TRIZ For Dummies

The book is entertaining and engaging, and reading it may be the first step to changing the way you approach problems forever (Professional Engineering, May 2016)

Lilly Haines-Gadd runs the hugely successful TRIZ innovation and problem solving consultancy Oxford Creativity. She develops and delivers training programmes and facilitates problem solving workshops for many major organisations around the world, including Rolls-Royce, BAE SYSTEMS, Saint Gobain, Sanofi, the IET, Highways England and Oxford University.

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Part I: Getting Started with TRIZ 5 Chapter 1: Going from Zero to TRIZ 7 Getting to Know TRIZ 8 Increasing Ideality 8 Uncovering patterns in human creativity 10 Learning to think in the abstract 11 Connecting conceptual thinking with your knowledge and experience 13 Going beyond your own experience 14 Thinking functionally 15 Starting Your TRIZ Journey 16 Getting a handle on the TRIZ tools 16 Reapplying proven knowledge to deliver innovative new solutions 17 Modelling problems conceptually 19 Supercharging your thinking 20 Mastering TRIZ 22 Putting the tools together in the TRIZ problemsolving process 22 Innovating with others by sharing solutions 24 Cultivating the motivation for innovation 24 Being humble and looking like a genius 26 Chapter 2: Understanding the Fundamental TRIZ Philosophy 27 Thinking TRIZ 28 Picturing TRIZs beginnings 28 Standing on the shoulders of giants or reinventing the wheel? 29 Understanding the TRIZ Philosophy 30 Learning to think conceptually 30 Reapplying proven knowledge to solve problems 32 Getting everything you want without changing anything 34 Developing confidence 35 Being Systematic and Creative 36 Using TRIZ processes for understanding and solving problems 36 Thinking freely 37 Challenging assumptions 37 Part II: Opening Your TRIZ Toolbox 39 Chapter 3: Solving Contradictions with the 40 Inventive Principles 41 Uncovering and Understanding Unresolved Conflicts 41 Spotting contradictions and seeing how theyre resolved 42 Understanding the two types of contradiction 44 Reapplying other peoples genius solutions 44 Solving Technical Contradictions 46 Improving imperfect solutions with a little help from your friends 48 Using the Contradiction Matrix 48 Getting to Grips with Physical Contradictions 53 Resolving Physical Contradictions 54 Clever Tricks to Outsmart Contradictions: Using the 40 Inventive Principles 56 Applying the 40 Inventive Principles to real problems 56 Digging for buried treasure in the right places 58 Chapter 4: Applying the Trends of Technical Evolution 61 Looking More Closely at the Trends 62 Discovering the 8 Trends 65 Charting future product directions 69 Achieving a systems ultimate destiny 73 Applying the Trends 74 Listening to the voice of the product 75 Using the Trends to develop a nextgeneration system 76 Moving systems forward and knowing when to go back 78 Applying the Trends More Generally 79 Increasing Ideality 79 Transition to the SuperSystem 79 Increasing System Coordination 79 SCurves 80 Using the Trends to Create Strong Patents 80 Strengthening and ringfencing your own patents 80 Leapfrogging competitors technology 81 Chapter 5: Improving Ideality by Using Resources 83 Understanding the Ideality Equation: How TRIZ Defines Value 84 Defining benefits 84 Defining costs 86 Defining downsides 86 Putting the Ideality Equation together 87 Understanding the Links Between Benefits, Functions and Solutions 89 Thinking Resourcefully 90 Understanding resources and where to find them 91 Learning how to hunt for resources 92 Getting what you want using what you have 95 Embedding resource thinking into everyday life 96 Chapter 6: Using the TRIZ Effects Database 99 Thinking Innovatively with the Prism of TRIZ 100 Taking out unnecessary detail 100 Reapplying clever solutions in new and exciting ways 102 Making new connections between existing technologies 104 Using the Database of Scientific Effects 105 Learning to look for what you want 105 Applying the Effects Database to solve problems 106 Strategies for analogous searching 109 Inventing with TRIZ 110 Matching needs and systems 110 Uncovering unmet needs 113 Applying existing technolog