“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer 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.