Going Further

I like creative thinking tools. (see previously!) I’m also intrigued by people who write up their thesis but have clear ideas for what they would do next. I didn’t have that at all. The most I could see was perhaps learning C++ to code a few algorithms, but apart from that I didn’t know what I could do next to take my research further.

Fortunately, I have a creative thinking tool for that: SCAMPER, an acronym of ways to innovate. Each letter is a different prompt for re-examining an idea or solution. There are lots of ways it can be used, but I think for the purposes of thinking how to develop research it is useful just to take each prompt at face value. If you’re thinking around your research area as part of your viva prep, the following could help.

• Substitute: what could you change in your current research to get something valuable?
• Combine: how could you blend your research with something else to find something innovative?
• Adapt: is it possible to adapt a process or method you’ve already used successfully for something else?
• Magnify: can you find something valuable by emphasising aspects of your prior research?
• Put to other use: can you apply what you’ve done in another context?
• Eliminate: how could you get an interesting result by removing aspects of your existing research or process?
• Rearrange: how can you take what you’ve already done and remix to find something great?

Your examiners might not ask about future directions that your research could go in. An exercise like this can help lead you to interesting ideas, and it won’t hurt you to have more of them, will it?