The four stages of Creative Problem Solving

CPS moves through four stages — Clarify, Ideate, Develop, Implement — and inside each one the diverge–converge heartbeat runs at least once. Groups rarely march through the stages in a straight line, and they don't need to; the practical skill is knowing which stage the work is in.

The centre: assess the situation

The hub of the model isn't a stage — it's a habit. Assessing the situation means pausing to take stock: what do we know, what do we have, and which stage does the work need next? It's the move a group returns to between stages, and it's why the process is drawn as a cycle around a centre rather than a straight line. A group might assess and realise it needs to go back to Clarify — or that it can skip straight to Develop, because good ideas already exist. The process at a glance gives a starting condition for every step; use it to decide where to enter.

1. Clarify — find the right problem

Clarify is the biggest stage — big enough that it breaks into three steps of its own, each with the heartbeat inside it:

1. Frame the goal. Diverge on wishes — "I wish…", "It would be great if…" — and converge on a challenge the group cares about, can act on, and that genuinely needs new thinking.
2. Gather data. Explore the territory: what's known, what's been tried, who's involved, what ideal would look like. Keep the findings that change how you see the challenge.
3. Find the problem. Turn what you learned into candidate questions and converge on the one worth solving: a well-formed "How might we…?" question.

Done looks like: a question the group agrees is the real one. Samvinas tools: Five Whys, Word Cloud, a Brainstorm of questions.

2. Ideate — find many answers

With the question clarified, generate options against it — wide, plentiful, judgement deferred — and then converge on the promising few. Done looks like: a shortlist the group is genuinely curious about. Samvinas tools: the generating tools, then Voting or Ranking.

3. Develop — make the chosen ideas strong

Take the shortlist and strengthen it: name what is good, surface concerns as questions, and answer them. This is the stage where a fragile idea becomes a workable one. Done looks like: ideas with their major concerns overcome — or consciously retired. Samvinas tools: PPCO and its ALoU / LCO / PMI relatives, Evaluation Matrix.

4. Implement — turn ideas into action

Finally, work out the path: what happens first, who does what, and what the world will need before it accepts the idea. Done looks like: named next steps with names on them. Samvinas tools: Backcasting, Sign Up, Stakeholder Map.

Back to the principles refresher · or the facilitator guide.