40 inventive principles / #22
#22 Blessing in disguise
What it says
- Use a harmful factor to get a positive effect.
- Remove a harmful factor by adding it to another harmful factor.
- Increase a harmful factor until it stops being harmful.
Examples
- Software
- Turn error logs into a dashboard of what users actually try to do.
- Business
- Turn customer complaints into a public roadmap.
- Engineering
- Waste heat from a power plant heats nearby homes.
- Everyday life
- Use a power cut as a reason for a candlelit dinner.
Where the matrix suggests it
The classic contradiction matrix suggests Blessing in disguise in 84 of its 1,248 filled cells. Most often for these conflicts:
- Improving Weight of moving object worsens External harm affects the object
- Improving Weight of moving object worsens Object-generated harmful factors
- Improving Area of moving object worsens External harm affects the object
- Improving Area of stationary object worsens Object-generated harmful factors
- Improving Volume of moving object worsens External harm affects the object
- Improving Stress or pressure worsens External harm affects the object
- Improving Shape worsens Temperature
- Improving Shape worsens External harm affects the object