You're starting today from one of three places: maybe you have 2 or 3 candidate ideas from last week's homework, maybe you have seeds from your earlier Action Plan in this unit, or maybe you're walking in with nothing yet. All three are completely fine. By the time you walk out, whatever you start with becomes one idea, locked in, that you'll build a customer persona for, cost out, market, and pitch over the next 7 lessons.

Today you'll learn one tool to sharpen an idea (SCAMPER) and one tool to test it (the feasibility filter), then you'll use both on your own candidates and decide.

Four ideas drive today's lesson. The table below covers the first three. SCAMPER, the fourth, has its own section underneath the table because it needs more room to breathe.

SCAMPER, at a glance

SCAMPER is the fourth idea today: a seven-letter thinking framework that pushes you in seven different directions when an idea feels flat. The full explanation of the thinking behind each letter is in the next step. Here are the seven letters with a one-line cue each, so you can recognise them on sight:

• S — Substitute: swap one ingredient, material, person or step for a better one
• C — Combine: bundle two things that work better together than apart
• A — Adapt: flex the format to fit a different setting, moment or audience
• M — Modify: change the size, format, frequency or a key feature
• P — Put to other use: find a different use for the product, leftover or skill
• E — Eliminate: cut a part of the default setup entirely
• R — Reverse: flip the customer, the order, or the obvious assumption

Before we run SCAMPER on a real example, here's the thinking each letter is actually asking for. The verbs are easy to remember; the thinking shifts are what makes the tool work.

• Substitute and Modify change WHAT the product is. Substitute asks: what ingredient, material, person or step could be swapped for something better, cheaper or more interesting? Modify asks: what size, format, frequency or feature could be changed?
• Adapt and Combine change HOW it's delivered or bundled. Adapt asks: how could the format flex to fit a different setting or moment? Combine asks: what two things could be sold together that work better than separately?
• Put to other use shifts the use case. What else could this product, leftover or skill be used for — a different customer, a different moment, a different problem you hadn't spotted?
• Eliminate and Reverse challenge an assumption you didn't realise you were making. Eliminate asks: what part of the default setup could you cut entirely? Reverse asks: what if you flipped the customer, the order, or the obvious assumption?

Now you'll do the same process on your own candidate ideas and finish today with ONE locked-in idea. Here's the order:

1. Pick 2. From the candidate ideas you brought as homework (plus any seeds from your earlier Action Plan, or any from the starter list below), choose the 2 you find most promising. Set the rest aside.
2. Sharpen each. For each of your 2 ideas, pick one SCAMPER move from the 7 and use it to write a SHARPENED version. The sharpened version is what goes into the first column of the table below — not the boring default.
3. Run the filter. Fill in the next three columns for each sharpened idea: can you make/sell it, who would pay (and roughly how much), and one concern.
4. Decide. Use the prompt below the table to lock in ONE idea with a clear reason why.

No ideas yet? Pick a starter and sharpen it.

• A pop-up bake sale at a school event or Christmas market
• A homework-help service for first-years (one-to-one tutoring after school)
• A school-yard breakfast bar (toasties, granola pots, hot chocolate)
• A custom-printed phone-case or hoodie service (using a print-on-demand supplier)
• A dog-walking or pet-sitting business in your local area
• A second-hand uniform swap for your school's incoming first-years
• A birthday-party-in-a-box service for younger siblings' parents (decorations, plan, snacks)
• A simple jewellery, candle or sticker line sold at a local market or fair

Think about

• Which SCAMPER move surprised you most when you applied it to your own idea — and would you have got there without the framework?
• Your locked-in idea is now committed for 7 weeks. What's the one thing about it that excites you most, and what's the one thing you're nervous about?

Hold those answers in your head, then scroll on when you're ready.