SCAMPER – Creative Idea Generator

SCAMPER is a lateral thinking technique that challenges the status quo through seven approaches: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.
It’s designed to foster creative thinking skills by encouraging users to view problems from new perspectives (see Fostering students’ creative thinking skills by means of a one-year creativity training program, PMC).

How to make it interactive:

  1. The user enters a product, idea, or problem.
  2. The system then asks a series of questions based on each SCAMPER letter:
  • S (Substitute): “What can be replaced?” (materials, processes, people, components)
  • C (Combine): “What can be combined?” (merge with another product or process)
  • A (Adapt): “What can be adapted?” (borrow from another field)
  • M (Modify): “What can be modified?” (size, shape, color, sound)
  • P (Put to another use): “How can it be used differently?” (find a new application)
  • E (Eliminate): “What can be removed?” (simplify, minimize)
  • R (Reverse): “What can be reversed?” (order, roles, perspective)
Creativity