Analogy technique
The analogy technique is a creativity technique for brainstorming that uses characteristics (properties, attributes) of the task in order to uncover related situations. Then real or imaginary solutions are collected from this new perspective and transferred to the original task. The analogy technique is very versatile, as there are many ways to form analogies.
The bionics is an important special case of analogy technique in which the analogies are sought in nature.
Formation of analogies
Characteristics of the task are chosen to form analogies. The analogies are then other objects, persons or organizations that also have these characteristics. The analogies can be both real and fictional (e.g. fairy tale characters).
Analogies to a university could be, for example:
- Theater, airport, conference center. (Organizations that have large halls.)
- Hogwarts, dance school, flight simulator. (Places where people learn.)
- Tax office, town hall, police. (Public service bodies.)
- Company, association, church. (Employer)
- Laboratory, archive, south pole. (Places where research is done.)
method
The technique consists of the following four steps:
- Choose a feature of the existing task.
- Collect owners of these characteristics (i.e., analogies).
- Solve the task from the point of view of these analogies.
- Transfer the solutions found in this way to the task at hand.
In the third step, the solutions can be both real ( how was the problem solved by the analogy? ) And imaginary ( how would the analogy solve the problem? )
Sample application
Ideas for a supermarket are being sought.
- Question: What is a characteristic of a supermarket? Answer: A supermarket has very long walls
- Question: Where else are there really long walls? Answer: In an art gallery
- Question: What is offered to the people there? Answer: pictures and sculptures
- Question: How can we apply this solution to our task? Answer: We could use the walls in the supermarket to display pictures by local artists or children from the local school.
advantages
- The method can be designed flexibly by selecting the characteristics accordingly.
- The method is easy to understand and accessible to people who think “logically”.
- The characteristics can be collected systematically.
literature
- Arthur B. VanGundy: Techniques of Structured Problem Solving. ISBN 978-0442288471
- Michael Michalko: Cracking Creativity. ISBN 978-1580083119
- Cornelius Herstatt and Dieter Engel: Developing new products with analogies. In: Harvard Business Manager , August 2006.