TRIZ is a reverse brainstorming method that generates creative failure strategies to identify hidden dysfunctions and improve team performance.
“What must we do to guarantee the worst possible outcome?”
Reverse brainstorming at its finest. First, creatively sabotage your own goal. Then, reality-check which of those sabotage strategies you’re already doing. Sometimes the fastest way to improve is to stop making things worse.
- Generates creative failure strategies that reveal hidden dysfunctions
- Reality-checks which sabotage moves are already happening in your context
- The humor makes uncomfortable truths easier to face
When to Use
When improvement efforts feel stuck or incremental. TRIZ is especially powerful when teams know something is wrong but can’t articulate it. The reverse perspective (“how to make it worse”) bypasses defensiveness and surfaces truths that direct questioning misses.
How It Works
One perspective works in two phases:
- The Saboteur: Generates creative, specific strategies to guarantee failure for your goal — with dark humor and insider knowledge. “How do we absolutely, reliably make this fail?”
- The Reality Check: Goes through each sabotage strategy and honestly assesses: “Are we already doing this? Even a little?” Then prioritizes which stop-doing items would have the biggest impact.
What You Get
A list of creative sabotage strategies, an honest assessment of which ones are already happening, and a prioritized “stop doing” list. The output often surfaces systemic issues that direct analysis misses.
Related Methods
- Pre-Mortem Analysis — when you want to anticipate failure forward instead of backward
- Adversarial Debate — when you want structured opposition on a specific thesis
- Wise Crowds — when you want diverse perspectives on how to improve
/libertee:triz "your goal or challenge"