Activate these models when you need to generate novel ideas, solutions, or approaches and existing patterns have been exhausted.
Creativity is not a personality trait. It is a set of operations applied to existing knowledge. The tools below are generative operations, each one reliably produces novel outputs from familiar inputs.
Combinatorial Search: Force connection between two unrelated domains. Novel ideas are disproportionately found at intersections. Generating options when stuck in a single domain
Constraint Imposition: Add an arbitrary constraint. The constraint forces novel pathways by making familiar solutions unavailable. When conventional solutions keep reasserting themselves
SCAMPER: Substitute ⟶ Combine ⟶ Adapt ⟶ Modify ⟶ Put to other uses ⟶ Eliminate ⟶ Reverse. Improving or transforming existing solutions
Morphological Analysis: List all dimensions of a problem; enumerate options for each; systematically explore combinations. Exhaustive solution space mapping
Random Entry: Introduce a random word or image; use it as a forcing function to find unexpected connections. Breaking out of exhausted patterns
Opposite Action: Identify the conventional solution; deliberately do the opposite; evaluate seriously. When conventional approaches produce conventional results
Substitute: What can be replaced? Example: Replace human review with algorithmic screening
Combine: What can be merged? Example: Combine a gym and a coworking space
Adapt: What can be borrowed from elsewhere? Example: Apply subscription model to traditionally one-time-purchase products
Modify / Magnify / Minify: What can be changed in scale, form, or attribute? Example: Make it 10x larger, 10x smaller, 10x faster
Put to other uses: What else can this be used for? Example: Gore-Tex developed for industrial use; adapted for outdoor apparel
Eliminate: What can be removed? Example: Remove the storefront; sell direct online only
Reverse / Rearrange: What if the order or orientation were inverted? Example: Customer designs the product; company manufactures to spec
Generative thinking and evaluative thinking use different cognitive modes. Mixing them suppresses promising-but-incomplete ideas before they can develop.
Rule: During any generative session, no evaluation. All ideas are recorded. Evaluation begins only after generation is complete.