Brainstorming Tools

White hat is a lateral thinking tool where you ask three questions and gather only information. The first question is, "What do we know?" All of these answers need to be facts if not they go into the second question. The second question is, "What don't we know?"After this you group and theme all the answers (you make up groups and themes as you go) and then converge. Your convergence questions depend on the situation (do you have time to fail, is it for practice, is it for a client). The third question is ,"How are we going to find out?" You decide how based on convergence answers. 

SCAMPER is a form of lateral thinking that is a way to take something that already exists and making it new and different. It is an acronym that lays out the different steps you can take. These steps are S: substitute something, C: combine something, A: adapt something to it, M: modify or magnify it, P: put it to another use, E: eliminate something and R: reverse or rearrange it. 

Red hat is the same thing as white hat except is it fast. Very fast. It brings our pure emotion. I like this one better than white hat because it makes sure that you and/or your group is honest. 

Fractionation is taking something you want to innovate and breaking it down into it's smallest pieces. For fractionation the more you can break it down the better.