The 40 technical principles of innovation
The Russian scientist and technician Genrich Altshuller, founder of the TRIZ method, has analyzed more than 400,000 patents and inventive solutions from various fields of technology.
It turns out that during their evolution, products and systems overcome technical contradictions.
These contradictions come from an opposition between a useful parameter to make the system evolve (or the product) and another parameter opposing this improvement (harmful parameter). There are 39 listed parameters.
To answer these contradictions between useful and harmful parameters, 40 technical principles of innovation have been determined.
For each contradiction, 1 to 4 technical principles of innovation are given to orientate the search for the solution and therefore help to solve the problem.
Example : A cardboard coffee mug has to maintain the coffee heat for a certain time, but the mug mustn’t be scorching hot to avoid that the user burns his fingers.
The chart of contradictions gives us, among other things, the technical principle of innovation 7 : Inclusion (Russian dolls).