SCAMPER is surprisingly simple to use and effective for brainstorming and innovation sessions. The SCAMPER approach encourages you to ask seven distinct questions, which will help you discover how you can innovate and enhance existing goods, services, issues, and ideas. You can use Action verbs like “Substitute,” “Combine,” “Adapt,” “Modify,” “Put to Another Use,” “Eliminate,” and “Reverse” to investigate problems and provide answers. This encourages you to come up with ideas for new products and services.

The inventor of the brainstorming technique, Alex Faickney Osborn, presented SCAMPER in 1953. In his 1971 book SCAMPER: Games for Imagination Development, Bob Eberle expanded on it.

How do you use the SCAMPER model

Take an existing good or service as a starting point. It may be a current good, service, or concept that you wish to develop further or that could serve as an excellent starting point for new development.

• Simply ask questions on each of the seven aspects as you go down the list. Please check the detailed instructions below.
• Use the questions to generate ideas for values, advantages, services, touchpoints, product qualities, pricing, markets, and virtually any other connected topic you can think of.
• Take a look at the solutions you came up with. Do any of the options stick out as being workable? Could you utilise these to develop an existing product or make a new one?
• Explore the good ideas in further detail.

SCAMPER Questions

Substitute

You should consider this question. What can I replace or alter in my product, issue, or process?

• What choices are there for the materials or resources used to create the product?
• What other goods or techniques could you use?
• What standards could you replace?
• Can this product be used elsewhere or in place of something else?
• What will happen if you alter how you feel or approach this product?

Combine

To increase synergy, how can I merge two or more components of my product, problem, or process to create a new product or process? Creative thinking mixes previously unconnected ideas, goods, or services to produce something fresh and original.

• What would happen if you mixed this thing with something else to make something new?
• What happens if you mix goals or purposes?
• What might you add to extend this product’s usefulness?
• How might you pool your skills and resources to develop a fa strategy for this product?

Adapt

You need to ask yourself. What can I change about my solution, issue, or process? Consider which elements of the product or procedure you may modify to address your issue.

• How could you modify this item to suit a different function or purpose?
• What else does the item consist of?
• Who or what could you model this product after?
• What other products do you have?
• What additional items or concepts may you draw inspiration from?

Modify (Magnify/ Minify)

What aspects of my product, problem, or process can I change or emphasise more or less? Can I make any changes to the item? Can meaning, colour, motion, sound, scent, form, or shape be changed? After answering these queries, you will gain a fresh perspective on the most crucial elements and consider modifying the circumstance or product entirely or in part. It’s time to amplify, exaggerate, or minify your concept, thing, issue, or method. Alternatively, could you give the product an odd shape?

• How can you modify your product’s form, appearance, or texture?
• What might you add to this product to change it?
• What might you highlight or emphasise to add more excellently?
• What component of this item might you improve to become something new?

Put to Another Use

HowNow is the time to consider new applications and reasons for your existing product or concept. What new applications are there for the good or service? Can I utilise this item in different ways? If I change the product, can I contact other users? Is the product available in any other markets? Now is the time to consider new applications and reasons for your existing product or concept.

• Can you apply this product in another setting, say in a different sector?
• Who else would want to utilise this item?
• What additional circumstances may this product perform differently in?
• Could you recycle the garbage from this product to create something new?

Eliminate

What aspects of my product, design, or service can I eliminate or simplify? Consider the possible outcomes if you delete, simplify, reduce, or minimise aspects of your concept. You may gradually focus your issue on the component or function that is most crucial if you keep trimming your concept, service, or process.

• How could this product be streamlined or made simpler?
• What elements, components, or regulations might you get rid of?
• What could you soften or understate?
• How could you make it more enjoyable, quicker, lighter, or smaller?
• What would occur if you took part of this product away? What alternative would you propose?

Reverse

How can I alter, reorder, or correct the product or issue? How would I proceed if I had to carry out this procedure backwards?

• What would happen if the steps were reversed or the order of events changed?
• What if you attempted to perform the exact opposite of what you are presently attempting to do?
• What parts might you use instead to change the product’s order?
• What roles could you switch or reverse?
• How could you arrange this product differently?

Examples of SCAMPER uses

Real-life examples

• A camera and MP3 player were added to a mobile phone.
• The concept of the roll-on deodorant was borrowed from the ballpoint pen.
• Many service components have been reduced (or abolished) by low-cost airlines like Ryanair.
• When De Beers introduced engagement rings, they made industrial diamonds available to other customers.
• The middleman was eliminated by Dell Computers.

Mc Donalds, more details

McDonald’s is an excellent example of using the SCAMPER methodology to create and expand a multi-billion dollars business. Let’s see how McDonald’s brothers and Ray Kroc used it.

Put to other uses

The primary business is not serving food but real estate.

Eliminate & Rearrange

• Rearrange: The customers pay before they eat when traditionally, you pay after.
• Eliminate: The customers serve themselves, and no waiters need to bring the food to the table.

Rearrange

Rearrange the kitchen to optimise the meal production process.

Conclusion Scamper

A crucial soft skill in business is creating fresh ideas for a product or service. It aids in audience satisfaction and helps you keep one step ahead of the competition. But it may be difficult to develop fresh ideas when concentrating on an established development.

The SCAMPER approach encourages you to ask seven questions to help you comprehend how to innovate and enhance existing goods, services, issues, and ideas. This enables you to come up with ideas for new products and services. SCAMPER acronym is formed from the abbreviation of Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (Also magnify and minify), Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.

If you have questions you want to discuss, please comment or write to me. David Gousset

For more creativity and analysis tools, read:

• Brainstorming for ideas
• SWOT Analysis and TOWS Matrix
• 5 Whys’
• Design Thinking Process
• Empathise and Empathy Map
• Lean Startup
• The Innovation Model