Improvement Triggers

What is this method about?

A creative tool that generates a diverse list of ideas for improving or altering a product or service by exploring the challenge using the SCAMPER method. The method helps to quickly ideate a range of options or possible solutions by asking how elements of a product/service can be: Substituted, Combined, Adapted, Modified, Put to another use, Eliminated, or Reversed, in order to improve it or make it more suitable for a different market.

Why use it

This tool helps to ask questions about product or service features that provoke new ways of thinking about the product/service and how it could be used in the future. The method leads teams to approach their challenge from a number of different directions.

When should I use it?

Whenever there is a desire to generate a large number of ideas to help improve or alter a new or existing product or service. It is particularly useful when a product/service needs to differentiate itself somehow in a market with very similar competitors or when it is trying to expand into new market or segment.

What you get

Participants will develop new perspectives on how the product/service could be used or changed. Participants will generate a comprehensive list of options or possible solutions for improving or altering the product/service. Results will be used to help guide the future direction of the product/service.

At a glance

• Time: Short
• Effort: Medium
• Cost: Low

Materials

• Whiteboard or large paper
• Sticky notes
• Markers
• SCAMPER prompt sheet

Who is involved

• Service Designer (as Workshop Facilitator)
• Experience Manager
• Product Manager
• Process Manager (possible)
• Representative team members from business area experiencing the issue to be addressed