Boosting your product innovation

Stage-gate is a new product development or process improvement tool. Every product or process innovation begins with an idea and ends with the launch. Using this tool every business has to take several steps defined as processes or stages separated by gates. The stages represent  the activities and research phase while the gates represent the decision-making phase following every stage.

SCAMPER is a method you can use to ignite your creativity and help you overcome any challenge you may be facing in your business. SCAMPER is based on the assumption that everything new is a modification of something that already exists. It uses a list of probing questions to help you reach to the creative within. SCAMPER was created by Robert Eberle in the early 70s, based on an initial list from brainstorming originator Alex Osborn. And is still used till now.

Each letter in the acronym represents a different way you can alter the way you see your challenges and trigger new ideas:

●      S = Substitute

●      C = Combine

●      A = Adapt

●      M = Magnify

●      P = Put to Other Uses

●      E = Eliminate (or Minify)

●      R = Rearrange (or Reverse)

This is a strong tool to power your creative thinking. It gives you the ability to find and explore fresh perspectives. It was popularized by Rowan Gibson, the world-renowned innovation expert and thought leader, in his book: The four lenses of innovation. It looks inside the human mind and recognizes how it actually generates new ideas.