This document provides information on the creative technique known as attribute listing. It begins with definitions of creativity and an introduction to attribute listing. Attribute listing involves breaking down a problem, product, or process into its individual attributes and components, and then brainstorming alternatives for each attribute. The document provides examples of how attribute listing has been used to solve problems in various fields such as engineering and marketing. It concludes by outlining best practices for using attribute listing, such as combining it with other creative techniques like brainstorming.

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INDEX
Sr. No. Particulars
Page
No.
Signature Remarks
1. Introduction of Creativity 2
2. Definition of Creativity 2
3. Meaning of Creativity 2
4. Techniques of Creativity 3
5.
Introduction of Attribute Listing
Technique
3
6. History of Attribute Listing 3-4
7. Meaning of Attribute Listing 4-5
8 Application of Attribute Listing 3-4
9
Link to other techniques of
creativity
4-5
10
Technique of Attribute Listing
Used by these fields
5
11 Use of Attribute listing 5-7
12 An example of attribute listing 7
13 DO’s & Don’t 8
14 Conclusion 9
15 References 9

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Creativity:-
Introduction:-
The Almighty God, the creator of the universe, is the supreme mind who
possesses the finest creative abilities. He has created all of us and all
that is revealed in nature. Therefore, everyone is blessed with creative
abilities.
Definition:
“Creativity is generating new ideas and concepts, or making connections
between ideas where none previously existed.” – Mitchell Rigie and Keith
Harmeyer, SmartStorming
“Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from
thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then
producing.” – Wikipedia
Meaning:-
Creativity involves the generation of new ideas or the re-combination of
known elements into something new by providing valuable solutions to
a problem.Creativity is not the product but the process.Creativity
involves both conscious and sub conscious thinking.Creativity thinking
can be both systematic and unsystematic. It brings change in many
situations.
Techniques:-
Techniques are the ways of carrying out a particular task, especially the
execution or performance of an artistic work or a scientific procedure.
Techniques for thinking up solutions to problems are called creativity
techniques or creativity methods. Creativity techniques are the methods that
encourage creative actions, whether in arts or science. They focus on a variety
of aspects of creativity, including techniques for idea generation, divergent
thinking, methods of re-framing problems, and changes in the affective

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environment. Creative techniques are very useful in the design process,
generating large amount of ideas in a short time.
Fewer techniques of Creativity :-
1. Brain storming
2. Synectics
3. Attribute Listing
4. Check list
5. Six thinking hats
6. Lateral Thinking
7. Group Thinking
8. Play Way
9. Mind mapping
10.Analysis Morphology
11.Bionics
12.Forced Relationship etc…
Attribute Listing :-
Introduction:-
We often have preconceived ideas about situations and people and our
thinking is often limited to standard expectations and characteristics.
Image you have been asked to meet the General Manager of a big
company for a business meeting at the Hilton Hotel. You are waiting at
the entrance for a big Mercedes. Suddenly, a cyclist riding a mountain
bike with a rucksack on his shoulder appears. He gets off and says:
"Good morning, I'm Thomas Edison, General Manager of ..." In this case
our expectations of a general Manager is attributed to expensive suits
and luxury cars, leather briefcase from a shop selling top brand items
etc.
For innovation, we have to question "normal" characteristics. Very
often, we consider prerequisites for solving a problem as "given"
without reflecting on whether they are appropriate in the situation. If
we try to skip one or more of these prerequisites, or try to give them
other characteristics, we can find surprising and creative solutions.

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History :-
Developed by Robert Crawford during the 1930s, this techniqueis
anidea-generating tool for identifying process, product,and service
improvementopportunities. Attributes of aproduct, service, or process
are systematically changed or substituted to search for problem
solutions or improvementideas.
Meaning:-
Attribute Listing is a creative technique used to find new ideas, solve
problems and find innovative products and services. Attribute Listing
involves breaking the problem down into smaller and smaller parts and
looking at alternative solutions to these parts.
It can be very useful to combine this technique with other creative
techniques such as brainstorming, described in the previous modules.
With Attribute listing you describe all of the components/attributes of the
product, process, or problem and then list all the possible alternatives to these
components.
Let's look at a pencil as an example, the components or attributes of a pencil
are:
o shaft material
o lead type
o hardness and width of lead
o quality
o colour
o weight
o price, etc.
With attribute listing you list all of the alternatives to these components and
mix the alternatives generated to find a new innovative product or service.

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APPLICATION :-
• To modify product, process, or service characteristics in order to bring
problem-solving or improvement ideas to the surface.
• To examine essential problem- related attributes to possibly change or
modify them in order to eliminate or reduce the problem.
LINK TO OTHER TECHNIQUES:-
Before :-
Brainstorming
Mind Mapping
HOW IT WORKS :-
Breaking the problem down into smaller parts that can be examined
individually.
TYPICALLY USED BY :-
 Research/statistics
 Engineering
 Project management
 Manufacturing
 Marketing/sales
 Administration/documentation
 Servicing/support
 Customer/quality metrics
 Change management
HOW TO USE IT :-
• List attributes
• Consider value of attributes
• Modify attributes

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Why and where can Attribute Listing be used?
o Are you looking at expanding on your product range or finding new
ways of doing business or simply looking to solve a problem?
o Do you want to get a competitive edge over your business rivals?
Then attribute listing could be a quick and easy way to come up with
alternative ideas and solutions. Try attribute listing with a small group of your
employees and see what interesting combinations you come up with.
Attribute listing can be used in all field of business. It is most useful in finding
alternative to a tangible problem. It is also useful when the group using the
technique have difficulty using creative techniques that have no specific focus
of guidelines. Because it is structured Attribute listing can be used effectively
to save time and avoid frustration.
The technique involves changing, modifying and improving attributes
and is often referred to in design engineering as "Substitute Method"
How to use Attribute Listing?
The steps involved in Attributing listing can be described as follow
o Assemble a group of 6-8 people with expertise in a range of fields
o Examine the necessary or pre-requisite elements of the product or process
o Ask if these prerequisites are they really necessary or can they be changed?
o Break up the existing product, service or system into its "elements" i.e. parts,
properties, quantities, components, design
o Draw a table with columns and rows and list the elements as column headings
o Use creative idea generating techniques and list as many alternatives to each
of these elements as possible.
This is wherebrainstorming techniques are very useful. Apply the rules of
brainstorming to come up with a wide and varied selection of alternative
attributes
o Randomly combine the results to come up with interesting alternative
solutions
o Discuss and evaluate their feasibility
An example of Attribute Listing
Lets look at a practical example of how attribute listing can be used.

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Attribute Listing can be enhanced by starting with a specific question in
mind.
Try using the Journalistic Six: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
The following questions might also be useful when applied to a situation or
problem:
Adapt? Modify? Replace with? Magnify/Maximise? Rearrange? Reverse?
Combine? Minimise/Remove? Add/subtract something? Change Colour?
Vary Materials Reorganize Parts? Change Shape? Adapt Style
Robert Harris in his article "Creative Thinking Techniques"2
gave the following
example of how attribute listing can be used to solve a problem.
For example, let's say you work for a ball bearing manufacturer and you
discover that a flaw in one of the machines has caused the production of 800
million slightly out-of-round ball bearings. You could ask, "What can I do with
800 million slightly out-of-round ball bearings?" and, of course, a few things
come to mind, like sling shot ammo and kid's marbles. But you could also break
the ball bearingsdown into attributes, such as roundish, heavy, metal, smooth,
shiny, hard, and magnetisable. Then you could ask, "What can I do with 800
million heavy things?" or "What can I do with 800 million shiny things?
You can focus on each identified attribute and ask questions about it, like this:
What can heavy things be used for? Paperweights, ship ballast, podium
anchors, tree stands, scale weights, and so on.
What can be done with metal things? Conduct electricity, magnetize them,
melt them, and make tools with them.
Attribute Listing can also be used in business situations such as marketing and
Product Positioning. The position of a product in the market may be based on
the following factors:
o Product Features - organically grown vegetables
o Product Benefits - particular car model has additional space in back which can
be changed to hold additional seats or extra storage space and is ideal for
families

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o Associating the product with a use or application - "the honeymoon
destination"
o User Categories - association of the product with a user or class or user -
mobile phones for the young executive
o With respect to competition - compatible with "X" product
However, the position of a product may need to change or adjusted for a
variety of reasons i.e. new competition, new technology, new customer
preference etc. Attribute Listing could in this situation be used to find a new or
adjust the existing position of a product in the market.
Could the market position of your product or service be changed? Why
not try Attribute Listing to look at new and creative ways to market
your product or service?
What are the success factors? (Do’s and Don’ts)
Our thinking is very often limited to standard expectations and characteristics.
For innovation, we have to call into question these “normal” characteristics.
Very often, we consider prerequisites for solving a problem as “given” without
reflection on whether they are appropriate in the situation. If we try to skip
one or more of those prerequisites, or try to give them other characteristics,
we can find surprising and creative solutions!
Attribute listing is a creative method to find new ideas to solve problems and
to find innovative products and services. Therefore, this method can be very
usefully combined with a brainstorming session. The core idea is to “forget”
everything you have learned and retained when thinking about a possible
solution.
 You will have to “break up” an existing product, service or system “into
its elements”.
 You have to ask: “Is this element of an object or a structure necessary
for its function?”
 The elements have certain characteristics/attributes (form, material etc.)
Are there any other possibilities and ways to create this element?
 What happens when we put elements with changed attributes together?
For this purpose, the elements and possible attributes are listed in a
table.

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We might arrive at surprising “compositions” from the table, not all will work
but some of them will lead to completely new products, services and
structures.
Conclusion:-
Creativity techniques can be described as trial and error methods to facilitate
creativity in a person or a group of people. Attribute Listing is a creative
technique which can be used in a large number of situations. It involves
breaking the problem down into smaller and smaller parts and looking at
alternatives to these parts. The alternatives are then combined either
randomly our using other creative methods to come up with new solutions.
The technique can be used to find alternative solutions to a problem, new
approach to marketing, expand and develop product ranges - and many more.
It can be successfully combined with other techniques to come up with
imaginative solutions and alternatives.
References:-
1. http://www.icreate-project.eu/index.php?t=102
2.