---
name: creative-thinking
description: Use when asked which creative-thinking technique fits a situation — an umbrella overview of brainstorming, mind mapping, SCAMPER, random association, analogies, thinking hats, mindful observation, and storyboarding — as the technique-selection layer above ideation's general discipline.
---

# Creative Thinking

Creative thinking techniques stimulate and enhance the generation of new
ideas, insights, and innovative solutions — breaking free of habitual,
linear thinking patterns to encourage unconventional, imaginative
approaches. This skill maps the technique family; see [[ideation]]
for the general divergent-thinking discipline (quantity over quality,
suspended judgment) all of these techniques share.

## The technique family

- **Brainstorming** — generating a large number of ideas in a free-
  flowing, non-judgmental setting (see [[brainstorming]] for this
  in depth).
- **Mind mapping** — a visual representation of ideas and their
  interrelationships, radiating from a central concept (see
  [[mind-map]]).
- **SCAMPER** — a structured prompt checklist (Substitute, Combine,
  Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse) for generating
  variations on an existing idea (see [[scamper]]).
- **Random association** — associating random words or images with a
  problem to trigger unexpected new ideas, a deliberate-randomness
  technique in the same family as [[oblique-strategies]].
- **Analogies** — drawing comparisons between seemingly unrelated
  concepts to find a fresh perspective on the problem at hand.
- **Six Thinking Hats** — adopting different thinking styles in turn to
  deliberately explore a problem from multiple angles (see
  [[thinking-hats]]).
- **Mindful observation** — focused, deliberate observation of the
  environment or problem itself as a source of ideas, rather than pure
  internal ideation.
- **Storyboard** — a visual narrative sequence used to explore and
  develop a concept or solution over a sequence of steps or scenes.

## Choosing among them

Different techniques suit different blockages: SCAMPER works well when
there's an existing idea/product to iterate on; brainstorming and random
association work well from a blank slate; Six Thinking Hats works well
when a group is stuck because everyone is unconsciously applying the
*same* thinking style; mind mapping and storyboarding work well when the
problem has real structure or sequence worth making visible. There's no
single best technique — the skill is matching the technique to the
actual nature of the block.

## Common pitfalls

- **Always reaching for the same one technique** — different blockages
  respond to different techniques; a team that only ever brainstorms
  misses what SCAMPER or Six Thinking Hats would have surfaced on a
  problem better suited to them.
- **Applying evaluation criteria during a divergent-thinking technique**
  — every technique in this family depends on the same suspended-
  judgment discipline [[ideation]] describes; judging ideas as they
  emerge collapses the technique's value regardless of which one is used.
- **Treating creative thinking as unstructured free-for-all** — several
  of these techniques (SCAMPER, Six Thinking Hats) are actually quite
  structured; the structure is what makes them effective, not an
  obstacle to work around.

## Learn more

- [[ideation]] for the general divergent-thinking discipline underlying every technique here.
- [[brainstorming]], [[mind-map]], [[scamper]], [[thinking-hats]] for the individual techniques in depth.
- [[oblique-strategies]] for a closely related deliberate-randomness prompt technique.