2025)
18. TRIZ-AI Quick Method (NEW 2025)
19. Divergence Guard (NEW 2025)

SCAMPER

Origin: Alex Osborn, Bob Eberle Best for: Improving existing products/processes

The 7 Lenses

Process

1. Define the product/process to improve
2. Go through each letter systematically
3. Ask 2-3 questions per letter
4. Record ALL ideas (no judgment)
5. Review and select best ideas

Example: Improving a Coffee Shop

• Substitute: Replace baristas with AI ordering? Use oat milk as default?
• Combine: Coffee + coworking space? Coffee + book club?
• Adapt: Drive-thru model from fast food? Subscription from Netflix?
• Modify: Make cups larger? Open 24 hours?
• Put to other use: Rent space for events? Sell coffee beans wholesale?
• Eliminate: Remove menus (only 3 drinks)? Remove tables (takeaway only)?
• Reverse: Customers make their own coffee? Pay-what-you-want?

Random Word Association

Origin: Edward de Bono (Lateral Thinking) Best for: Breaking mental fixation

Process

1. State the problem clearly
2. Pick a random noun (use word bank below or dictionary)
3. List 5-6 attributes of that word
4. Force connections between each attribute and problem
5. Develop promising connections into ideas

Word Bank (Random Selection)

Concrete nouns work best:

• Nature: tree, river, mountain, fish, bird, storm, desert, ocean
• Objects: bridge, mirror, clock, hammer, key, wheel, ladder, door
• Animals: elephant, spider, ant, eagle, shark, butterfly, wolf
• Places: airport, hospital, playground, kitchen, library, stadium

Example: "How to increase customer loyalty?"

Random word: Spider

Reverse Brainstorming

Best for: Finding hidden risks, uncovering opportunities

Process

1. Define the goal (what you want to achieve)
2. Reverse it ("How could we make this WORSE?")
3. Brainstorm all ways to cause the problem
4. Invert each negative idea into a positive solution
5. Evaluate the inverted solutions

Example: "How to improve customer service?"

Reversed: "How to make customer service TERRIBLE?"

First Principles Thinking

Origin: Aristotle, popularized by Elon Musk Best for: Breakthrough innovation, challenging "impossible" problems

Elon Musk's 3-Step Framework

1. Identify assumptions - What does everyone believe?
2. Break down to fundamentals - What are the basic truths?
3. Rebuild from scratch - What new solution emerges?

Process

1. State the problem
2. List all assumptions (things people accept as true)
3. Question each: "Is this actually true? Why?"
4. Identify the fundamental components/truths
5. Rebuild a solution from those fundamentals only

Example: SpaceX Rockets

Problem: Rockets cost $65M, space exploration too expensive

Assumptions:

• You have to buy rockets from manufacturers
• Rockets are disposable (one-time use)
• Rocket technology is mature, can't be improved

First Principles:

• Rockets are made of: aluminum, titanium, copper, carbon fiber
• Raw material cost: ~2% of rocket price
• Physics allows rockets to land and be reused

Rebuilt Solution:

• Build rockets in-house (10x cheaper)
• Make rockets reusable (100x cheaper per launch)

Six Thinking Hats

Origin: Edward de Bono Best for: Balanced group thinking, avoiding conflict

The 6 Hats

Process

1. Everyone wears the same hat at the same time
2. Spend 2-5 minutes per hat
3. Blue hat starts and ends the session
4. Suggested order: Blue → White → Green → Yellow → Black → Red → Blue

Example: "Should we launch a new product line?"

• Blue: Define scope, set time limits
• White: Market size $2B, competitors: 5 major, our market share: 12%
• Green: Could bundle with existing products, subscription model, B2B version
• Yellow: First mover advantage, brand extension, revenue diversification
• Black: Cannibalize existing sales, stretch resources, brand dilution risk
• Red: Excited but nervous, feels rushed
• Blue: Decision: proceed with pilot, review in 90 days

How Might We (HMW)

Origin: Procter & Gamble, popularized by IDEO Best for: Reframing problems as opportunities

Formula

"How Might We" + [action verb] + "for" + [user] + "so that" + [outcome]

Good vs. Bad HMW

Process

1. Start with user insight/pain point
2. Write 3-5 different HMW framings
3. Choose the one that's not too broad, not too narrow
4. Use as prompt for brainstorming

Example: Airbnb

Insight: Travelers feel like outsiders in new cities

HMW Options:

• How might we help travelers feel like locals?
• How might we connect travelers with residents?
• How might we make any place feel like home?

Result: "Belong Anywhere" campaign, Experiences feature

Morphological Box

Origin: Fritz Zwicky (astronomer) Best for: Systematic exhaustive exploration

Process

1. Decompose problem into 3-5 parameters
2. List variations for each parameter (2-5 each)
3. Create matrix (parameters × variations)
4. Combine one variation from each parameter
5. Evaluate interesting combinations

Example: New Restaurant Concept

Possible combinations:

• Thai + Budget + Ghost kitchen + Trendy = Thai street food delivery brand
• Fusion + Premium + Dine-in + Romantic = Upscale fusion date spot
• Italian + Mid-range + Takeaway + Family = Family Italian takeout

Analogical Thinking

Best for: Cross-industry innovation, breakthrough ideas

Process

1. Define the problem abstractly
2. Identify analogous domains (nature, other industries)
3. Research how they solve similar problems
4. Transfer the solution principles
5. Adapt to your context

Domains to Consider

Example: Airport → Hospital

Problem: Hospital emergency rooms are chaotic

Analogy: Airports handle high volume with clarity

Transferred ideas:

• Clear signage and wayfinding
• Status boards showing wait times
• "Boarding zones" for different severity levels
• Self-check-in kiosks for minor issues

Challenging Assumptions

Best for: Paradigm shifts, disrupting status quo

Process

1. State the problem/situation
2. List all assumptions (explicit and implicit)
3. Challenge each: "What if this weren't true?"
4. Invert promising assumptions
5. Build ideas from inverted assumptions

Common Assumption Categories

• Industry norms: "This is how it's always done"
• Customer beliefs: "Customers want X"
• Technical limits: "It's impossible to..."
• Business model: "Revenue comes from..."
• Time/Space: "Must be done in person / at this time"

Example: Hotel Industry → Airbnb

Forced Connections

Best for: Novel combinations, breaking creative blocks

Process

1. Define your challenge
2. Select 2 random, unrelated concepts
3. List attributes/features of each
4. Force connections between them and your challenge
5. Develop interesting connections

Example: "New Fitness App" + "Library" + "Restaurant"

6-3-5 Brainwriting

Best for: Team ideation, equal participation

Format

• 6 participants
• 3 ideas each
• 5 minutes per round

Process

1. Give each person a worksheet
2. State the problem clearly
3. Set timer for 5 minutes
4. Each person writes 3 ideas
5. Pass worksheet to the right
6. Read previous ideas, add 3 more (build on or new)
7. Repeat until worksheets complete full circle
8. Result: 108 ideas in 30 minutes

Variations

• 4-5 people: fewer ideas but still effective
• Remote: Use shared docs, mute during writing
• Async: Set 24-hour deadline, pass digitally

Oblique Strategies

Origin: Brian Eno, Peter Schmidt (1975) Best for: Breaking deadlocks, artistic/creative blocks

Sample Prompts

Use these when stuck. Pick randomly.

• "What would your closest friend do?"
• "Honor thy error as a hidden intention"
• "What if this was the other way around?"
• "Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities"
• "Do nothing for as long as possible"
• "What is the simplest solution?"
• "Use an old idea"
• "State the problem in words as clearly as possible"
• "What wouldn't you do?"
• "Make a blank valuable by putting it in an exquisite frame"
• "Disconnect from desire"
• "What would make this really easy?"
• "The most important thing is the thing most easily forgotten"
• "Ask your body"
• "What are you really trying to do?"

Jobs to be Done

Origin: Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick Best for: Understanding true customer needs

Core Concept

People don't buy products. They "hire" products to do a job.

The Framework

When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome].

Process

1. Observe what customers actually do (not say)
2. Identify the job they're trying to get done
3. Uncover functional, emotional, social aspects
4. Find where current solutions fail
5. Design for the job, not the product category

Example: Milkshake

Traditional view: "How do we make a better milkshake?"

JTBD view: "What job is the milkshake being hired to do?"

Research finding: Morning commuters hire milkshakes to:

• Make boring commute interesting
• Keep them full until lunch
• Be easy to consume one-handed

Solution: Thicker shake, longer straw, add-ins for texture

Incubation Cycling

Origin: Cognitive science (incubation effect) + LLM adaptation (2024) Best for: Breaking AI self-anchoring, generating truly novel ideas Research: HBR 2025

Why It Works

LLMs tend to anchor to their own outputs—each subsequent idea builds on previous ones, leading to convergence. Incubation cycling mimics the human "incubation effect" where stepping away from a problem leads to breakthrough insights.

Process

1. First Burst: Generate 5-10 ideas on the problem
2. Full Stop: Completely stop. Do an unrelated task for 2-5 minutes
3. Fresh Context: Return WITHOUT looking at previous ideas
4. Second Burst: Generate 5-10 NEW ideas from scratch
5. Compare & Combine: Now review both sets together
6. Synthesize: Create hybrid ideas from the two independent sets

Example: "How to increase newsletter subscribers?"

First Burst:

1. Add popup on homepage
2. Offer free ebook for signup
3. Create referral program
4. Add signup to checkout flow
5. Guest post with author bio links

[2-minute break - check email, stretch]

Second Burst (fresh):

1. Partner with complementary newsletters for cross-promotion
2. Create a free tool that requires email to save results
3. Host a challenge/course delivered via email
4. Make the newsletter itself shareable with unique link
5. Create "preview mode" showing what subscribers get

Combined insights: The second burst often reveals completely different angles (partnerships, product-led, social proof) that wouldn't emerge from the first burst's trajectory.

Variations

• Longer incubation: Overnight gap for major creative challenges
• Topic shift: Work on different problem during break (cross-pollination)
• Persona shift: Return as different persona for second burst

Combinatorial Creativity Engine

Origin: Computational creativity theory + LLM implementation Best for: Systematic breakthrough innovation Research: arXiv 2024 — +7-10% on novelty metrics

Core Concept

Most creative breakthroughs are combinations of existing ideas from different domains. This technique systematically applies that insight.

The 5-Step Process

1. ABSTRACT: Strip problem to its core function

   • "I need to move people" not "I need a better bus"
   • "I need to transfer knowledge" not "I need a better textbook"

2. RETRIEVE: Find solutions from 3+ distant domains

   • Ask: "How does [nature/military/sports/healthcare/entertainment] solve this?"
   • Look for analogous functions, not similar appearances

3. GENERALIZE: Extract transferable principles

   • Not "ants use pheromones" but "leave trails for others to follow"
   • Not "hospitals triage" but "prioritize by severity, not arrival"

4. COMBINE: Create novel configurations

   • Principle A + Principle B applied to original problem
   • Mix-and-match from different domains

5. INSTANTIATE: Make concrete for your context

   • "Leave trails" → User activity feeds showing what others did
   • "Prioritize by severity" → Support tickets auto-ranked by impact

Example: "How to reduce customer support load?"

Abstract: "Route questions to answers efficiently"

Retrieve from distant domains:

• Airports: Wayfinding signs, self-service kiosks
• Ants: Pheromone trails, distributed problem-solving
• Libraries: Classification systems, reference desk triage

Generalize:

• Make paths visible (airport signs)
• Let successful paths strengthen (pheromone trails)
• Classify by type, route to specialists (library)

Combine & Instantiate:

• Show "X people found this helpful" on FAQ answers (pheromone)
• Auto-classify tickets and route to specialty teams (library)
• Visual flowchart: "What do you need?" with clear paths (airport)

Constraint Injection Protocol

Origin: Research on creativity constraints + AI homogenization mitigation Best for: Preventing AI idea convergence, boosting novelty Research: Science Advances 2024

The Problem

Without constraints, AI-generated ideas tend to converge toward the same "optimal" solutions across users. Adding deliberate constraints paradoxically increases creativity.

Constraint Types

Process

1. Baseline: Generate 5 ideas without constraints
2. Inject: Pick 1-2 random constraints from table
3. Constrained round: Generate 5 MORE ideas under constraints
4. Compare: Note which set is more creative/novel
5. Hybrid: Apply constraint insights to unconstrained ideas

Example: "New productivity app features"

Unconstrained ideas:

1. AI task prioritization
2. Calendar integration
3. Team collaboration
4. Progress tracking
5. Focus mode

Constraint injected: "For users with no internet access"

Constrained ideas:

1. Offline-first with local AI that syncs later
2. SMS-based task management
3. Paper template generator for analog backup
4. Voice memos that transcribe when online
5. Peer-to-peer sync via Bluetooth

Insight: The constrained set reveals novel approaches (SMS, P2P, paper hybrid) that improve the app even WITH internet.

Multi-Persona Parallel

Origin: Design research + LLM prompt engineering Best for: Maximizing solution diversity Research: Cambridge Design Science 2024

Key Finding

Running multiple personas simultaneously produces more diverse ideas than running them sequentially. Sequential personas anchor to earlier outputs.

Method A: Parallel Personas (Maximum Diversity)

Generate ALL personas' responses in a single prompt:

Solve [problem] from these 4 perspectives simultaneously:
1. As a skeptical engineer focused on feasibility
2. As a customer experience designer focused on delight
3. As a cost-optimizer focused on efficiency
4. As a 10-year-old child focused on fun

Give each perspective 2-3 distinct ideas.

Method B: Sequential Evolution

When parallel isn't possible, use structured handoffs:

1. Persona A generates initial solution
2. Persona B critiques and proposes improvements
3. Persona C adds a completely different angle
4. Synthesizer combines insights from all three

Persona Bank

Example: "Improve employee onboarding"

Parallel prompt output:

Skeptical Engineer:

• Automate repetitive setup with scripts
• Create checkable prerequisites before day 1
• Build self-service troubleshooting wiki

Customer Experience Designer:

• Design "welcome journey" with surprise moments
• Buddy system with gamified milestones
• Personalized welcome video from CEO

10-year-old Child:

• Make it a treasure hunt to find your desk/tools
• Sticker collection for completing tasks
• Have a "graduation ceremony" on day 30

Synthesis: The child's "treasure hunt" idea → transformed into an interactive onboarding quest with real rewards.

TRIZ-AI Quick Method

Origin: TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) + LLM implementation Best for: Technical/engineering problems, systematic innovation Research: AutoTRIZ 2024

Background

TRIZ analyzed 40,000+ patents to extract 40 universal inventive principles. These principles can be applied systematically via LLM prompts.

The 40 TRIZ Principles (Grouped)

Structural:

1. Segmentation — Divide into independent parts
2. Taking out — Separate interfering part
3. Local quality — Different parts do different things
4. Asymmetry — Replace symmetry with asymmetry
5. Merging — Bring closer, combine in time
6. Universality — One part performs multiple functions
7. Nesting — Place one inside another
8. Anti-weight — Compensate weight with lift
9. Preliminary anti-action — Create countermeasures in advance
10. Preliminary action — Pre-arrange before needed

Dynamic: 11. Beforehand cushioning — Prepare emergency means 12. Equipotentiality — Limit position changes 13. The other way around — Invert the action 14. Spheroidality — Use curves instead of lines 15. Dynamics — Allow characteristics to change 16. Partial or excessive action — Do more/less than needed 17. Another dimension — Move to 2D/3D 18. Mechanical vibration — Use oscillation 19. Periodic action — Use pulses instead of continuous 20. Continuity of useful action — Eliminate idle time

Resource: 21. Skipping — Conduct at high speed 22. Blessing in disguise — Use harmful factors 23. Feedback — Introduce feedback 24. Intermediary — Use intermediate carrier 25. Self-service — Object services itself 26. Copying — Use cheap copies 27. Cheap disposables — Replace expensive durable with cheap disposable 28. Mechanical substitution — Replace physical with sensory 29. Pneumatics and hydraulics — Use gas/liquid 30. Flexible membranes — Use thin films

Transformation: 31. Porous materials — Make porous 32. Color changes — Change color 33. Homogeneity — Make interacting parts of same material 34. Discarding/recovering — Discard or restore 35. Parameter changes — Change physical state 36. Phase transitions — Use phase change effects 37. Thermal expansion — Use thermal expansion 38. Strong oxidants — Use enriched atmosphere 39. Inert atmosphere — Use inert environment 40. Composite materials — Use composite materials

Quick Application Process

1. State problem as a contradiction: "I want X but it causes Y"
2. Identify 2-3 relevant principles from list
3. Prompt: "Apply TRIZ principle [X] to solve: [problem]"
4. Iterate with different principles

Example: "Battery drains too fast in mobile app"

Contradiction: "I want frequent sync but it drains battery"

Relevant principles:

• #19 Periodic action (pulse instead of continuous)
• #23 Feedback (adjust based on usage)
• #25 Self-service (app manages its own resources)

Generated solutions:

• Sync every 15 min when active, every 2 hours when idle (#19)
• Learn user patterns, sync before they typically open app (#23)
• App reduces features automatically when battery <20% (#25)

Divergence Guard

Origin: Research on AI collective homogenization Best for: Preventing AI ideas from becoming too similar Research: PMC 2024

The Problem

Studies show that while AI helps individuals generate more original ideas, the overall diversity ACROSS groups narrows. Everyone converges on similar "AI-optimized" solutions.

The 5-Step Protocol

1. Similarity Check

   • After generating 3+ ideas, review for patterns
   • Ask: "Are these variations of the same concept?"

2. Force Opposite

   • Prompt: "Generate an idea that is the OPPOSITE of the above"
   • If ideas are digital → force analog
   • If ideas are fast → force slow

3. Domain Shift

   • Prompt: "What would [completely unrelated field] do?"
   • Use random domain: military, cooking, childcare, astronomy

4. Constraint Swap

   • Remove the most assumed constraint
   • Add a random new constraint
   • Regenerate

5. Absurdity Injection

   • Prompt: "What's the most ridiculous/impossible solution?"
   • Often contains kernel of genuine insight

Example: "Ideas for team communication tool"

Initial ideas (similar):

1. Slack-like channels with threading
2. Teams-like video integration
3. Discord-like voice rooms

Divergence Guard applied:

Force opposite: "No real-time communication at all" → Async video messages that auto-delete after 24 hours

Domain shift: "What would a kindergarten teacher do?" → Visual mood boards, sticker reactions, show-and-tell sessions

Absurdity injection: "Most ridiculous solution?" → Mandatory 5-minute interpretive dance before each meeting → Kernel: Physical/movement element before intense discussions = "walking 1:1s" feature

Result: Far more diverse idea set than iteration would produce