Systematic Innovation Thinking

CORE DEFINITION

Systematic innovation thinking is a simplified descendant of TRIZ that works inside a closed world, using only components and attributes already present in the product. It provides five templates: subtraction, which removes an essential component; division, which splits and rearranges; multiplication, which copies a component with a change; task unification, which assigns an additional job to an existing part; and attribute dependency, which links one attribute to another. The core proposition is that forcing structured constraints on an existing product produces more usable ideas than open brainstorming, because the search stays close to something manufacturable. The key qualification is that the templates generate candidates rather than answers, so each must be filtered for feasibility.