Section editors: Dr. Siavash Rokhsari and Annee Sharma
Spring Sale at Bendel's
Florine Stettheimer, 1921
Stuck on a Product Idea? SCAMPER Your Way Out.
Dr. Siavash Rokhsari
ACSS Department, UCW
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When was the last time you found yourself staring at a blank page, after hours or even days of trying to come up with a new product idea? As if you were sharpening your mind again and again, yet nothing came out, and it only felt like you were running out of creativity and genius.
Coming up with a product idea sounds exciting… until you actually try to do it. At first, it feels easy. You think, “I’ll just come up with something creative.” Then you sit down, stare at a blank page, and suddenly everything feels either too simple or already done.
Most people don’t actually struggle with creativity. They struggle with direction. They’re waiting for a “perfect idea” to show up, when in reality, that’s not how ideas work.Most good ideas are not invented from scratch.
They are built by changing something that already exists. That’s exactly what SCAMPER helps you do.
What is SCAMPER?SCAMPER is just a way of asking better questions about an existing idea. Instead of trying to be creative out of nowhere, it gives you seven specific directions to explore:SubstituteCombineAdaptModifyPut to another useEliminateReverseThink of it as a checklist for creativity. You take one idea, and you push it in seven different ways.
Let’s take something very simple and walk through it properly.A coffee shop.
Substitute This is about replacing one part of the product with something else. You don’t change everything. Just one element and see what happens. In a coffee shop, you could substitute ingredients. Instead of regular milk, everything is plant-based. Instead of sugar, everything uses natural sweeteners. That alone already creates a different experience and attracts a different group of people. You could also substitute the process. What if instead of a barista making your drink, it’s fully self-serve? Customers walk in, use a machine, and get their coffee in seconds. Faster, cheaper, less waiting. Even small substitutions can completely change how people experience something.
Adapt Here, you borrow something that works in another context and apply it. Look at how subscription models changed entertainment. Platforms like Netflix made people comfortable paying monthly instead of per use. Now apply that idea to a coffee shop. What if customers pay a fixed monthly fee and get unlimited or discounted coffee? Suddenly, the business model changes. It creates loyalty and predictable revenue. Adaptation is about paying attention to what works elsewhere and asking, “Can this work here too?”
Modify This is about changing the form, scale, or intensity of something. You can make something bigger, smaller, faster, slower, more premium, or more basic. For example, you could turn a coffee shop into a high-end experience. Slower service, personalized drinks, carefully designed space, higher prices. It becomes something people go to for the experience, not just the product. Or you can go the opposite direction. Strip it down to speed and efficiency. No seating, no waiting, just quick service for people on the move. Same product, completely different feeling.
Combine This is one of the most powerful ones. Take two things that don’t usually go together and bring them into one space. A coffee shop combined with a co-working space creates a place where people don’t just drink coffee, they stay, work, and spend hours there. Combine it with a bookstore, and now it becomes a quiet, relaxed environment where people come to read and spend time. Combine it with a gym or wellness space, and now it’s part of a lifestyle, not just a quick stop. Most modern businesses are built on this idea. They are not new, they are combinations.
Eliminate This one is simple but very powerful. What happens if you remove something? We usually think adding features makes things better. But often, removing something creates clarity. What if a coffee shop has no long menu? Just two or three drinks, done really well. Customers don’t waste time choosing. The process becomes faster and simpler. What if there is no seating? Lower costs, faster turnover. Removing things forces focus. And sometimes, that’s exactly what makes a business stand out.
Put to Another Use This is where you ask: can this serve a different purpose? A coffee shop doesn’t have to be just for coffee. During the day, it’s a regular café. But in the evening, it could become an event space. Small talks, open mic nights, networking events. Or it could be used as a study space during exam periods, designed specifically for students who need a quiet place. You’re not changing the product itself. You’re changing how and when it is used.
Reverse This is about flipping the normal way things work. Instead of the business doing everything for the customer, what if the customer becomes part of the process? For example, what if customers make their own drinks using guided machines? That changes the experience completely. It becomes interactive. Or reverse the pricing logic. What if people get rewards or discounts for bringing their own cups or promoting the brand? When you reverse something, you challenge assumptions people don’t even realize they have.
So what’s the point?
None of these ideas required a “brilliant moment.” They all came from asking structured questions about something simple. That’s the real value of SCAMPER. It gives you a starting point when you feel stuck. It helps you move instead of waiting.
If you’re waiting for a perfect idea, you’ll probably stay stuck. Start with something ordinary. Something simple. Even something boring. Then work through it. Push it. change it. question it. That’s how ideas are actually built. Not in one moment, but step by step. And once you start doing that, coming up with ideas stops being frustrating and starts becoming something you can actually control.
How has SCAMPER reshaped the delivery of instruction through Learning Management Systems?
Now let’s take this one step further and look at how SCAMPER has already been applied to something you use almost every day, whether you are a student or a professor: the Learning Management System.
If you think about it, platforms like Moodle and BrighSpace didn’t appear out of nowhere. They are the result of applying exactly these kinds of changes over time. Content delivery was substituted from physical classrooms to digital platforms. Teaching and communication were combined into one centralized space where lectures, discussions, assignments, and feedback all exist together. Features from social media and communication tools were adapted, allowing announcements, comments, and real-time interaction. The experience was modified to be more flexible, accessible anytime and anywhere. And in some ways, the traditional classroom structure was reversed, giving students more control over pacing and access to materials.
None of this was one big invention. It was continuous improvement through small, structured changes, exactly what SCAMPER encourages.
✔️ Can you SCAMPER our backpack a little?
And now, let’s bring it back to something much simpler.
A backpack.
After all, we are UCW Backpack at the end of the day.
Think about how a simple backpack could be improved using each of the SCAMPER strategies. What could be substituted? What could be combined? What could be adapted from other products? What could be modified to make it more useful? Could it serve another purpose? What could be removed to make it simpler? What if you reversed the way it is used?
Don’t overthink it. Don’t try to be perfect. Just get your ideas out.
From Idea to Impact: Rethinking Marketing and Product Management
An interview with Farhad Karimi
ACSS Department, UCW
Given your combined academic and industry experience in marketing and product management, we wanted to gain your perspective on how these areas intersect in real-world practice. To start with, from your experience, how early should marketing be involved in the product development process, and what role does it play at that stage?
Honestly, from my experience, marketing should be involved from the very beginning, like Day Zero. Not later, not after product is ready. Because in many companies, there is this old habit where product team builds something first, and then they just pass it to marketing and say, “Okay, now sell it.” But at that point, sometimes it is already too late. Today, marketing is not just about promotion. It is more like the voice of the customer inside the company. In the early stage, we are asking questions like: does this problem really exist? who actually needs this solution? is there a real demand in the market or just assumption?
So our role is more about validation, not advertising. We try to understand if the idea makes sense before too much time and money is spent. We look at the market, competitors, customer behavior, and also gaps that are not yet served. Because honestly, sometimes engineers build very smart solutions, but for problems that people don’t really care about. And that is a big risk. So if marketing is there from the start, it helps to reduce that risk and guide the direction in a more realistic way.
When developing a new product, how do you identify real customer needs and ensure the product aligns with those needs?
Yeah, this is a very important question, because many people think you just ask customers what they want. But in reality, what people say and what they actually do is not always the same. So we try to go deeper. One approach I really like is Jobs-to-be-Done, which means instead of focusing on the product, we focus on the “job” the customer is trying to complete. Like, what are they really trying to achieve in their life or work. Also, I think observation is very important. Sometimes just watching how people use a product, or struggle with something, gives more insight than surveys. This is where ethnographic research comes in, even in a simple way. Then, to make sure we are on the right track, we don’t go directly to full product. We test step by step. We build something small, like MVP, and we see how people react. Not just what they say, but how they use it. So it becomes kind of a loop. We test, we learn, we adjust. This way, the product is slowly shaped based on real behavior, not just assumptions or guesses.
Many students think marketing is mainly about advertising. How would you explain the role of marketing in shaping the product itself?
Yes, I hear this a lot from students. They usually think marketing means social media, ads, maybe branding. But actually, marketing is much deeper than that. I usually tell them something like this: marketing is not the decoration of the product, it is part of the product itself. It is like the DNA, not just the gift wrapping. Because marketing defines the value proposition. It answers: why should someone care about this product? And this decision affects many things. For example, pricing. Price is not just number, it tells people if the product is premium or affordable.
Also distribution. Where you sell the product changes how people experience it. And even the design or interface, it is influenced by how you want the customer to feel. So if marketing research shows a specific pain point, the product must be built around that. Otherwise, even with the best advertising, it will not work. Because at the end, if the product does not solve a real problem, people will not stay.
What are the most common mistakes you see when companies launch a product, especially in terms of positioning and communication?
One very common mistake I see is that companies focus too much on features. They list all the technical details, functions, specifications… but they forget to explain the benefit. So instead of answering “what it does,” they should answer “why it matters.” Like, how does this actually improve the customer’s life? If that is not clear, the message becomes confusing. Another issue is what I call lack of alignment inside the company. Sometimes marketing says one thing, sales says another thing, and product team has a different idea. So the customer receives mixed messages. And when that happens, trust goes down. Because people don’t understand what the product really stands for. So I think clarity and consistency are very important. You need one simple, strong positioning, and everyone inside the company should communicate the same story.
For students who want to build their own business or work in product or marketing roles, what key skills or mindset should they start developing today?
I would say there are two main things students should start working on from now. First is what I call empathy with data. It is not enough to just analyze numbers. Of course, you need to understand data, read reports, maybe dashboards. But at the same time, you need to understand people. Data tells you what is happening, but empathy tells you why it is happening. And without that “why,” decisions can be very shallow.
Second is agility. The market today is changing very fast, especially with AI and new technologies. So if someone is too fixed on one plan, like a strict five-year plan, it can be risky. You need to be flexible, open to feedback, and ready to change direction when needed. Not randomly, but based on learning. And overall, I always tell students something simple: marketing starts with you. It means you take responsibility to understand the customer, to ask questions, to stay curious. If you have that mindset, the skills will come with time.