Innovate Your Way to Success: How SCAMPER Can Supercharge Your Idea Generation

Ideation Phase is the 3rd Phase of the Design Thinking Process and it is the most celebrated step as the team embark on the discovery of creativity and exciting ideas to solve problems. One very useful tool will be SCAMPER- and here's how you apply it.

It's easy- try SCAMPER for your projects!

SCAMPER is a brainstorming technique that pushes your team to innovate products/services in a directed manner. The acronym SCAMPER, stands for:

1. Substitute

2. Combine

3. Adapt

4. Modify

5. Put to another use

6. Eliminate

7. Reverse

Want to build your creativity and generate better ideas? Discover how our WSQ Advanced AI Design Thinking course equips professionals with practical Design Thinking tools to ideate, solve complex problems and turn ideas into meaningful solutions.

Each step extends to a series of questions that can be applied to an idea/concept/product, prompting a barrage of ideas as team members answer the questions. For illustrative purposes we will demonstrate how SCAMPER can be used on a face mask.

This face mask!

SUBSTITUTE (think technology)

• What technology can you substitute or swap to improve the face mask?

• What other product or process could you use?

• What will happen if you change your feelings or attitude toward the face mask?

💡What if there's a TEMPERATURE READER on the face mask to tell the temperature instantly?

Combine (think technology)

• What would happen if you combined a face mask with another, to create

something new?

• What could you combine to maximize the uses of the face mask?

• How could you combine talent and resources to create a new approach to this

product?

💡What if you combine a SANITIZING SPRAY with the face mask, and it will spray whenever you cough or sneeze?

Adapt

• How could you adapt or tweak a face mask to serve another purpose or use?

• Who or what could you emulate to adapt a face mask?

• What other context could you put your face mask into?

• What other products or ideas could you use for inspiration?

💡What if you adapt the face mask to PETS, they need protection too..

Modify

• How could you change the shape, look, or feel of the face mask?

• What feature of the face mask could you emphasize or highlight to create new

meaning or value?

💡What if you modify the face mask filter with technology that detects a person's emotions and change colour accordingly? Like... RED for DON'T COME CLOSE!

Put to Another Use

• Can you use this product somewhere else, perhaps in another industry?

• Who, or even, what else could use a face mask?

• What could a face mask do in a different context?

💡What if you adapt the face mask to food-preparers in the food industry (in a hot environment)... they need face mask with AIR-CONDITIONING

ELIMINATE

• How could you streamline or simplify a breath spray?

• What features, parts, or rules could you eliminate?

• What would happen if you removed part of the breath spray?

💡What if you eliminate the EAR STRAP on face mask? Stick it on?

REVERSE

• What if you try to do the exact opposite of what a face mask does now?

• How could you reorganize this product?

💡What if instead of filtering the bad air, the face mask gives out GOOD AIR?

Do not forget to answer all questions!

Answer them earnestly and naively as the best ideas will come from the most unexpected moments. What may seem silly initially can take-off as the next big thing.

Generate more questions for each step and share them with us in the comments below!

What if your next big idea could be powered by AI? Take your innovation skills further with our WSQ AI Innovation course and learn how to identify AI opportunities, develop innovative ideas and apply them to real-world business challenges.

Last Words

I will be adding more articles on Design Thinking, Strategy and Innovation throughout the year. Articles of these 5 Step Action Plan and Modern Soft Skills will be added periodically to give my readers a broader insights to how to crush complex problems, overcome future challenges and spot AI opportunities. 

Check out more articles via my blog: https://www.emerge-creatives.com/blog-1

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About the Author

Daniel Ling is a regional ex-Design Leader turned educator, and business owner of Emerge Creatives, an registered SSG training provider (RTP) to deliver modern soft skills to professionals through Design Thinking, Business Strategy, and AI Innovation.

With over 15 years of experience in the financial and e-commerce tech industries- including key leadership roles at Lazada, NTUC Income, OCBC, and DBS- Daniel has led cross-regional design teams, built design functions from the ground up, and spearheaded large-scale transformation initiatives. But beyond industry success,

Daniel has reinvented himself as a “designer in a business suit”- equally fluent in creative strategy and commercial impact.

How to sign up for his WSQ Certification Courses

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https://www.emerge-creatives.com/ai-design-thinking-certification-course

Entrepreneurship Business Strategy:

https://www.emerge-creatives.com/entrepreneurship-business-planning

AI Business Innovation:

https://www.emerge-creatives.com/wsq-ai-business-innovation-management

Where to get Complete Design Thinking Guide for Successful Professionals

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