Scamper
Scamper
SCAMPER
The SCAMPER method helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you
to ask seven different types of questions, which will help you understand how you can innovate and
improve existing products, services, problems and ideas. SCAMPER is an acronym formed from the
abbreviation of: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (Also magnify and minify), Put to another use,
Eliminate, and Reverse. SCAMPER is a lateral thinking technique which challenges the status quo
and helps you explore new possibilities.
SCAMPER
SCAMPER refers to a series of thought sparkers or provocations which help you to innovate on an
existing product, service or situation by looking through different lenses. There are seven
provocation lenses in the SCAMPER method: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify (Also Magnify
and Minify), Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.
• Then, simply go down the list and ask questions regarding each of the seven elements. Please
see our step-by-step guide below.
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• Apply the questions to values, benefits, services, touch points, product attributes, pricing,
markets and essentially any other related aspect you might be able to think of that has relevance
to your ideation needs.
• Look at the answers that you came up with. Do any of the answers stand out as viable
solutions? Could you use any of them to create a new product, or develop an existing one?
Example – McDonald’s
McDonald’s would come to be a larger-than-life household name; it may seem hard to see in the 21st
century, but the philosophy behind its ‘formula’ revolutionised the old style of restaurant experience.
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Take, for example, McDonald’s founder, Ray Kroc. As he’s already done all the hard work, it’s now
easy for us to identify some of the ideas he used in the SCAMPER method:
• Put to other uses: Selling restaurants and real estate instead of just simply hamburgers.
• Eliminate: Letting customers serve themselves and thereby avoiding the use of expensive
waiters.
Substitute
Overall, the question to think about here is this: What can I substitute or change in my product,
problem or process? You should think about substituting part(s) of your product or process for
something else.
Guiding questions:
• What can I substitute so as to make an improvement?
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Combine
The overall question to think about here is: How can I combine two or more parts of my product,
problem, or process so as to achieve a different product, problem, or process to enhance synergy?
Creative thinking involves combining previously unrelated ideas, products, or services in order to
create something new and innovative.
Guiding questions:
• What ideas, materials, features, processes, people, products, or components can I combine?
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• Which are the best elements I can bring together so as to achieve a particular result?
Adapt
Overall, the question you need to think about is: What can I adapt in my product, problem, or
process? Think about which parts of the product or process you could adapt so as to solve your
problem.
Guiding questions:
• Which part of the product could I change?
• Which ideas could I adapt, copy, or borrow from other people’s products?
• What can I adapt in this or that way in order to make this result?
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Modify
Overall, the question you need to focus on is this: What can I modify or put more or less emphasis
on in my product, problem, or process? Can I change the item in some way? Can I change meaning,
colour, motion, sound, smell, form, or shape? It’s time to magnify or exaggerate your idea, product,
problem, or process—or to minify it. These questions will give you new insights about which
components are the most important ones. Think about changing part or all of the current situation
or product. Alternatively, distort the product in an unusual way.
Guiding questions:
• What can I magnify or make larger?
• What can you remove or make smaller, condensed, lower, shorter or lighter—or streamline, split
up or understate?
• What can I change in this way or that way so as to achieve such and such a result?
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Guiding questions:
• What else can it be used for?
• Can it be used by people other than those it was originally intended for?
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Eliminate
Your overall question to consider here is: What can I eliminate or simplify in my product, design, or
service? Think of what might happen if you were to eliminate, simplify, reduce, or minimise parts of
your idea. If you continue to trim your idea, service, or process—you can gradually narrow your
challenge down to that part or function that is most important.
Guiding questions:
• What can I remove without altering its function?
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Rearrange
Overall, you have to ask yourself this question: How can I change, reorder, or reverse the product or
problem? What would I do if I had to do this process in reverse?
Guiding questions:
• What can I rearrange in some way – can I interchange components, the pattern, or the layout?
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Do you want to learn more?
Learn how to use this template to your best advantage in our online course Design Thinking: The
Beginner’s Guide. Sign up for it today and learn how to apply the Design Thinking process to your
project if you haven’t already started the course.
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