# SCAMPER
# Phase: 🎨 Problem shaping
Focus: Diverge
IN BRIEF
Time commitment: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: Moderate
Materials needed: Meeting space (physical or virtual), whiteboard and stickies (physical or virtual), participants from a variety of technical and cultural perspectives (the more of these, the more useful)
Who should participate: User experience designers, visual designers, product/project owners, community specialists, developers
Best for: Un-sticking challenges at an impasse through a multi-angled approach
# About this tool
While most of the elements of the SCAMPER framework have been explained elsewhere in this toolbox (particularly in problem framing and reframing), SCAMPER can be a useful rubric for combining many of them into a single exercise useful for becoming "unstuck". Each letter stands for a different exercise that may be helpful in the event of a creative impasse:
- Substitute: Are there elements of our product/service that we can substitute for others?
- Combine: Can we combine our product/service with others, either our own or someone else's?
- Adapt: What ideas from elsewhere can we alter or adapt?
- Maximize or minimize: Would significantly enlarging or reducing any aspect of our effort make a significant impact in how we approach it?
- Put to other use: Are there any significantly "off-label" uses for our product that we haven't considered yet? Do we need to?
- Eliminate: Are there elements of the product/service that can be eliminated entirely?
- Rearrange or reverse: How might we rearrange the product or reverse the process?