Brainstorming

Analogies

When to use it?
Use when you want to spark fresh, unexpected ideas by borrowing inspiration from outside your industry. Great for teams that feel stuck in familiar patterns.

What It Is
Analogies take your challenge and compare it to other contexts with similar conditions. By asking “Where else does this happen, and how is it solved there?”, you uncover creative solutions you can adapt.

How to Run It

1. List 3–5 attributes of your challenge (e.g., fast, crowded, repetitive).
2. Brainstorm other places with similar conditions (airports, restaurants, sports teams).
3. Explore how those fields solve the issue.
4. Adapt or “steal” those solutions for your context.

Example
Designing a better waiting room → compared with Disney ride queues (entertainment), Starbucks lines (self-service), or airports (information screens).

Change Perspectives

When to use it?
Use when you need variety and bold new angles. Ideal for groups who share similar backgrounds and risk repeating the same ideas.

What It Is
Change Perspectives asks you to step into the shoes of very different people or roles, imagining how they would solve your problem.

How to Run It

1. Pick 5 unusual perspectives (e.g., a teacher, your competitor, a superhero, Oprah, a 10-year-old).
2. For each perspective, ask: “How would they solve this?”
3. Generate at least 5–10 ideas per perspective.

Example
Reimagining grocery shopping →

• Teacher → make it educational and structured.
• Competitor → make it faster and simpler.
• Superhero → remove all effort, instant delivery.

Worst Idea

When to use it?
Use when you want to break barriers, energize the group, and make it safe to think wild. Perfect as an icebreaker or to shake up “serious” teams.

What It Is
Worst Idea flips the process: you first generate intentionally bad ideas, then use them as a springboard for better ones.

How to Run It

1. Ask for 20+ deliberately terrible ideas (absurd, illegal, impossible, opposite of the goal).
2. Capture them quickly without judgment.
3. Flip each: “What’s the opposite?” or “What useful seed is hidden here?”

Example

• “Make customers wait 10 hours” → How can we eliminate waiting completely?
• “Sell sandwiches for $1,000” → What would a premium, luxury experience look like?

SCAMPER

When to use it?
Use when you want a systematic, reliable way to stretch existing ideas. Best when energy is low, or when you want to make sure you’ve explored every angle.

What It Is
SCAMPER is a structured checklist of creative prompts: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put to other use, Eliminate, Rearrange/Reverse.

How to Run It

1. Take your product, service, or problem.
2. Go through each SCAMPER letter as a question.
• Substitute → What if we swapped something?
• Combine → What if we merged things?
• Adapt → What if we copied from somewhere else?
• Modify/Magnify → What if we made it bigger/faster/stronger?
• Put to other use → What if it were used differently?
• Eliminate → What if we removed something entirely?
• Rearrange/Reverse → What if we flipped the order or opposite happened?
3. Capture all answers as possible ideas.

Example
Reinventing a lunchbox →

• Substitute → cloth instead of plastic.
• Eliminate → no zippers, just magnets.
• Reverse → cold outside, hot inside.