The S.C.A.M.P.E.R. Technique
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
In 1971, educational expert Bob Eberle described the term S.C.A.M.P.E.R. in his book Games for Imagination Development.
It’s a brilliant tool for creative problem-solving designed to shake up your thinking and overcome creative blocks.
The acronym stands for the following:
Substitute: What materials, people, or rules could be swapped out?
Combine: What ideas or components could you merge?
Adapt: What could you tweak or repurpose from another context?
Modify: What could you exaggerate, minimise, or reshape?
Put to another use: Could you apply this to a different purpose entirely?
Eliminate (or Minimise): What’s unnecessary, redundant, or overcomplicated?
Reverse (or Rearrange): What if you flipped the order or direction?
Each of these words serves as a prompt to explore new possibilities by asking questions that apply to the prompt to a problem or product you are trying to improve upon or create.
Let’s look at how S.C.A.M.P.E.R. works in practice.
Imagine you’ve been asked to improve the disposable coffee cup, a product most of us use daily but rarely think about.
Substitute: What could replace the plastic lid or wax lining? For example, use a biodegradable cornstarch lining instead of plastic.
Combine: What could we merge with this cup? For example, combine the sleeve and cup into a single, double-walled design to reduce waste.
Adapt: What could we borrow from another product? For example, adapt the collapsible camping cup design for portability.
Modify: What could you exaggerate or minimise? For example, consider making the base wider for added stability or the lid resealable for easy reuse.
Put to another use: How else could this be used? For example, turn used cups into compostable planters for seedlings.
Eliminate: What could we remove? For example, remove the need for a sleeve by improving insulation.
Reverse: What if we flipped it? Invert the cup design to create a spill-proof ‘sippy cup’ for adults.
Next time you’re stuck, whether designing a product, writing an ad, or trying to solve a business problem, write your challenge at the top of a page and run through the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. prompts.
