Creative Thinking Technique Research

Idea Champions

1. Open the floodgates - Write down all ideas - Brainstorm
2. Lead into gold - List assumptions - How can I? - Brainstorm
3. The right question - Challenge: how can we? Rewrite 5 other ways
4. The seed of fascination - Fascinates me / People / Admire / What I'd do if had more time - Brainstorm
5. Good thing about a bad idea - Bad thing: best thing about it - 5 new ways to redeem it
6. Personas - Select new persona - Biggest challenge in their eyes - Brainstorm
7. Reversal - Skeptics to say why it fails - Reverse all responses - Brainstorm
8. Strange attractors - Field trip: play reporter - Patterns / Trends / Insights / Ahas! - Brainstorm
9. Two to tango - How can we? 2 lists of 5 nouns - Connect back and forward - Use as a trigger
10. First name basis - Make up a name - Brainstorm what it might be

Brainstorming.co.uk

1. Random word (Initial stimulus) - Generate a new bridging idea e.g. random word "balloon" in context of new ideas about cars - Balloon under car like car jack etc
2. Random picture (as above)
3. False rules - Take a rule, quote, idea or suggestion from rule book, instruction manual, books etc and apply to your own situation - Set of ideas - Use ideas as a bridge between stimulus and a valid idea e.g. telephone system: applicants must be 18 years old - Callers to adult lines to prove age - Use a PIN no
4. Random website - Gather ideas used there and come up with new ideas for yourself. Find site e.g. special link from search engine, directory or database of sites
5. SCAMPER - Set of directed questions about your probortunity to generate new ideas. S: Substitute - Part of product / process for something else. C: Combine - 2 or more parts to achieve a different product / process. A: Adapt - e.g. What part could I change? And in exchange for what? M: Modify / Distort - What if warp / exaggerate a feature or component or if modify process? P: Put to other purposes - What other market could I use the product in? Who else could use it? E: Eliminate - What happens if remove a part? How could I achieve the solution without the normal way? R: Rearrange / Reverse - What if done in different order or in reverse?
6. Search and reapply - Looking into another area of expertise to find a process that has solved similar probortunity e.g. who else solved it? What similar area might have? What other industries face the same situation - and what did they do?
7. Role Play - Select an occupation - How would they think? What objects and items would they be using?Where? How would they see the problem? What action? How would they explain it? How would they solve it? Could use people in different roles or all assuming the same role or one person pretending to be the problem and others asking them what it's like
8. Challenge facts - How do you know that what you considered to be a fact in the past has now become inappropriate due to changes which have happened since then? Might you now be able to improve your current product because of a change in human value or lifestyle? - Not saying wrong, but investigate what would happen if not true - Ise this as stimulus for new ideas only
9. Escape - Can use wildest, most outrageous and preposterous things you can imagine. No morals, rules, etiquette, laws or standards. Escape physical limitations of the world to see what ultimate solution is. Push your imagination - Look for ways your ideas could be made practical - How could you modify it?
10. Analogies - What does your situation or probortunity remind you of? What other areas of life / work experience similar situations? Who does similar things in different expertise? e.g. running a car is like managing a theatre production, changing a tyre is like putting your shoes on etc - Gather bridging ideas from it. Could be an aspect of it, or a process etc
    
11. Wishful thinking - What would my perfect solution be? What effect would my ideal solution have? What if money / morals / laws did not matter at all? What would I do if I had unlimited power and resources? What would my ideal solution look like?

mindtools.com

1. Improving product / service: Reversal & SCAMPER
2. Creating or improving products, services and strategies: Attribute listing, Morphological Analysis & Matrix Analysis
3. Generating many radical ideas: Brainstorming
4. Widening search for solutions: Concept fan (similar to Brainstorming)
   
5. Looking from different perspectives: Reframing matrix
6. Making creative leaps: Random input (similar to Random word)
   
7. Carrying out thought experiments: Provocation (similar to Challenge facts)
8. Simple process for creativity: DO IT (similar to Brainstorming but using all techniques)
9. Powerful integrated problem solving process: Simplex

1. Programmed thinking relies on logical structured ways: Morphological analysis & Reframing matrix
2. Lateral thinking: Brainstorming, Random input & Provocation. Lateral thinking techniques help us to come up with startling, brilliant and original solutions
3. Fusing both: Concept fan, DO IT & Simplex