Idea‐Generation Techniques: A Formulary of Active Ingredients

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The profusion of creativity techniques that have been proposed and used is based on a much smaller set of active ingredients, devices that promote idea generation. This paper reports the results of a study that identified these active ingredients through an analysis of 172 idea‐generation methods. Fifty idea‐generation devices of three types — strategies, tactics, and enablers — were identified and organized in a formulary. Research results facilitate the evaluation of idea‐generation methods and the selection of methods suited to particular idea‐generation tasks.