Osborn's Checklist / SCAMPER
Updated 2026-08-13
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Alex Osborn's checklist applies a fixed set of prompts to a product or process, asking whether something can be substituted, combined, adapted, modified or magnified, put to other uses, eliminated, or rearranged and reversed. The qualification is that the checklist generates candidates rather than judgements, so its output still requires selection, and the questions must be aimed at a concrete object to be useful.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use Idea Unblocking: run the prompts when a brainstorming session has stalled and needs raw material. - Use Systematic Variation: apply each prompt to one attribute at a time rather than to the whole product.
Anchor fast decisions
Free recall returns only the ideas already associated with an object, which is why brainstorming stalls. External prompts supply retrieval cues that reach attributes the thinker would not have queried, so attention is directed to parts of the object that habit has made invisible.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCAMPERverified
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