A stubborn problem can survive a great deal of effort when every attempt begins from the same point of view. The same customer is imagined, the same assumptions stay in place and the same kinds of answers return. A person using creative imagination can make a different move. They can change the position from which the problem is examined and notice possibilities that the first reading left aside. The immediate gain is a larger field of candidate ideas. Judgment is still required, but it has more to work with because the field was widened before a choice was made.
Borrow another point of view
Role playing makes this shift literal. A person can look at a product or service from the position of an intended client and ask what that client expects, notices or finds difficult. The object has not changed, yet the questions asked about it have. That difference can produce ideas that were unavailable while the creator remained inside their own assumptions.
The Six Thinking Hats method makes the change of viewpoint more explicit. One pass can stay with facts. Another can admit emotions and intuitions. Other passes can examine risks, benefits, new ideas or the management of the thinking process. Keeping these modes separate stops them from collapsing into the same moment. A promising possibility receives time before criticism, while risks still receive a dedicated pass. Enthusiasm also has less reason to carry a weak idea past questions that need to be asked.
Changing perspective does not guarantee a better answer. It changes what is available for consideration. When a decision has been constrained by a single reading of the problem, the additional options alter what can be considered.
Leave room before judging
Brainstorming applies a related idea to the production of options. Ideas are recorded before criticism decides which ones deserve further attention. The practice permits unusual or initially unrealistic proposals to remain present long enough to be examined. Mind maps add another kind of movement by placing related ideas near one another and making connections easier to inspect.
Group brainstorming changes the material again because several people bring different observations and associations to the same question. A colleague may notice a use case, objection or analogy that never appeared to the person who framed the problem. The point is to keep evaluation from reducing the field before enough alternatives have appeared. Every suggestion can still be judged later.
This temporary suspension of judgment has a limit. An idea that survives only because nobody examines it is still untested. Creative work needs a later encounter with something outside the creator's first impression.
Give the idea something to answer to
A prototype provides that encounter. It gives an abstract idea enough form to be inspected, used or criticized. Feedback can then identify strengths, weaknesses and parts that need revision. The creator no longer has to decide entirely from an internal picture of what the idea might become. Another person can respond to what has actually been placed in front of them.
At this point, the creator has a harder task. They must be willing to notice a response that conflicts with the original expectation. Confusion from a user, a feature that does not work as intended or a request that keeps recurring can alter the next version. Feedback supplies evidence. The next choice still belongs to the creator, now with more specific information.
The creator still uses imagination during this contact with response. A prototype is one possible expression of an idea, not proof that the first conception was complete. If testing exposes a weak assumption, the information is specific. A person now knows which part of the proposal failed to communicate, function or satisfy the intended need. The next round of creative work has a more exact problem to examine.