What is SCAMPER?

SCAMPER is a creative thinking and problem-solving technique used in various fields, including product design, marketing, and innovation. It's an acronym that stands for seven different approaches to generating new ideas or improving existing ones.

This technique encourages you to look at a problem or product from different perspectives, helping you to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions.

In most design assessments, you will apply at least two elements of SCAMPER to your ideations.

SCAMPER Breakdown

Hover over each letter to see what it stands for:

S
Substitute: Replace a part of your product, service, or process with something else.
C
Combine: Merge two or more elements of your product, service, or process.
A
Adapt: Alter your design to fit a new context or purpose.
M
Modify: Change an attribute of your design, such as size, shape, or color.
P
Put to another use: Find new ways to use your design.
E
Eliminate: Remove elements or simplify your design.
R
Reverse: Change the order, direction, layout, pattern of your design.
SCAMPER Design Process

How to Use SCAMPER

  1. Identify the part of your design that you want to improve or innovate.
  2. Go through each letter of SCAMPER and ask related questions.
  3. Brainstorm and write down all ideas, no matter how unconventional they might seem.
  4. Sketch your SCAMPERed designs. Usually, you will need to apply at least two SCAMPER elements.

Important Reminder

Be reasonable with your expectations about what you can SCAMPER.

Some elements are essential and shouldn't be eliminated or drastically changed.

For instance, if you're designing a lamp, eliminating the light source defeats its purpose!

Examples

Here are some examples of how SCAMPER can be applied:

  • Substitute: Using plant-based meat substitutes in fast food burgers.
  • Combine: Smartphones combining features of phones, cameras, and computers.
  • Adapt: Adapting a beach umbrella design to create a reversible umbrella for rainy weather.
  • Modify: Changing the size of soda cans to create mini versions for portion control.
  • Put to another use: Using baking soda as a cleaning agent instead of just for baking.
  • Eliminate: Removing buttons from smartphones to create a full touchscreen interface.
  • Reverse: Reverse the visual pattern on your design.