Deliberate Ideation: Creative Problem-Solving Technique

17 min readMay 20, 2021

Deliberate Ideation: Creative Problem-Solving Technique using the SCAMPER Method

Creative Thinking & Problem-Solving techniques are essential parts of the learning process that turns ideas into innovations that opens-up possibilities for creative ideas to flourish in our daily lives.

Creativity is the act of turning new & imaginative ideas into Reality. Creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, find hidden patterns, and make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena or objects to generate reliable and cost-effective solutions.

Having said that, not all people are accustomed to regularly flexing their creative muscles because they feel limited. It’s a shame that most adults allow themselves to loose their creativity as they grow older because of how they perceive an adult should be perceived by the world around them, but there is still hope!

What Happened to the Inquisitive Child Within You?

We’re all born with an innate ability to think creatively and outside-the-box because our belief system hasn’t yet been fully developed and confirmation biases haven’t taken over our conscious decision-making process. In fact, our creativity seems to dwindle and slowly fadeaway into obscurity as we grow older and conform to certain tribes; be it culture, religion, or ideology.

It’s a shame that we don’t prioritize Creative Thinking from a young age because once we’re adults, it’s more difficult for us to flip the creativity switch that seems to be permanently turned-off!

Becoming Passionately Curious

To counter this seemingly permanent effect of creativity slump, there are several popular methods that we could use to stimulate the creative juices that are buried deep within our subconscious mind because they have never left in the first place; they’re just misplaced in our subconscious mind!

One of the most effective ways that we could use to force creativity out of ourselves is the SCAMPER technique, which is a system designed to force creativity out of our subconscious minds in any field or profession. SCAMPER is an acronym that stands for:

Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify (Magnify or Minify)
Put to other uses
Eliminate
Reverse

Innovation is about improving existing processes in ways that have novelty and originality in both context and arrangement. The SCAMPER process can be applied to any idea; be it a product, service, proposal, or even a problem that you’re trying to solve.

The Power of Asking Questions!

The SCAMPER technique is a tool that guides your ideas towards innovation, weather it is for a product, service, problem, or an idea that you’re trying to develop. Asking probing and open-ended questions (instead of binary yes/no questions) allows you to consider possibilities and see things differently; especially if the questions challenge your belief system about how things should be and different possibilities.

To use the SCAMPER process effectively, ask questions for each of the words that make-up the phrase “SCAMPERR” and you will start seeing things differently and will consider options that might seem radical or straight-out crazy:

Substitute: What parts of the problem/situation can we substitute or change? Is there another way we can do this, or a different thing we could put in place? Could we take some of the underlying assumptions about the problem and change them?
Combine: What features from other applications or industries can we combine with what we have on hand? Can we combine some of the problem elements we have with others to give us a redefined problem? Can we bring together different people or skills to help solve it?
Adapt: Can we adapt them in any way to an existing process in our industry or other industries? Are there related products, services, or industries with a problem like this? Is there a different context where our ideas could be usefully applied within or outside our industry?
Modify: What if we modify the format, scale, or industry? Are there dimensions of our ideas that we can expand/reduce? How might we change the way our ideas are being perceived in terms of shape, story, look, or feel?
Put to other uses: What uses are we not taking into account in terms of context? Who else might be interested in a version of our idea? Could we recycle our product & use it for something else at the end of its life?
Eliminate: In what ways can we eliminate something extra (features, function, or accessories)? In what ways might we get rid of unnecessary elements and streamline the core idea? What would happen if we took away parts of the idea, what would that look like, how would people react?
Reverse: What would the idea look like if we restructured it? In what ways might we turn our idea around, make it do the opposite of our original intention? Can we change the sequence or direction in which things work?

To make the best use of the SCAMPER system, first; pretend that the problem is like a pane of glass and take a sledgehammer and mentally shatter the glass into smaller pieces, where the pieces represents the features that constitute the problem itself. The different aspects that make-up the problem, so to speak.

This imaginary approach will allow you to review the basic characteristics of the problem and think of as many questions as you can to challenge your perceived understanding about the problem. This way, you can address each one of the features of the problem in isolation while potentially combining different aspects of the problem with each other.

The key is to ask as many questions as possible and try to flush-out all the different hypothetical situations that don’t seem to apply after verification or testing. Through trial-and-error, deliberate practice, and experience you will start to see new ideas emerge out of old ones.

The best resource I know of about SCAMPER and other creative thinking techniques is Michael Michalko’s wonderful book Thinkertoys. This amazing book has more than 40 pages dedicated to SCAMPER; along with other creative thinking techniques and case studies. The book is the most comprehensive creativity reference I have put my hands on, where there are more than 40 creative techniques that should suit every taste from the most logical or technical person to the most intuitive. I Highly recommend READING it!

The SCAMPER Process

The SCAMPER method is very similar to Design Thinking in that both these concepts aim to find solutions to problems. However, Design Thinking places the human factor at the center and its universe is to find creative ways to solve problems (Human Centered Design — HCD). The SCAMPER technique is more focused on the process of finding unusual & creative solutions to problems, but also addresses the development of innovative ideas, where the goal is to improve a product or service.

Now let’s take a deep-dive into each of the 7 aspects of the SCAMPER technique:

1. Substitute

Find a part of your concept, product, service, or process that you could replace with another to see whether it will result in any improvements. This will help you test which alternative features work better in a trial-and-error process. By looking for replacements, you can often come-up with new ideas, change things, adjust places, modify procedures, enhance ideas, and even better cater to emotions.

Questions to Consider

What materials or resources can you substitute or swap to improve the product?
What other product, process, or feature could you use?
What rules or assumptions could you substitute?
Can you use this product elsewhere else as a substitute?
What will happen if you change your feelings or attitude toward this product?
Can you replace someone involved in the process or supply-chain?
Can you change its shape?
In what ways may you use this idea in a different place?

Example — Heinze Glass vs. Plastic Bottle

Glass bottles are heavier, more expensive, more breakable, and the ketchup only pours with great difficulty due to the viscosity of the ketchup against the inner glass surface wall of the bottle itself. The Solution, Replace the glass bottle with plastic one, which is more rugged, inexpensive to manufacture, and durable, and boy why did it take forever and a day for them to invert the plastic bottle that rests on its head to better use the bottle!!!

2. Combine

Most of the time you don’t have to develop something radically new, but the solution might actually already exists elsewhere, which might not be obvious at first. One idea might not work alone, but when you combine it with several ideas or features; amazing things can happen! Think about combining two or more parts of your problem to create a different product, process, or service to enhance their synergy with each other to solve the problem better.

Questions to Consider

What would happen if you combine the product with another to create something new?
What could you combine to maximize the uses of the product/service?
What features could be combined to produce something unexpected?
In what ways could you combine or merge your idea with another object, idea, product, or service?
What can be combined to maximize the number of uses?
What materials could be combined to produce a more superior product?

Example — Smartphones

Smartphones that have become ubiquitous nowadays were once a monumental achievement that just 10-years ago changed the market and turned it on its head! Smartphones were considered disruptive innovation when they were first introduced by Steve Jobs because the iPhone combined digital camera, music, navigation, and web browsing with online purchasing capabilities all in one device! Contrast that to the rotary dial phone that some of us are old enough to have used it at some point in our lives that used to work just fine until we learned about smartphones!

3. Adapt

You might have already discovered the right solution to your problem, but you just don’t know it yet because it’s buried deep within your subconscious mind. Sometimes an idea that works to solve one problem, could also be used to solve a different problem in a different condition, industry, or arrangement. Bear in mind that all new ideas or inventions are borrowed (to some degree) from somewhere else!

Questions to Consider:

How could you adapt or readjust your product to serve another purpose or use?
What else is the product like in another industry or application?
Who or what could you emulate to adapt that product into yours?
What else is like your product?
What other context could you put your product into?
What other products or ideas could you use for inspiration?
Is there something similar to it, but in a different context?
Does the past offer any lessons with similar ideas?
What could you copy, borrow, or even steal from somewhere else?
What ideas outside your field of expertise could you incorporate your idea into; in ways that would solve the problem you have on hand?

Example — Apple’s Magnetic Plug Adoption (Adapted from Japanese Rice Cookers)

Funny story, during one of Apple’s visit to one of their suppliers in Japan, Apple executives noticed that rice cookers have magnetic plugs, which struck them as odd. When the Apple executives inquired about the magnetic plug from their Japanese partners, they told them it’s to prevent tripping over the wire while the cooker is running, which might scold the person and cause some serious burns. In fact, the magnetic plug prevented the user from receiving 2nd or 3rd degree burns and the loss of the rice being cooked. That sparked the idea to adapt the same magnetic plug to their new MacBook that was under development at the time.

4. Modify (Magnify or Minify)

Modify an aspect of your situation or problem by magnifying it to see whether it gives you a new insight or adds any value. This will help you identify which part of your process or concept is most significant. Think about ways to magnify or exaggerate your idea (amplify it), which may increase its perceived value or give you new insights about what components are most important to know what to keep and what to amend.

Questions to Consider

How could you change the shape, look, or feel of your product/service?
What could you add to modify the product or service?
What could you emphasize or highlight to create more value?
What element of the product could you strengthen to create something new?
What can be exaggerated or overstated?
What can be made higher, bigger, or stronger?
What can be duplicated? Can you make multiple copies?
Can you add extra features or somehow add extra value?

Example — Digital Warehouse for Manufacturing On-Demand

One of the biggest impacts to global supply-chain across the world due to the Coronavirus Pandemic include shutting-down borders, lockdowns, and social distancing. This has resulted in major disruptions between Supply & Demand with very little options to source spare parts from their country of origin. Therefore, some countries developed their digital inventory of spare parts to manufacture them when needed and allow the use of alternative suppliers by sending them the information about parts digitally, where parts could be sourced from manufacturers within close proximity to where the demand lies. This process has the benefits of reducing physical brick-and-mortar warehouses for spare parts, where it couples it with digital warehouses to allow the utilization of advanced Industry 4.0 manufacturing technologies, reduce annual incurred fees for unutilized fixed assets, allow for the diversification of suppliers, and receive more competitive bidding from a variety of suppliers.

5. Put to Other Uses

This is about rearranging things in new ways by putting an existing idea or concept to another use. Put simply, using things differently than what was originally intended. Think of how you might be able to put your current idea to other uses, or think of what you could reuse from somewhere else in order to solve your own problem. Many times, an idea only becomes great when applied differently than what was first imagined.

Questions to Consider

Can you use this product somewhere else; perhaps in another industry?
Who else could use this product?
In what ways would this product behave differently in another setting?
Could you recycle the waste from this product to make something new?
Can it be used by people other than those whom it was originally intended for?
How would a child use it? An older person?
Are there other possible uses if it’s modified?
In what ways could you use this idea in other markets or industries?

Example — Apple’s iPod “1,000 Songs in your Pocket!”

Apple discovered that all early MP3 players were horrible, so Steve Jobs asked his top hardware guy to see if Apple could do better. The engineer spent a few weeks on the project, but concluded that the technology wasn’t there yet. Either it would be too big, the battery would be too bulky, or it would have limited memory. He was just about to give-up when he made an unexpected discovery during a routine visit to Toshiba with one of Apple’s hard-drive suppliers. At the end of the scheduled meeting, the Toshiba executives offhandedly showed him a new, 1.8-inch hard-drive that they just prototyped. The team at Toshiba didn’t know what to do with their new prototype & the engineer immediately recognized it as the key missing technology for the first iPod, and the rest as they say is history!

6. Eliminate

The elimination might sound familiar to those who know about Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma. It’s about eliminating inefficient processes “waste” with the goal of streamlining processes. Think of what might happen if you eliminated or minimized parts of your idea simply by reducing or eliminating components or features. Through repeated trimming of ideas, objects, or processes; you can gradually narrow your challenge down to the functions that are most important to the customers whom you intend to sell it to.

Questions to Consider

How could you streamline or simplify this product?
What features, parts, or rules could you eliminate?
How could you make it smaller, faster, lighter, or more fun?
What would happen if you took away parts of the product? What would you have in its place?
What parts can be removed without altering the core function?
What’s non-essential or unnecessary to the core intent or purpose of the product or service?
Can the rules be eliminated?
What if you made it smaller?
Should you split it into different parts?
Can you compact or make it smaller?

Example — MacBook Air Eliminates the CD/DVD Drive

Apple shifted from large data storage by shifting from the CD/DVD drive to developing the iCloud, where Cloud computing is utilized, and thus eliminating the need for a CD/DVD disk drive on the MacBook Air, which reduced its cost & weight.

7. Reverse

This is my all-time favorite because its counterintuitive at first glance and borderline crazy, but it holds the key to unlocking a knockout punch when done right! Reverse the orientation or direction of a process or product, do things the other way around, completely against its original intended purpose. Sometimes when you reverse the way a product is used, it will help you see things from a different perspective and challenge your belief system about how things should be done! Think of what you would do if part of your problem, product, or process worked in reverse or were done in a different sequence.

Questions to Consider

What would happen if you reversed the process or sequenced things differently?
What if you try to do the exact opposite of what you’re trying to do now?
What roles could you reverse or switch?
How could you reorganize the product?
In what ways could you inter-change component order or configurations?
Can you change the schedule or path of delivery?
In what ways could you change negatives into positives?
Should you turn it around (Up instead of down or down instead of up)?
What if you consider it backwards (start from the end and work your way backwards)?
What if you’re trying to do the exact opposite of what you originally intended, what will happen? In what ways will you measure the results?

Example

Reverse Engineering Obsolescence Mechanical Spare Parts

Reverse Engineering of mechanical spare parts is the opposite of Forward Engineering. In the conventional approach to machine design, engineers start by finding problems that needs solving. Then when engineers get inspired and start the ideation process then transition into design, manufacturing, prototyping, testing, inspection, and finally implementation. Reverse engineering flips the conventional cycle head-over-heals by starting from the physical parts (final stage of conventional manufacturing) and work their way backwards! In other words, the starting point for reverse engineering is where conventional engineering ends. The process of Reverse Engineering is DarTec’s core business line that is in the process of enabling the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to transition from a consumer-based economy to a knowledge-based one!

Takeaways

Your ideas need to be original only in it’s adoption to the problem that you’re trying to solve.
Creativity is about rearranging what we know in order for us to find-out what we don’t know.
Creativity is a skill that could be acquired by deliberate practice using certain techniques.
SCAMPER is a creative thinking process that stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, and Reverse.
To use SCAMPER effectively, you simply go through the list of SCAMPER elements by asking inquisitive open-ended questions regarding each element of the problem you’re attempting to solve.
Not every idea you generate using the SCAMPER technique will yield practical results; however, you can take good ideas and explore them further by building on them.
The SCAMPER technique is the ability to consider existing things and repackage them in new innovative or unconventional ways.
The SCAMPER approach includes analysis, open-mindedness, problem-solving, organization, and communication.
Structuring problems in “question format” enables you to set boundaries around the problem to contain the challenge and suggest practical solutions that would inevitably see the light of day!
Get in the habit of consuming content that is outside your comfort zone to challenge your own belief system and perception about the world around you and how it works vs how you think it should work.
Working-out can improve your creativity because you would allow your conscious mind to get-out of the way of your subconscious mind, which is the source of your creative thinking and unexpected breakthroughs.
Ideation, innovation, and fresh infusion of thoughts don’t have to come from a blank slate or out of thin air; rather, original ideas are formulated by using what you already have and change it by adjusting, replacing, modifying, or just seeing it in a different light, which is the spark of creativity that you need.