# 🔧 SCAMPER: Seven Prompts to Stretch an Idea

By Better Wise

## SCAMPER Starts Where Your Mind Map Stopped

Last lesson you dumped raw material onto a mind map and clustered it into themes. SCAMPER takes one of those clusters, one existing concept, and stretches it on purpose. It exists because a blank page is a bad interviewer: it only asks "what else?" SCAMPER asks seven specific questions instead.

By the end of this lesson you can:

- name all seven SCAMPER prompts and the question each one asks
- run all seven on a single concept in about 20 minutes
- judge the output and keep the two strongest mutations

## Seven Verbs, Each Turned Into a Question

SCAMPER is a checklist of seven prompts, popularized by Bob Eberle in 1971 and built on Alex Osborn's earlier idea-sparking checklist. Each prompt names a verb, and each verb becomes a question aimed at the concept already on your bench.

Why a checklist beats inspiration: you cannot forget to ask a question that is written in front of you. The prompts push you into directions your default thinking skips, which is exactly where the surprising material lives.

> **Note:** 
> SCAMPER is a divergent move. Generate first, filter later. A mutation you judge as "silly" while generating is often the seed of the idea you keep.

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  A["🔧<br/>One concept"] --> B["7 prompts<br/>S C A M P E R"]
  B --> C["Long list<br/>of mutations"]
  C --> D["Filter:<br/>surprise, need, testable"]
  D --> E["✅<br/>2 mutations"]
```

A **mutation** is one deliberate change to the concept produced by one prompt. Aim for at least one mutation per prompt. Twenty minutes, seven prompts, one concept: **one concept, seven prompts, no judging until the end**.

| Prompt | Question to ask | Café loyalty card |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Substitute | Swap a part, material, person, channel, or audience | Stamp on the receipt instead of a separate card |
| Combine | Merge it with something nearby | Card doubles as a running-club pass |
| Adapt | Borrow a pattern from another field | Airline-style tiers with perks |
| Modify | Magnify or minify one attribute | One big reward instead of ten small ones |
| Put to another use | What else could this object do? | Card becomes a bookmark, a raffle ticket, a tiny zine |
| Eliminate | Remove a piece and keep the value | No card: staff learn your name |
| Reverse | Flip the order, the roles, or the direction | The café collects stamps for *you* |

### Substituting, Combining, Adapting

**Substitute** is the most underrated prompt because it can change the audience, not just the object. Same concept, different person, is often a new product. Swap the material, the channel, the moment of use, the person who delivers it.

**Combine** asks what is already next door. Coffee plus bookstore, gym plus laundromat, a loyalty card plus a bus pass. The test of a good combination is whether both halves get better, not just whether they fit on one card.

**Adapt** is deliberate theft from another domain. Look at how gyms handle streaks, how airlines handle tiers, how libraries handle due dates. Take the pattern, not the branding.

#### Stretch Three Prompts on Your Capstone Concept

Write one mutation each for Substitute, Combine, and Adapt. Force yourself to write the boring one first, then a second one that makes you slightly uncomfortable.

**Check your thinking**

Weak mutations change a cost or a color. Strong mutations change a person, a moment, or a partner. If your three mutations all keep the same audience and the same delivery moment, you substituted a detail instead of a variable. Rewrite one so a different person is on the receiving end.

### Modifying, Repurposing, Eliminating, Reversing

**Modify** runs in two directions: magnify (bigger, louder, more frequent, more extreme) and minify (smaller, quieter, rarer, lighter). Push each attribute to an absurd setting and see what becomes interesting again. A loyalty card with one reward per year is a different product, not a worse one.

**Put to another use** ignores the original job. What happens when the object stops being a loyalty card and becomes a conversation starter, a map, or a souvenir?

**Eliminate** is the sharpest prompt. Remove the core piece, then ask whether the value survives. No card, no app, no points: what is left? If something survives, you just found the real value of your concept.

**Reverse** flips order, roles, or direction. Reward before purchase. Customer teaches the staff. The shop earns stamps for showing up in the neighborhood.

**Keep the two strongest mutations**, not the seven safest ones.

#### Pick Your Two Mutations

Lay all seven or more mutations in a row. Score each from 1 to 3 on three lines: surprise (did it surprise you?), need (does it still solve something real?), and testable (could you check it in a week with people, not opinions?). Add the three scores.

**Check your thinking**

A 9 is rare. A 7 built on surprise plus testability is a better capstone candidate than an 8 that scores zero on surprise, because safe ideas rarely produce interesting evidence. Watch for the mutation that scores high on need and surprise but low on testable: shrink it until it fits one week, then keep it.

## Facilitator Notes: What Flattens a SCAMPER Run

- **Judging mid-run.** The moment you say "that won't work," the weird prompts stop producing. Collect first, sort after.
- **Changing only cosmetic attributes.** Color, price, and font are substitutes for nothing. Change a person, a moment, or a rule.
- **Running it on a vague concept.** "Better coffee experience" gives you nothing. Put a specific artifact on the bench: a card, a queue, a menu, an onboarding email.
- **Skipping Eliminate and Reverse.** They feel destructive, and that is why they produce the most interesting mutations.
- **Keeping too many ideas.** Seven good mutations is the same as no decision. Two mutations with a reason is a project.

## Two Mutations in Hand

SCAMPER gave you a repeatable way to stretch one concept into a spread of candidates, and a filter for choosing two. You now have a mutation, a reason, and a next step that fits the capstone brief.

Next lesson pushes the same muscle sideways: analogies and unusual connections, where the raw material comes from outside your domain entirely.

Front: What does SCAMPER stand for?
Back: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse (or Rearrange).

Front: Who popularized SCAMPER, and when?
Back: Bob Eberle in 1971, building on Alex Osborn's idea-sparking checklist.

Front: What is the basic move behind every SCAMPER prompt?
Back: Turn a verb into a question aimed at a concept that already exists.

Front: What does the Substitute prompt ask?
Back: Which part, material, person, channel, moment, or audience could you swap?

Front: What does the Combine prompt ask?
Back: Which two things could be merged so that both halves get better?

Front: What does the Adapt prompt ask?
Back: Which pattern from another domain could you borrow?

Front: Which two directions does Modify run in?
Back: Magnify (bigger, more, louder) and minify (smaller, rarer, lighter).

Front: What does Put to another use ask?
Back: What else could this object or idea do for a different job or user?

Front: What does Eliminate ask?
Back: What could you remove and still keep the value?

Front: What does Reverse or Rearrange ask?
Back: What if you flipped the order, the roles, or the direction?

Front: Why run all seven prompts even after one good idea appears?
Back: Each prompt opens a direction your default thinking skips.

Front: What is a mutation in SCAMPER terms?
Back: One deliberate change to the concept, produced by one prompt.

Front: How many mutations do you keep, and by what criteria?
Back: Two, chosen for surprise, a real need, and testability.

Front: Which SCAMPER prompts are most often skipped, and why does it matter?
Back: Eliminate and Reverse, because they feel destructive, which is why they produce surprising mutations.

In SCAMPER, the S stands for _____, and the E asks what you could _____ while keeping the value. The M prompt runs in two directions, _____ the attributes you already have. The checklist was popularized by _____ in 1971, and the final step of a run is to keep the _____ rather than all seven.

---

## Contents

Part of [🧠 Original Creativity: Generate Ideas Beyond the Obvious](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious.md)

- **🧭 Foundations: Thinking Modes and Observation**
  - [🔀 Divergent and Convergent Thinking: One Loop](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/divergent-and-convergent-thinking.md)
  - [🔍 Observation: Noticing What Others Walk Past](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/observation-for-creative-ideas.md) (sign-in required)
  - [🔒 Creative Constraints: Turning Limits into Levers](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/creative-constraints.md)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: Thinking Modes and Observation](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/checkpoint-thinking-modes-observation.md)
- **🗺️ Generating Options: Mapping, SCAMPER, Analogies**
  - [🕸️ Mind Mapping and Clustering: Brain Dump to Themes](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/mind-mapping-and-clustering.md)
  - [🔧 SCAMPER: Seven Prompts to Stretch an Idea](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/scamper-prompts.md) — this lesson
  - [🔗 Analogies and Unusual Connections](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/analogies-and-unusual-connections.md)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: Idea Generation Techniques](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/checkpoint-idea-generation-techniques.md)
- **🧪 Challenge, Augment, and Test**
  - [🎩 Reverse Brainstorming and Six Thinking Hats](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/reverse-brainstorming-and-six-hats.md)
  - [🤖 AI as a Sparring Partner, Not an Answer Key](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/ai-as-sparring-partner.md)
  - [🚀 Capstone: Original Concept Brief and Test Plan](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/capstone-concept-brief-and-test-plan.md) (premium content)
  - [✅ Checkpoint: From Concept to Test](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/checkpoint-concept-to-test.md) (premium content)
- [Course cheatsheet](https://everwise.study/courses/original-creativity-generate-ideas-beyond-the-obvious/cheatsheet.md) (premium content)