Hi Ashit,
Brainstorming - its my forte as i teach the same! Would like to share information on this -
Brainstorming
The granddaddy creative technique, brainstorming, was the brainchild of Alex Osborn, co-founder of a major advertising agency. The procedure is simple and familiar. First you devise wild--even preposterous--ideas, and jot down every one. But the key is this: save the criticism and evaluation until this process is completed. Osborn tells us, with disarming logic, that we cannot simultaneously be creative and critical. Furthermore, he adds, wild ideas can often be "tamed" into workable solutions.
Although most people consider brainstorming a group technique, you can brainstorm by yourself as well as before a large audience. But the recommended small group, with 10 or 12 members, is usually suitable to a variety of situations. Brainstorming, I'd say, has survived for half a century because it works.
Attribute Listing
While brainstorming is a general procedure, attribute listing is a specific idea-finding technique (one that could even be used while brainstorming). You identify the key characteristics, or attributes, of the product or process in question. Then you think up ways to change, modify, or improve each attribute (in design engineering this is called the substitution method).
Almost anyone can "disassemble" a product into its attributes and then think of modifications for most of them. For example, a can of soda has these attributes: size, shape, color, color pattern, decorative theme, material, possible uses after modification, other audiences for the product if modified. Can you invent alterations for each of these attributes? Fran Stryker supplied himself with plots for Lone Ranger radio and television episodes for a couple of decades by modifying these characteristics: characters, goals, obstacles, and outcomes.
Morphological Synthesis
Morphological synthesis is a simple elaboration of attribute listing. After completing the list of attributes, list changes in one attribute (such as “products”) along the horizontal axis, and list changes in a second attribute (such as “markets”) along the vertical axis. Idea combinations, or syntheses, will appear in the intersections, or cells, of the table. Morphological synthesis will force you to look at many surprising combinations.
Idea Checklists
Have you ever consulted a telephone directory or a supplier's catalog as a "checklist" of resources or ideas for solving problems? You may not know that checklists have been written expressly to solve problems creatively. The best known is Osborn's "73 Idea Spurring Questions." Consider how you would invent a better mousetrap as you read these examples from his idea checklist:
Put to other uses? New ways to use as is? Other uses if modified?
Modify? New twist? Change meaning, color, motion, sound, form? Other changes?
Magnify? What to add? Greater frequency? Longer? Extra value? Duplicate? Multiply? Exaggerate?
Minify? What to subtract? Condensed? Miniature? Lighter? Split up? Understate?
Rearrange? Interchange components? Other sequence? Change schedule?
Combine? How about a blend, an assortment? Combine units? Combine purposes? Combine appeals?
Of course, none of these techniques is guaranteed to solve your research problems. But they can help you find ideas without forcing you to wait for an uncooperative muse.
Cheerio
Rajat