brainstorm category

A shaman is a member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events. (Source: Dictionary.com.) [...]

Working Backwards This category is for methods that involve imagining that the problem has been solved or that the desired result has been achieved, and working backward to find out how the result was successfully accomplished. Methods Backcasting Backward Mapping

Laddering Laddering, or Ladder of Abstraction, involves moving from the specific to the general, or from the general to the specific. Laddering: Methods Ladder of Abstraction (a.k.a. Chunking Up And Down)

Constraint Removal If it were not for constraints (blocks, barriers, obstacles), your desired future - or desired present, as we prefer to think of it - would become reality immediately. The methods in this category are designed to help you identify [...]

Ideas Across Frontiers These methods involve looking at other contexts, such as industries, disciplines, and companies, to see what ideas might be imported, with or without adaptation. Ideas Across Frontiers: Methods Parallels Swiping

Springboards Methods in this category involve the use of an external stimulus to trigger (or springboard) new thinking and ideas. Springboard: Methods 1) Connection Making Card Decks Force Fit includes Random Juxtaposition and Random Words Proverbs and Cliches Random Objects Street [...]

Building The emphasis here is on taking someone's idea and piling on, enhancing it, or using it to trigger related ideas. All of these methods are examples of the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). People are nominally in a group but they [...]

Deconstruction This is the opposite of combining. It involves breaking something down into its component parts to see if one or more of the parts can be eliminated, replaced or assembled in new ways. Deconstruction: Methods Attribute Listing Morphological Analysis