Lenses and Search Patterns
Use 2 to 4 lenses per pool, not all of them. A strong mix usually includes:
- one practical lens
- one novelty lens
- one adoption or trust lens
- one contradiction or simplification lens
Search partitions first
Before choosing lenses, decide how the search space will be partitioned.
Useful partition axes:
- stakeholder or ordinary persona
- user moment
- value type
- trust model
- channel or distribution path
- ownership model
- time horizon
- ambition level
Example partition sets:
- operator, approver, auditor, partner
- before the job, during the risky moment, after the outcome
- save time, reduce risk, increase status, create access
- lightweight wedge, adjacent expansion, bold system shift
Do not let every pool share the same mechanism.
Reframing patterns
Before generating ideas, write 2 to 3 fertile questions inside each pool.
Useful patterns:
- How might we create value before commitment?
- How might we remove the scariest moment?
- How might we make the risky choice feel safe?
- How might we make the safe choice feel more valuable?
- How might we turn the hardest constraint into the advantage?
- How might we move the value earlier, later, smaller, or more reversible?
- How might we solve the opposite problem on purpose and learn from it?
- How might we help the user without asking for a new habit?
Lens 1: Far analogy
Use when the space feels saturated.
Process:
- Abstract the problem to its mechanism or tension.
- Pick a distant domain.
- Extract the mechanism, not the surface style.
- Rebuild the mechanism in the target context.
Good distant domains:
- logistics networks
- insurance
- amateur sports
- luxury hospitality
- museums
- tax preparation
- hospitals
- multiplayer games
- airports
- wedding planning
- theme parks
- disaster response
Good mechanism transfers:
- queue management
- reassurance and guarantees
- progressive disclosure
- expert triage
- shared rituals
- checkpoints and hand-offs
- replay and review
- status signalling
- reversible commitment
- exception handling
Lens 2: Ordinary persona or stakeholder
Use when ideas are converging too early.
Prefer grounded perspectives such as:
- junior analyst
- frontline operator
- team lead
- compliance approver
- procurement reviewer
- channel partner
- sceptical customer
- occasional user
- support agent
Do not imitate heroic or celebrity personas. The goal is knowledge partitioning, not style mimicry.
For each persona, ask:
- What do they see that others do not?
- What do they fear?
- What do they measure?
- What looks expensive, risky, or annoying from their seat?
- What would count as an immediate win?
Lens 3: Structured contradiction solving
Use for engineering, science, operations, and stubborn product problems.
- Write the contradiction clearly.
- Ask whether the solution should be separated by time, place, user, interface, confidence level, or ownership.
- Try one of these patterns:
- defaults first, control later
- manual at the risky moment, automated elsewhere
- reversible commitment
- guarantee or escrow
- modularity
- staged disclosure
- simulation before action
- sampling before full purchase
- separate novice and expert modes
- shift the burden to a different actor
- sell certainty rather than features
- transform an exception into the product
The point is to stop treating trade-offs as fixed.
Lens 4: Constraint-first
Use when the limits are real.
Prompts:
- If this had to work in one week, what is the wedge?
- If this needed zero new behaviour, what survives?
- If legal or procurement had to approve it, what changes?
- If data were limited, what would still be valuable?
- If this had to work in low-trust settings, what emerges?
- If the budget were halved, what new model appears?
Constraints are not just filters. They often reveal stronger concepts than blank-page brainstorming.
Lens 5: Distribution wedge
Use when the concept needs a believable route to users.
Ask:
- Where does the user already work or gather?
- What adjacent workflow could carry the idea in?
- What partner or integration makes adoption easier?
- What small result would make people share it?
- What single use case is strong enough to earn distribution?
A slightly less novel idea with a sharp wedge can beat a clever idea with no path in.
Lens 6: Incentives and trust
Use when fear, proof, reputation, or conflicting stakeholders shape adoption.
Ask:
- Who benefits?
- Who hesitates?
- Who blocks?
- What proof would unlock action?
- What guarantee, audit trail, or reversible choice changes behaviour?
- What would make the risky option feel safe?
- What would make the safe option feel worthwhile?
Lens 7: Time-shift
Use when the pain is concentrated around a moment.
Prompts:
- What should happen before the pain appears?
- What should happen during the risky moment?
- What should happen after the outcome?
- What could be persistent instead of episodic?
- What could be reversible instead of final?
Lens 8: Business model or ownership flip
Use when the current payment or packaging logic blocks adoption.
Prompts:
- What changes if someone else pays?
- What changes if payment happens after value?
- What changes if the user buys certainty instead of features?
- What changes if the product becomes a service, audit, benchmark, guarantee, or outcome?
- What changes if ownership moves to the team, partner, or platform?
Lens 9: Identity, emotion, and status
Use for consumer, education, team tools, creative products, or any emotionally loaded decision.
Ask:
- What identity is the user trying to protect or project?
- What emotion dominates the moment?
- What would make the user feel competent, seen, respected, or ahead?
- What part of the experience feels cold, invisible, or thankless?
Lens 10: Extreme simplification
Use when the category is bloated.
Prompts:
- What is the smallest version that still feels magical?
- What single output or action could stand in for the whole system?
- What can be removed so the value is obvious in seconds?
- What focused version would be memorable because it does less?
Lens 11: Hybridisation
Use after the first pass, not before.
- Pick two ideas with different strengths.
- Name the useful property from each.
- Combine only those properties.
- Drop any complexity that does not strengthen the wedge.
Good hybrids become clearer. Bad hybrids become crowded.
Mode suggestions
Startup or product opportunity
Start with:
- far analogy
- constraint-first
- distribution wedge
- business model or ownership flip
- incentives and trust
Research hypothesis or scientific idea
Start with:
- structured contradiction solving
- far analogy from adjacent instruments or fields
- time-shift
- constraint-first
- extreme simplification
Campaign or creative concept
Start with:
- identity, emotion, and status
- far analogy
- time-shift
- distribution wedge
- hybridisation
Process, service, or operations redesign
Start with:
- structured contradiction solving
- incentives and trust
- time-shift
- constraint-first
- business model or ownership flip