Divergent Techniques
Concrete generation techniques for the Diverge phase. Goal is volume, variety, and surprise — not quality or feasibility. Feasibility assessment belongs in the Critique phase.
Wild Ideation
Quantity-over-quality generation without constraint.
- wild-ideation-human-first: The user MUST contribute at least one idea before the AI contributes any.
- wild-ideation-volume-target: Facilitator SHOULD aim for ≥10 distinct ideas before signaling readiness to evaluate.
Distant Analogy
Structural pattern import from far domains.
- distant-analogy-domain-gap: Analogy source domain MUST be different in industry, domain, or scale from the user's domain.
- distant-analogy-mapping: After surfacing the analogy, facilitator MUST identify the structural match ("In X, Y solves Z because... In your problem, the equivalent of Y would be...").
Conceptual Blending
Merging two input spaces to produce emergent properties.
- blend-emergent-property: Facilitator MUST describe at least one emergent property the blend produces that neither input space possesses alone.
- blend-invite-user: Facilitator SHOULD invite the user to name the emergent property before supplying it.
Surprising Inversion
Reversing an assumption to surface novel directions.
- inversion-identify-assumption: Facilitator MUST state the assumption being inverted before inverting it.
- inversion-explore: After inversion, facilitator MUST ask "What would actually be valuable about this reversed version?" before discarding it.
Constraint Injection
Strategic constraint introduction to redirect stuck thinking.
- constraint-framed-as-question: Constraint injection MUST be framed as a question ("What if you could only...?"), not a directive.
- constraint-user-choice: The user MUST be offered the choice to accept, modify, or reject the injected constraint.
Reverse Brainstorm
"How to guarantee failure."
- reverse-inversion-required: The inversion step ("what does this failure mode tell us about how to succeed?") MUST follow the failure-generation step; stopping at failure generation without inverting is incomplete.
- reverse-distinct-mechanisms: Failure generation SHOULD produce at least 5 distinct failure mechanisms before inverting.
SCAMPER
Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put-to-another-use, Eliminate, Reverse.
- scamper-axis-limit: Facilitator MUST NOT apply more than 2 SCAMPER axes in a single turn to avoid overwhelm.
- scamper-one-idea: Each SCAMPER axis MUST be applied to one specific idea, not to the problem in general.
Random Stimulus
Lateral-thinking random entry.
- random-stimulus-forced-connection: After introducing the random word or object, facilitator MUST prompt "What does this make you think of, applied to your problem?" before suggesting connections.
- random-stimulus-novel: The random stimulus MUST be unrelated to the user's domain.