Alexander Ostrovskiy: Prompts for Creative Problems

Creativity is one of the most difficult skills you can acquire. Creative problem-solving transforms the process of ‘overcoming obstacles’ into the art of enabling people and teams to surmount these in innovative ways. Lying at the very core of this is the creative generation and harnessing questions or scenarios built to unlock unconventional thinking.

Source: ai-ostrovskiy-alexander.co.uk

1.    Understanding the Creative Problem-Solving Mindset

The creative problem-solving mindset is ambiguous and inquisitive. It’s about approaching problems not as obstacles but as opportunities for discovery. It requires flexibility, openness to failure, and readiness to explore unconventional paths. Successful creative problem-solvers merge rational analysis with imaginative exploration, blending logical and abstract thinking to arrive at novel solutions.

2.    The Anatomy of an Effective Creative Prompt

A good creative brief is clear, open, and provocative. It should challenge the thinker toward possibilities, not toward any direction. Contrasted with a request for example, to “How can we solve this problem?”, a much better prompt might be:

• “What if we approached this problem as an opportunity for a fresh start?”
• The best prompts encourage divergent thinking and frame problems anew.
• Allow multiple ways of interpretation and solution.

3.    Starting with “What If”: The Power of Possibility Questions

The “what if” questions are the bedrock of creative investigation. It unleashes imagination, so it detaches people from what exists around them. These may sound like:

• “What if our product could think for itself?”
• “What if we turned our users and providers over?”
• “What if time and money were unlimited?”

These may be the questions that turn overwhelming obstacles into thrilling opportunities amidst a space of limitless possibility.

4.    Reframing Problems Using Perspectives

The first step to reframing a problem is to look at it from another perspective. A nicely framed prompt may direct participants to take up other roles or personas, such as:

• “How might this be solved by a child?”
• “How would this seem if looked from our competitor’s perspective?
• “If we approached this problem as an artist and not as an engineer, what might we do differently?”

 Reframing changes the focus and presents opportunities that had not been observed previously. It can also allow creative breakthroughs.

5.    Using Constraints to Inspire Creativity

Creativity often requires freedom for it to flow; however, it is sometimes constraints that ironically inspire creativity due to forcing lateral thinking. Example:

• “How would you solve this using only recycled materials?”
• “What if you had to finish this project in half the time?”
• “How would you design this for one person who does not have access to any technology?”

These constraints drive the problem solver to revise assumptions and reduce them to its very core of essentials.

6.    Role of Analogies in Problem-Solving Triggers

Analogies help draw analogies from areas that are apparently very different yet give new insight. Analogy-based prompts would include:

• “How would nature solve this problem?”
• “What would we learn from airlines’ logistical aspects?”
• “If this challenge were a game, how would we play to win?”

 Analogies serve to bridge gaps between disciplines and help cross-pollinate ideas, sometimes showing quite unexpected solutions.

7.    Breaking Complex Problems Down into Manageable Parts

Giant challenges cannot help but feel somewhat daunting and discourage creative inputs. Split into more modest and more approachable segments, the challenges appear manageable. Helping the participants cut the problems to bite-size may be encouraged with probes like:

• “What is the one most critical factor of the problem?”
• “If part of the problem could be resolved, how might the other parts change?”
• “What would be one step towards a solution?”.

8.    Introducing Randomness to Spur Innovation

Randomness disrupts the patterns of thought that limit creative insight. It can be harnessed through random word generators or by drawing on unrelated themes for inspiration. Example provocations might be:

• “How would this problem look if we applied a completely unrelated industry’s model?”
• “What random object could inspire a solution here?”
• “If we were to randomly select a word, how might that word be connected with our problem?”

These activities provoke lateral thinking to get illogical and creative solutions.

9.    Time-Travel Cues: Lessons to be Learnt from Scenarios in the Past/Future

The time-travel cues look at how something was done or will perhaps be done in the future. Examples include:

• “How would individuals have solved this problem 100 years ago?
• “What would this solution look and feel like 50 years from now?”
• “If we could go back in time, what one decision would alter everything?”

The foregoing questions serve to help locate the problem within larger contexts in order to devise adaptive, forward strategies.

10.       Emotional Intelligence in Problem-Solving Questions

Emotional intelligence is the key to recognizing the human aspects of a challenge. The following question types are designed for prompts related to emotions and empathy, such as:

• “How might this solution make people feel?”
• “What are the emotional obstacles that could get in the way of this idea succeeding?”
• “What would help people trust and connect with this, and with us?”

It’s in answering these more emotive questions that solutions can start to feel a lot more human-centered and impactful.

11.       Cross-Pollination Of Ideas Across Disciplines

The best innovations often happen at the intersections of diverse disciplines. For interdisciplinary thinking try asking:

• “What can we learn from the medical field to help us solve this problem?”
• “How would artists or designers solve this challenge?”
• “What other industries can we borrow and then adapt?”

These types of questions break down silos, allowing creative problem-solving around topics where one may have been stuck previously.

12.       The Art of Sequential Prompting

Probably one of the strongest usages for prompts is sequentially. Meaning with stacked prompts to go deep into them. That starts with the large-scale view, then one begins to tighten down:

• “What’s the best possible outcome here?”
• “What’s standing in the way?”
• “What’s the tiniest step we could take right now?”

 This keeps them scanning for much better options.

13.       Amplifying Others’ Ideas: Group Problem-Finding

Collaboration scales creativity through collective intelligence. Following are some group brainstorming prompts:

• “What’s one thing that could make this a bit better?”
• “How might we connect the two?”
• “What is something that is not yet part of the solution?”

These tend to invite iteration and refinement, making use of different perspectives.

14.       Visualizing Scenario Solutions

Visualization concretizes a conceptual insight. The following meta-prompts might stimulate imaginative scenarios:

• “What would an ideal solution look like if it were operating?”,
• “If we had the ability to prototype this idea today, how would it work?”
• “What metaphor best describes our vision?”

These are real, vivid mental pictures that serve to begin making ideas more tangible and obtainable.

15.       Conquering Creative Blockages with Meta-Prompts

Meta-problem prompts give meaning to the creation process perse, such as passing the moment of jam:

• “What is holding us from solving the problem?”
• “What’s the most out-of-the-wall solution we have not tried so far?”
• “If starting fresh today, what would you try differently?”

It is from this type of reflective question that problem-solving gains its vigor.

Well-framed questions mean a leap forward for creative problem-solving. Embracing limitation, reasoning by analogy, rephrasing, and embracing collaboration every person and team finds an innovative answer to even a bewitching question.