Creativity techniques: Tools and exercises for generating ideas
Written by Maren Dinges | 28th May 2025
Table of Contents
Creativity techniques help organize your thinking and support you in developing new ideas. These methods are both practical tools and useful exercises. As you follow the steps of a creativity technique, ideas often start to flow naturally. Depending on your goal, these ideas can solve problems or inspire innovation. You can use creativity techniques on your own or together with a team.
Four popular creativity methods you should know
1. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a widely used technique, especially in groups. It encourages free thinking—every idea counts, and nothing is judged. Team members share thoughts for a few minutes without filtering them. You can do this out loud or by writing ideas down.
Many teams also use brainwriting, where ideas are noted on sticky notes, whiteboards, or Kanban boards. The aim is to gather as many ideas as possible without criticism.
Once the session ends, you organize the ideas. A useful next step is mind mapping:
- First, group similar ideas.
- Then, highlight the most promising ones.
- From there, either explore those ideas further or develop a specific solution.
2. SCAMPER
SCAMPER is used to improve existing products or processes. It’s especially helpful when you’ve identified a specific problem. SCAMPER stands for:
- S = Substitute
- C = Combine
- A = Adapt
- M = Modify
- P = Put to another Use
- E = Eliminate
- R = Reverse
Each step prompts a set of questions to help you look at the problem from different angles and develop fresh ideas.
Example:
Let’s say you’re working on a new car model:
- Substitute: Can traditional controls like steering wheels be replaced with touchscreens or voice commands?
- Combine: Can safety features be combined with self-driving sensors?
- Adapt: Can technology from aviation or space be used in cars?
- Modify: How can the design be improved for better aerodynamics?
- Put to another Use: Can used parts be recycled in new ways?
- Eliminate: What steps in production can be removed to save time or cost?
- Reverse: What if we switched from personal vehicles to shared ones?
Presenting SCAMPER results with video:
Because SCAMPER involves several steps, video is a great way to simplify and present your findings. Create one video scene for each SCAMPER step, showing both the question and a possible solution.
The simpleshow video maker is ideal for this. Its AI can suggest images and help visualize ideas. This not only helps you present your results clearly but may even lead to new ideas during the process.
3. Walt Disney Method
This method uses different viewpoints to explore a problem:
- The Dreamer thinks big and imagines new possibilities.
- The Realist checks what’s actually possible.
- The Critic points out risks or weaknesses.
By taking on all three roles, either in a group or on your own, you get a well-rounded view of the idea.
Using video to support this method:
If you’ve done the exercise with a group, a video is a great way to document the results. If you’re working alone, you can take on all three roles and use video to bring your story to life.
The simpleshow video maker Story Generator helps by turning your notes into a full script that includes all three perspectives. It makes it easy to present the idea to your team in a clear and engaging way.
4. Six Thinking Hats
Developed by Edward de Bono, this method helps teams look at problems from multiple angles. Each “hat” represents a different way of thinking:
- White Hat – Focus on facts and data
- Red Hat – Explore emotions and gut feelings
- Black Hat – Look at risks and possible problems
- Yellow Hat – Focus on benefits and opportunities
- Green Hat – Think creatively and outside the box
- Blue Hat – Look at the overall process and structure
Documenting this method with video:
Create one scene per hat in a video. Each scene focuses on the key points that came up under that thinking style. In the final scene, bring everything together and summarize the best ideas.
Conclusion: Use Videos to Bring Creativity Techniques to Life
Creativity techniques are powerful tools to solve problems and develop ideas. Some are best done in a group, others work well solo. But no matter how you apply them, videos can make your work easier and more impactful.
With the simpleshow video maker, you can work through group methods on your own. The AI helps write scripts, switch perspectives, and choose visuals—making complex ideas easy to understand.
It’s also a great way to present your results in a clear and professional way, especially when sharing them with decision-makers. So next time you want to be creative, give simpleshow video maker a try—it might spark even more ideas along the way.
