Have you SCAMPERed recently? If your response was yes, I scampered out of Walgreens last week when I received my second vaccine shot – well played and congrats! But in this situation, I’m not using scamper as a verb. Instead, I’m using it as a mnemonic. SCAMPER stands for:
- Substitute.
- Combine.
- Adapt.
- Modify.
- Put to another use.
- Eliminate.
- Reverse.
It’s a technique that helps you generate ideas for new products and services by encouraging you to think about how you can improve existing ones. I was recently introduced to it by Allen Rodriguez from ONE400 during a training on productizing services and I love it! Here’s why.
Oftentimes when people think about creating a legal product, their mind immediately goes to a sophisticated product like Hello Divorce. While I haven’t personally used Hello Divorce, it looks impressive. It likely took many years and a lot of money to create that product so hats off to Erin Levine for pulling it off. But here’s the thing, while creating a product like Hello Divorce may feel overwhelming, you don’t need to create something to that scale and sophistication for it to contribute to your bottom line. There is A LOT of space between a sophisticated product like Hello Divorce and where you are at right now. And that’s where SCAMPER comes in.
Instead of focusing on building a brand new, complex product that will likely require a substantial amount of time and money to launch, why not start with how you can potentially improve your existing ones. This approach is faster, more budget-friendly, and far less overwhelming, I promise.
So how does it work? This webpage does a really good job of explaining the process so I recommend starting there. As you think about the product or idea you want to start with and as you move through the SCAMPER process, keep in mind there could be several uses for your product. For example, perhaps going into the process your goal was to create a product that generated passive income. But perhaps as you move through the SCAMPER process you discover the product would better serve you and your clients as a lead generator instead. This law firm marketing guide offers a great example.
If you experiment with SCAMPER, we’d love to hear more about your experience! Please share it with us through our social media or in On Purpose Legal Network.
