One of the best books for helping people who struggle with thinking big or creatively during a product interview is Thinkertoys. You can just to the chapter on SCAMMPER.

In this article, I aggregate the highlights from that chapter for your.

Ways to think Outside the Box

SCAM(M)PER Method

• Substitute

• Combine

• Adapt

• Modify 

• Magnify

• Put to other Uses

• Eliminate or Minify

• Rearrange

Substitute

Questions you can ask yourself

• What can be substituted?

• Can we change the rules?

• Other ingredients? Other materials?

• Other place?  

• Other approach?

• Other power?

• Other process or procedure?  

• What else instead?

• What other part instead of this?

Context

• Substitution is a trial-and-error method of replacing one thing with another until you find the right 

For Example

• Scientist Paul Ehrlich tried well over 500 colors before he found the right dye for the veins of mice to make experimentation possible. 

• Starbucks came up with the Frappuccino (now a ready-to-drink venture with Pepsi.) after a store manager played around with concoctions until she found the right one. 

Combine

Questions you can ask yourself

• What ideas can be combined?

• Can we combine purposes?

• How about an assortment?

• How about a blend, alloy or ensemble?  

• How could be package a combination?

• What other article could be merged with this?

Context

• Much of creative thinking involves synthesis, the process of combining previously unrelated ideas, goods, or services to create something new.

For Example

• The printing press was created when Gutenberg combined the coin punch with the wine press. 

• A Hungarian architect combined cement with optical fiber to create a  type of concrete that transmits light.

Adapt

Questions you can ask yourself

• What else is like this?

• What other idea does this suggest?

• Does the past offer a parallel?

• What should I copy?  

• What should I eliminate?

• What idea could I incorporate?

• What process to adapted? 

• Different context, same idea?

• What about other fields?

Context

• One of the paradoxes of creativity is that in order to think originally, we must first familiarize ourselves with the ideas of others.

For Example

• Thomas Edison ”Make it a habit to keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully. Your idea needs to be original only in its adaption to the problem you are working on.”  

• Movie theaters used to only show one film. They started offering multiple options for when seats sold out for the new release.

Magnify

Questions you can ask yourself

• What can be magnified or extended?

• What can be exaggerated? Overstated?

• What can be added? More time?

• Stronger?  

• Higher?

• Greater frequency?

• What can add extra value?  

• What can be duplicated?

• How to carry to a dramatic extreme?

Context

• Our attention is drawn to the largest in a group of things. This is why magnification is often use in advertising. 

For Example

• Alarm clocks with lights which slowly get brighter to wake you up more naturally. 

• Training wheels on kids bikes: Designers at Purdue University added another wheel to training bikes, using 2 rear wheels that help a child balance at slow speeds. Speeding up move the wheels closer shifting balance.

Modify

Questions you can ask yourself

• How can this be altered for the better?

• What can be modified?

• Change meaning, color, motion, form?

• Is there a new twist?  

• Change in plan?

• Another form?

• Another package?  

• Change in shape or sound?

• Package combine with form?

Context

• Just about any aspect of anything can be modified. 

For Example

• GM vs Ford. Ford owned 60% of car market. GM came out and said “A car with every shape and color for every purse and purpose.” Ford stuck to “ Any customer can have a car painted any color so long as it is black.” Eventually Ford lost market share.

• Waffle cones were invented because on a hot day, a vendor of waffles saw sales fall to the ice cream vendor next to him. He fashioned his thin waffles into cones and put ice cream in them.

Put to Other Uses

Questions you can ask yourself

• What else can this be used for?

• Are there new ways to use it as is?

• What else could be made from this?

• Other extensions?

• Other markets?

Context

• History is full of inventions, innovations, and products that developed from something else. 

For Example

• Post-its, Silly Putty and vulcanized rubber were all developed by people trying to create something else. 

• Goodyear has a heating plant that uses discarded tires as its only fuel.

Eliminate

Questions you can ask yourself

• What if this were smaller?

• What should I omit?

• Should I divide it? Split it up?

• Understate?  

• Streamline?

• Make miniature?

• Subtract? Delete?

• Can rules be eliminated?

• What’s not necessary?

Context

• Ideas sometimes come from minifying a subject. Through repeated trimming of ideas, objects, and processes, you can gradually narrow your challenge down to that part of the function that is really necessary - or for another use case.

For Example

• The original donut had no hole in the center. 

• The transistor - invented in 1947 made everything from pocket radios to the personal computer possible.

Rearrange

Questions you can ask yourself

• What other arrangement might be better?

• Interchangeable components?

• Other pattern?

• Other sequence? 

• Change the order?

• Transpose cause and effect?

• Change pace? 

• Change schedule?

• Change layout?
  
  

Context

• Creativity, it could be said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we don’t know. Rearrangement offers countless alternatives for ideas, goods, and services.

For Example

• Elevators: Used to be all rides were ‘locals’ with centralized controls, the rides are more efficient.

• A baseball manager can shuffle his lineup 362,880 times. 

Reverse

Questions you can ask yourself

• Can I transpose positive and negative?

• What are the opposites?

• What are the negatives?

• Should I turn it around? 

• Up instead of down?

• Down instead of up?

• Consider it backward?

• Reverse roles?

• Do the unexpected?

Context

• Reversing your perspective opens up your thinking. Look at opposites and you’ll see things you normally miss. Thinking about failures as “What have I done?” instead of always “Why have I failed?” can help.

For Example

• Plowing at night reduced weeds because sunlight can’t cause seeds to germinate. (it only takes milliseconds for sun to spark seed growth). This has reduced the need for pesticides in Germany.   

• Bicycles seats are typically the last part to be developed. Stylex Bicycle starts with the seat, leading to easier pedaling