101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com

Mental Breakdown Handout

Suppose, for example, a problem challenge is: How to develop a new product marketing

strategy. The amount of data for such a problem is immense. All sorts of demographics

exist to confuse problem solvers. Rather than attempt to resolve this problem completely,

it is much easier and more efficient to break it down into more manageable parts.

For instance, a group might generate a list of subproblems related to various market-

ing tactics that form a part of the larger strategy:

• How can we better define our market niche?


• How can we better define our product mix?


• How can we better promote our products?


• How can we better move existing products to existing markets?


• How can we better move new products to existing markets?


• How can we better move new products to new markets?


• How can we improve perceived customer product values?


• How can we improve packaging designs?

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