The Morphological Box

The morphological box is a tool that enables you to create something new from many things that exist – by combining features to create new configurations.

“The task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen, but to think what nobody yet has thought about that which everybody sees.” ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

This concept is illustrated in the picture above – say you wanted to create a new cookie. The steps are as follows:

• List out all the features of a cookie ranging from size to consistency, colour, texture and whatever else you can think about.
• Research the market for all possible configurations of cookies available
• Take a pen or pencil and link configurations and parameters to create a cookie that doesn’t exist in the market!
• Bake, eat, and be merry.

The reservation I have about this model is that it keeps your thinking inside the box – limited by parameters and configurations that already exists. Sometimes you need to think outside the box, and create something complete new … like the bacon wrapped cookie!

This model is from The Decision Book. Please make sure to visit 50 Top Models – the author’s website. If you like what you see, buy the book! Support the author and awesome content.