Day 25 — Creativity Series 1/7: “SCAMPER”
Ever wonder how other people or companies came up with innovative ideas? Ever feel that sitting in “brainstorming” session, spending a whole day in a meeting room, but didn’t get to anywhere? There are many great tools and processes that can help you generate ideas cheaper, faster, and better. As a starter for the 7 day Creative Series, I’d like to introduce the most commonly used tool “SCAMPER”:
Power of SCAMPER
SCAMPER is a mnemonic of seven words, and it stands for:
- Substitute.
- Combine
- Adapt
- Modify
- Put to another use
- Eliminate
- Reverse
These 7 words help us to think of a problem in different angles and see different possibilities to build upon the existing product, and here’s how you can use them:
1. “Substitute” with something else
For creative thinking, you can substitute one part of the existing tool with almost anything; It could be materials, color, function, or even the way it’s used: place, time, or people. A good example is digital payment; beside paying with cash, we can pay with check or credit card. With the technology advances, now we can pay with PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, and lots of other payment technology.
2. “Combine” different elements
Ever wish you have multiple tools/function in one? Think of swiss army knife as a great example of combining tools.
The baby bottle brush figure above is another good example; the two sizes of brushes are combined into one by putting the small one into the bottom of the big one. Also it combines the “brush stand” function by making the bottom into a wide suction cup.
3. “Adapt” to new usage
There’s more than one way to skin a cat. By adapting your product to fit various user behavior, you can find unlimited usage and make a big win.
Through user research, Instagram found that Indonesian users are using Instagram for online shopping. Based on that insight, Instagram recently launched their in-app shopping functions to expand their revenue source.
4. “Modify” the way it works
Remember a store called Blockbuster? Yes, the one who didn’t change their business model until it’s too late. As we probably still remember the history, Netflix modified the movie renting business model and disrupt the whole industry.
Image source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/23/netflix-dvd-business-still-alive-what-is-it-like-to-work-there.html
5. Put to another use
How can we re-purpose existing tools or product to other use? Both car manufacturer BMW and SAAB started in the aircraft engine business, but later joined the automobile industry with their acquired knowledge and assets. Toyota started as a manufacturer of loom, and with the their equipment and experiences knowledge, they joined the auto industry 9 years later.
Photo credit: http://www.indiantextilemagazine.in/spinning/toyota-bullish-on-indian-market-potential/
6. “Eliminate” certain elements
While adding, combining features might bring you innovation and product victory, sometimes limiting the functionality allows the beauty of a product to shine. Take Twitter as a example, the famous “140 characters count” allow people to share the highlight of the whole message. It also enable users to try harder to be creative with limited amount of information they can use to convey their message.
Image source: http://www.mytechbits.com/twitters-140-character-limit/
7. “Reverse” the way it works
Imagine you can reverse the way people use things, or simply put the object upside down, inside out, back toward front, etc.
SCAMPER is a easy tool that doesn’t require much training and anyone can adopt. For the next 6 days, I will be sharing some other creative methods to help you come up with new ideas. Do you have any other creative methods to generate new idea? I’m excited to learn from you.
ABC. Always be clappin’.
