PRODUCT DESIGN AND

DEVELOPMENT
THOUFIQ MOHAMMED K
AP / MECH
 Creative Thinking Methods

Group Brainstorming

• Here, you can take advantage of the full experience and creativity of all team members. When
one member gets stuck with an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the
idea to the next stage. You can develop ideas in greater depth with group brainstorming than
you can with individual brainstorming.

• Another advantage of group brainstorming is that it helps everyone feel that they've
contributed to the solution, and it reminds people that others have creative ideas to offer. It's
also fun, so it can be great for team building!
 Creative Thinking Methods

Individual Brainstorming

• This can occur because groups aren't always strict in following the rules of brainstorming, and
bad behaviours creep in. Mostly, though, this happens because people pay so much attention to
other people that they don't generate ideas of their own – or they forget these ideas while they
wait for their turn to speak. This is called "blocking."

• When you brainstorm on your own, you don't have to worry about other people's egos or opinions,
and you can be freer and more creative. For example, you might find that an idea you'd hesitate
to bring up in a group develops into something special when you explore it on your own.

• However, you may not develop ideas as fully when you're on your own, because you don't have
the wider experience of other group members to draw on.
The SCAMPER technique for brainstorming
 Creative Thinking Methods

A concept map

It is a diagram or graphical tool that visually represents relationships between concepts

and ideas. Most concept maps depict ideas as boxes or circles (also called nodes),
which are structured hierarchically and connected with lines or arrows (also called
arcs). These lines are labelled with linking words and phrases to help explain the
connections between concepts.
 Creative Thinking Methods

Making a concept map can be helpful when:

• Presenting concise overviews of a field

• Absorbing information while studying for an exam

• Assessing a student’s grasp of a particular topic

• Consolidating knowledge during the learning process

• Demonstrating an acceptable level of understanding on a subject

• Defining knowledge that exists in your head but hasn’t been formally documented
 Creative Thinking Methods

How to make:

• Identify the focus question or main topic—think about the problem or issue you want the concept map
to resolve. This idea should connect to all others on your map and will guide the hierarchical
structure.

• Identify all the key concepts that relate to the main idea you identified. Order them with the most
general concepts first and the more specific concepts last. This list is referred to as the parking lot.

• Create a preliminary concept map linking the concepts together. Remember to add linking words or
phrases on the lines to demonstrate how the concepts are related.

• Add cross-links to connect concepts in different domains.

• Continually revise your concept map as needed.

Concept Map:
Mobile Phones
 Creative Thinking Methods

Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming

Six Key Questions

Journalism students are taught to ask six simple questions to ensure that they have covered the entire story.
These same questions can be used to help you approach the problem from different angles.

• Who? Who uses it, wants it, will benefit by it? What? What happens if X occurs? What resulted in success? What
resulted in failure?

• When? Can it be speeded up or slowed down? Is sooner better than later?

• Where? Where will X occur? Where else is possible?

• Why? Why is this done? Why is that particular rule, action, solution, problem, failure involved?

• How? How could it be done, should it be done, prevented, improved, changed, made?
 Creative Thinking Methods

Idea Generating Techniques Beyond Brainstorming

Five Whys

The Five Whys technique is used to get to the root of a problem. It is based on the premise that it is not
enough to just ask why one time. For example:

• Why has the machine stopped? A fuse blew because of fan overload.

• Why was there an overload? There was inadequate lubrication for the bearings.

• Why wasn’t there enough lubrication? The lube pump wasn’t working.

• Why wasn’t the pump working? The pump shaft was vibrating because it had worn due to abrasion.

• Why was there abrasion? There was no filter on the lube pump, allowing debris into the pump.
CREATIVE METHODS FOR
DESIGN

Refinement and Evaluation of Ideas

First ideas are grouped into categories

(Task 1). Then concepts are synthesized
by combining ideas from the different
categories (Task 2).

Notice that the ideas that are combined

to form a concept may come from any of
the previous categories. Sometimes
force-fitting results in further
consolidation of the ideas (Task 3).

The overall objective is to come out of

this session with several well developed
design concepts.
 FUNCTIONAL DECOMPOSITION AND SYNTHESIS

A common strategy for solving any complex task or describing any complex system is to
decompose it into smaller units that are easier to manage. Decomposing must result in
units that meaningfully represent the original entity.

Physical Decomposition