Unit 3: Ideation and Creative Problem Solving - Practice Quiz

1 What is the main purpose of divergent thinking?

2 Which activity best demonstrates divergent thinking?

3 What does convergent thinking mainly involve?

4 Which sequence is commonly used in creative problem solving?

5 What is a basic rule during a brainstorming session?

6 What is the main goal of brainstorming?

7 In the SCAMPER technique, what does the letter S represent?

8 Which SCAMPER action asks whether two features can be joined together?

9 In a mind map, where is the main topic usually placed?

10 What does reverse thinking encourage a team to do?

11 Why are ideas evaluated after they are generated?

12 Which factor is useful when evaluating a proposed idea?

13 What does clustering ideas involve?

14 What is one benefit of organising ideas into clusters?

15 What does the feasibility of an idea describe?

16 What does relevance analysis check?

17 What is an idea screening matrix used for?

18 In a basic idea screening matrix, what do the cells commonly contain?

19 What does prioritising ideas mean?

20 Which tool allows team members to place votes on their preferred ideas?

21 A team designing a reusable food container has generated only three ideas, all based on changing the lid. Which action would best encourage divergent thinking?

22 During an ideation session, participants repeatedly suggest minor variations of the first idea. Which facilitator prompt is most likely to increase originality?

23 A design team first generates 60 ways to reduce cafeteria waste and then applies impact and cost criteria to identify five options. Which sequence has the team used?

24 A facilitator notices that team members are rejecting unusual ideas while ideas are still being generated. What is the best response?

25 In a brainstorming session, two senior members dominate the discussion while quieter participants contribute little. Which method would most directly improve participation?

26 A team is brainstorming improvements to a public bicycle service. Which facilitator statement best follows effective brainstorming practice?

27 A company replaces the plastic handle of a kitchen tool with molded bamboo while leaving its function unchanged. Which SCAMPER action is being applied?

28 A library redesigns its return process so that staff collect books from neighborhood lockers instead of users bringing books to the library. Which SCAMPER prompt most directly inspired this change?

29 A team creates a mind map for improving online learning. The central node is "Learner Engagement." Which set of first-level branches is most useful?

30 A hotel team asks, "How could we make check-in as frustrating as possible?" and then reverses the resulting answers. What is the main value of this reverse-thinking exercise?

31 A team must evaluate ideas for an emergency communication app. Which criterion should receive the greatest emphasis during initial selection?

32 Two ideas receive similar evaluation scores, but one score is based mainly on assumptions about user behavior. What should the team do before making the final selection?

33 After brainstorming, a team groups suggestions such as live chat, callback requests, and peer forums under "Communication Support." What process is the team using?

34 An idea could reasonably fit into both "Accessibility" and "Navigation" clusters. What is the most appropriate action?

35 A proposed feature strongly addresses user needs but depends on technology that the team cannot currently access. How should the idea be classified?

36 A low-cost feature is easy to develop but solves a problem that users rarely experience. What is the best decision based on feasibility and relevance?

37 An idea screening matrix uses weighted criteria: user value , feasibility , and novelty . An idea scores , , and respectively. What is its weighted score?

38 A screening matrix ranks a technically impressive idea first, although it poorly addresses the project's main user need. What is the most likely problem with the matrix?

39 A team plots ideas on an impact-effort matrix. Which idea is normally the best candidate for immediate implementation?

40 A high-impact idea requires substantial resources, while a moderate-impact idea can be implemented quickly and provides data needed for the larger idea. What is the best prioritisation decision?

41 A team has generated 14 ideas distributed across three conceptual categories. A fifteenth idea belongs to a previously unused category but closely resembles an existing market solution. Which divergent-thinking metric most directly captures the distinctive contribution of this new idea?

42 During ideation, participants repeatedly adapt the first solution proposed by a senior designer. Which intervention would best expand the search space while minimizing both authority bias and idea fixation?

43 A healthcare design team begins with conflicting accounts of why patients miss appointments. It must eventually produce a small, testable solution portfolio. Which sequence best preserves the appropriate alternation between divergent and convergent thinking?

44 A team applies strict feasibility scoring immediately after each idea is voiced. The final list contains only minor variations of current practice. What is the most appropriate corrective action?

45 A facilitator replaces spoken brainstorming with anonymous, simultaneous digital idea entry. Which pair of brainstorming losses is this change primarily designed to reduce?

46 After three brainwriting rounds, a team has many duplicate ideas, while two important user needs have received almost no attention. What should the facilitator do next to improve coverage without prematurely selecting solutions?

47 A bank replaces a live-agent identity check with a cryptographic identity service while preserving the verification requirement and process position. Which SCAMPER operation is most directly applied?

48 A support process currently routes a customer to an agent before collecting diagnostic data. A redesign collects diagnostics first and then routes the customer to a specialized agent. Which SCAMPER operation is dominant?

49 In a mind map, the concept "trust indicator" supports both the onboarding branch and the payment-confirmation branch. Forcing it into only one branch hides an important relationship. What is the best representational response?

50 Using reverse thinking, a team asks, "How could we maximize abandonment during registration?" One answer is, "Require all profile fields before users can continue." Which inversion best creates a useful solution while respecting later data requirements?

51 Ideas are scored from 1 to 10 using relevance, impact, and feasibility weights of , , and . A feasibility score below 6 is disqualifying. The scores are: A , B , and C . Which idea should be selected?

52 A team can prototype two concepts. Radical concept R succeeds with probability . Incremental concepts I1 and I2 succeed with probabilities and , but their failures are perfectly correlated because they rely on the same assumption. R's outcome is independent. If the objective is to maximize the probability that at least one prototype succeeds, which portfolio is best?

53 During affinity clustering, one idea addresses both "reducing user effort" and "increasing perceived security." Forcing it into one cluster would distort later analysis. What is the strongest organisational treatment?

54 A team clusters concepts by technology and obtains one very large "mobile app" cluster containing solutions for unrelated user problems. The goal is to reveal distinct value hypotheses. How should the ideas be reorganized?

55 A proposed hospital tool uses proven technology and fits the budget, but nurses would need to interrupt emergency care repeatedly to enter data. Which feasibility dimension is the primary concern?

56 Accessibility compliance is mandatory for a public-service concept. An otherwise attractive idea receives very high impact and profitability scores but fails the accessibility requirement. How should it be treated in a rigorous selection process?

57 A Pugh matrix uses four equally weighted criteria and scores each idea relative to a datum as , , or . The entries are A: , B: , C: , and D: . Using net score , which idea ranks highest?

58 A screening matrix compares ideas A and B using only cost attractiveness and impact. Cost has weight and impact has weight . A scores and B scores on . For which values of does A rank strictly above B?

59 Four ideas are prioritized using . Their values are A , B , C , and D . Which idea has the highest RICE score?

60 A team can complete one feature per sprint for two sprints. Feature values are A , B , and C . Feature B can be built only after A; C has no dependency. Assuming additive value, no discounting, and the objective of maximizing value available by the end of sprint 2, which sequence is optimal?