Smart Little People / SLP
Updated 2026-09-11
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A TRIZ tool in which the components of a system are pictured as small intelligent people who push, block, and idle. Asking what these figures need to do, and how they should be arranged, exposes the contradiction in physical terms. The qualification is that the figures are a thinking device rather than a model of reality, so the exercise only pays off when the rearranged figures are translated back into an engineering change.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Use Conflict Visualisation: draw the parts as little people and watch where they obstruct each other. - Use Rearrangement: move the figures into a workable arrangement and map that back to the design.
Anchor fast decisions
Describing a mechanical contradiction in technical terms keeps the solver inside the vocabulary that produced the problem. Anthropomorphising the parts replaces that vocabulary with agents who have simple wants, and their obvious conflicts suggest rearrangements that technical description obscures.
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/TRIZverified
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