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Simple & Pragmatic Problem Solving
#56Chapter 5: Individual Creative Option Generation• Individual Creative OptionsCreatively ThinkingIndividual and group Mode30-60 min(Rapid)

Reversal-Dereversal

From the book "Advanced Problem-Solving Toolbox: 115 Creative Plays" | Compiled & Edited by: Mojtaba Goudarzi, Open translation: Mehrshid Goudarzi
Executive Synopsis & Core Logic:

State the problem with an inverted negative verb (“How do we make things completely catastrophic?”) and then turn disaster solutions into bright, positive ideas.

Operational Parameters & Specifications

Category
Individual Creative Options
Dominant Thinking
Creatively
Participation
Individual and group
Estimated TimeRapid
30-60 min
Fast
Input Format
Initial problem statement and presuppositions governing the challenge
Output Format
Idea generation
Key Application
Improving user interface and experience (UI/UX), improving service processes, preventing operational crises and re-engineering workflows.
Core Differentiator:

Harnessing the brain's natural propensity for fault-finding and mischief to bypass mental resistance and extract the most brilliant corrective solutions.

Quick Field Example:

App Improvement: First the "How to make the worst possible app?" scenario. (slow, confusing, small font) and then reverse it to create the clearest user experience.

Operational Benefits & Implementation Risks

Advantages & Value Creation:

Unloading of negativity and laughter and excitement in meetings, immediate discovery of real customer pain points, complete liberation from conservative prejudices.

Risks & Potential Trade-offs:

If the second step (reverse photo) is not executed carefully and structured, the meeting remains a joke and a waste of time.

Real-World Organizational & Industry Scenarios

App and website design: Inverting product goals to uncover psychological bugs and elusive user frictions.
Customer service and hospitality: formulation of the scenario "How to create the worst stay experience?" To extract golden service protocols.
Plant Safety and HSE: Maximizing Workplace Accident Scenarios to Identify the Root-Legged Hidden Hazards.

Strategic Rationale & Why to Apply

1The brain is more adept at finding faults than it is at creating good: it takes less cognitive energy to mumble and destroy than to build from scratch.
2Remove Invisible Obstacles: The best way to achieve a great product is to remove the things that make it unbearable.
3Breaking Organizational Design Biases: It's easier to admit flaws in a reverse game format than to directly criticize the team.
4Clarification of first priorities: What destroys the system the most is the one that needs to be fixed immediately.

Conceptual Framework & Book Method Description

Reversal-Dereversal, also known as Reverse Brainstorming, is a powerful tool for overcoming the inactivity of brainstorming sessions.

Instead of the boring question "How do we improve performance by 10%?", the session manager turns the problem 180 degrees: "How do we make customers delete the app within 5 seconds after installing it?". The team enthusiastically lists all kinds of ways of sabotage, nerve-wrecking and confusion. In the second step (Dereversal), the team faces each of these disasters and asks: "How do we turn the exact opposite of this disaster into a perfect standard?" The result of this process is to discover the most basic pillars of product success.

Step-by-Step Real-World Implementation Scenario

Saving and recreating the mobile application user experience with the disaster reversal technique
1
Step 1: Reverse problem formulationChange the problem formulation from "How to increase user satisfaction?" to "How to make an app's user interface the most disastrous possible?".
2
Step 2: Brainstorm to build the worst experience possibleList of disasters: 1) Forced to enter a long registration with 20 fields before seeing prices 2) Dull and inconsistent colors 3) Long loading after each click 4) Hide search bar 5) Unreadable tiny fonts 6) Obscure error messages.
3
Step 3: Analysis and discovery of the bitter truthThe team was surprised to find that their current application was actually running 4 of these 6 disasters!
4
Step 4: Implementation of the reverse photo process (Dereversal)Accurate inversion: 1) Ability to see services and prices without registration (Guest Checkout) 2) Bright and contrasting color palette 3) Information caching and loading under half a second 4) Floating search button always available 5) Standard font with clear texts.
5
Step 5: Publishing the update and transformation of indicatorsThe redesigned version based on the reverse image was released; The churn rate fell from 75% to 22% within a month, and the app's rating in stores jumped from 2.8 to 4.7.

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Previous Play (#55)
Relational Words
Next Play (#57)
Rolling in the Grass of Ideas
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