---
name: scamper
description: Use when asked to apply SCAMPER — a seven-prompt checklist (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse) for generating variations on an existing idea — one specific structured technique within the broader creative-thinking toolkit (see creative-thinking).
---

# SCAMPER

SCAMPER is a creative-thinking technique for stimulating idea generation
by systematically examining an existing idea, product, or concept through
seven distinct prompts and transforming it into new, improved versions —
particularly useful when starting from *something already existing*,
unlike a blank-page technique such as [[brainstorming]].

## The seven prompts

- **Substitute** — can a part be replaced with something else? What
  could be swapped to bring a fresh perspective?
- **Combine** — can different elements or ideas be merged into something
  new or synergistic?
- **Adapt** — can the idea be adjusted to fit a different context or
  purpose? What existing solutions elsewhere could be borrowed from?
- **Modify** — can it be altered — changed, enhanced, or adjusted — to
  improve function, appearance, or performance?
- **Put to another use** — could it serve an entirely different purpose
  or context than originally intended?
- **Eliminate** — can something be removed to simplify or streamline it?
- **Reverse** — can a traditional assumption be flipped? What does the
  idea look like considered from the opposite direction?

## How to use it

Apply each of the seven prompts to an existing idea in turn, treating
each as a genuine question to answer rather than skipping past ones that
don't obviously apply — sometimes a prompt that seems irrelevant at first
glance ("what would I *eliminate* from this already-lean design?")
produces the most surprising result specifically because it wasn't the
obvious one to try.

## Where it fits among creative-thinking techniques

SCAMPER's structured, checklist-based approach makes it well suited to
iterating on an existing concept methodically, in contrast to open-ended
techniques like [[brainstorming]] (best from a blank slate) or
[[oblique-strategies]] (best when a fresh, oblique nudge is needed
rather than a systematic pass).

## Common pitfalls

- **Skipping prompts that seem obviously inapplicable** — some of
  SCAMPER's most valuable results come from forcing an answer to a prompt
  that didn't seem to apply at first.
- **Judging each generated variation immediately** — SCAMPER is still a
  divergent-thinking technique; apply [[ideation]]'s
  suspend-judgment discipline while generating variations, and evaluate
  them as a separate, later step.
- **Using SCAMPER on a blank-slate problem with nothing existing to
  iterate on** — it's specifically a technique for transforming something
  that already exists; for a genuinely new problem, [[brainstorming]]
  or mind mapping (see [[mind-map]]) fit better.

## Learn more

- [[creative-thinking]] for the broader technique family SCAMPER belongs to.
- [[brainstorming]] for the complementary blank-slate technique.