Crush Your Challenges Using the SCAMPER Brainstorming Technique

Chuck Frey
Tools for Thinking: The Ultimate Guide
5 min readDec 1, 2020

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Jump-start your thinking in new directions with these diverse perspectives

Are you stuck in a mental rut? Has your creative muse deserted you? Perhaps you need to be whacked upside the head — figuratively and creatively speaking, of course.

One if the most powerful ways to jump-start your thinking in fresh, creative directions is to look at your problem or challenge from different perspectives. And the best way to do that, hands down, is a creative problem-solving technique with the whimsical name of SCAMPER. It’s a mnemonic for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify/Minify, Put to other uses, Eliminate and Reverse/Rearrange.

SCAMPER is powerful because it gives you an easy-to-remember framework that can whack you out of your usual, rutted mode of thinking and empowers you with an entire toolbox of new ways to develop unique solutions. You can use it for solo ideation tool and as a catalyst to enhance team brainstorming sessions.

SCAMPER is popular because it’s easy and fun — and, most importantly, it frequently delivers excellent results!

How to use the SCAMPER brainstorming technique

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Chuck Frey
Tools for Thinking: The Ultimate Guide

Thought leader in mind mapping, visual thinking and creativity for 15+ years. Relentless explorer, learner and dot-collector. I help you elevate your thinking.