creative_methodologies v1.0.0

name: creative_methodologies description: "Applies three structured creativity methods to real problems: TRIZ contradiction solving for hard trade-offs, SCAMPER prompts for generating product variants, and SIT inside-the-box tools for ideas that reuse existing resources. Includes worked problems and step-by-step facilitation guidance for solo or group ideation sessions. Use when someone wants to brainstorm better, resolve a design trade-off, run an innovation workshop, or get past the obvious ideas."

Creative Methodologies

Purpose

Brainstorming usually produces the ideas people already had. These three methods produce ideas people would not have had. Each is documented from primary sources (references list them), each has a different shape of problem it fits, and each is applied through a concrete workflow, not a lecture. The skill also covers how to actually run a session: solo in 30 minutes or a group workshop in 90, with roles, timing, and convergence rules.

The three methods:

• TRIZ (Genrich Altshuller, built from studies of patent literature starting 1956): for problems with a built-in trade-off. You map the trade-off to a standard contradiction, then apply historically successful invention patterns (40 inventive principles) instead of compromising.
• SCAMPER (Alex Osborn's question lists, 1953, reorganized into a mnemonic by Bob Eberle, 1971): for generating variants of an existing product or service. Seven transformation prompts force angles the team would skip on its own.
• SIT / Systematic Inventive Thinking: for new-product ideas that use only what is already in the situation. Five thinking tools plus the "closed world" constraint produce surprising but buildable concepts.

Workflow

1. Frame the problem (5 minutes). Write it down before touching any method:

• What is the thing? Who uses it, and what do they need from it?
• What must improve? What gets worse or blocks improvement if you try?
• If the blocker is a trade-off (better X means worse Y), you are heading for TRIZ. If you have an existing thing and want more directions, SCAMPER. If you want new ideas without new resources, SIT.

1. Pick the method. Use this, do not guess:

• Clear tug-of-war between two requirements (stronger but heavier, faster but hungrier) -> TRIZ. See references/triz.md.
• "We have this product, what else could it be?" -> SCAMPER. See references/scamper.md.
• "We need new ideas and cannot add cost, parts, or headcount" -> SIT. See references/sit.md.
• If none fits cleanly, run SCAMPER first (it is the fastest warm-up), then the one that fits.

1. Run the method. Follow the reference file for the chosen method exactly:

• TRIZ: state the contradiction in the template sentence, map to standard parameters, pick 2-4 principles, write at least one concrete concept per principle. See references/triz.md.
• SCAMPER: walk all seven prompts, at least one idea per prompt, 2-3 minutes each. See references/scamper.md.
• SIT: list the components of the existing situation first, then apply tools one at a time to build "virtual products," then work backwards to benefits (function follows form). See references/sit.md.

1. Converge (10 minutes). Every method session ends the same way:

• Tag each idea with provenance: which method and which principle or tool produced it. Ideas without provenance are guesses, label them as such.
• Score each on two axes: does it resolve the original framing, and what is the cheapest test that could kill it in a week? Pick the top 3 by a quick vote or dot count.
• Write the cheap test down next to each idea. A session that ends with ideas and no tests produced conversation; this skill aims for candidates with next steps.

1. Facilitation mode. Running this for a group? See references/facilitation.md for the 90-minute workshop agenda, roles, and anti-patterns. Solo? Use the 30-minute compressed version there. Use assets/session-worksheet.md to record each run.

Output Contract

Every completed run of this skill delivers:

1. The problem framing (the thing, the user, the improvement, the blocker).
2. The method chosen and why (one sentence).
3. Ideas, each with: short description, producing principle or tool, and the cheapest kill-test for it.
4. The top 3, with the chosen cheap tests written out.
5. The worksheet filled in (assets/session-worksheet.md), suitable for reuse in the next session.

Operating Rules

1. Never invent facts about the methods. The histories, dates, and principle lists in references/ are verified against the cited sources; do not extend them from memory.
2. Worked problems in references/ are labeled illustrative. They teach the mechanics, they are not proof the method works in general.
3. Tag every idea with its provenance. If an idea came from a chat rather than a method step, say so.
4. Do not promise novelty. Checking whether an idea is patentable or genuinely new is out of scope; say that plainly if asked.
5. Style for everything this skill produces: plain, direct language. No em dashes. No inspirational filler, no stacked adjectives, no rhetorical questions answered by the author. If a sentence reads like a press release, rewrite it.
6. End every session with cheap tests attached to each surviving idea. The deliverable is candidates plus next steps.