When improving one thing makes another worse, borrow the principles that have solved that conflict before.
Many hard problems are contradictions. Make the bag bigger and it gets heavier. Make the form shorter and you lose information. Make the lock stronger and nobody wants to carry it. The usual response is a compromise. TRIZ looks for a solution where you don't have to give anything up.
TRIZ, a Russian acronym for “theory of inventive problem solving”, began with a discovery about patents: across thousands of inventions in unrelated fields, the same few dozen tricks kept resolving the same kinds of conflict. They were distilled into 40 inventive principles, such as Segmentation (split it into parts), Local quality (make each part suit its own job) and Preliminary action (do it in advance).
You state your conflict as “improving X makes Y worse”, find the principles that have most often resolved that kind of conflict, and treat each one as a prompt for your own solution. A lookup table called the contradiction matrix suggests which principles to try first.
Use it when you're stuck on a trade-off, when every option seems to cost you something else, or when a team keeps settling for the least-bad compromise.
Name the conflict, find a principle that has resolved it before, then turn it into your own solution.
Choose a part of the diagram or a tab to explore each step.
What exactly do you want more of, or better, and how would you measure it?
When you push that improvement, what gets worse as a result?
Which of the 40 principles has resolved conflicts like this one before?
What would this principle look like in your situation, using what you already have?
TRIZ rests on one big observation: most inventive problems have been solved before, in another field, using a pattern you can reuse.
Trade-offs feel like laws of nature, so teams split the difference. TRIZ treats the conflict itself as the problem to solve. Asking “how do we get both?” instead of “how much of each?” changes the kind of ideas you look for.
The trick that makes a tent pole both long and packable may also fix a cramped storeroom or a bloated report. By naming solutions abstractly, TRIZ lets you borrow from fields you've never worked in.
Instead of hunting through thousands of random ideas, the contradiction matrix points you to the handful of principles most often used for your type of conflict. You spend your energy where solutions have been found before.
A principle like Segmentation doesn't hand you an answer. It gives your thinking a direction, and you supply the specifics. That mix of structure and freedom is what makes TRIZ creative, not just a lookup.
Say what the thing is for and how it works now. List its main function and the parts and resources involved. Focus on what it does, not what it is.
Picture the perfect result: the function delivered with no cost, no harm and no extra parts. You won't get there, but it shows which way to push and stops you settling too early.
Write it as “If we improve X, then Y gets worse.” Match X and Y to the closest of TRIZ's 39 standard features, such as strength, weight of a moving object, speed, reliability or ease of use.
Look up your pair in the contradiction matrix, which lists the principles most often used for it. If one feature must be both high and low, try separating the two needs in time, in space or by condition.
Take each principle and ask what it would mean here. Use nearby resources: air, gravity, waste, users, idle time. Aim for several ideas per principle, and star any that remove the conflict outright.
Test each idea against the ideal: does it remove the conflict or just move it somewhere else? Shortlist the best with a quick NUF Test, then prototype the riskiest part first.
Paper, a list of the 40 principles, the contradiction matrix (both are easy to find online) and an hour or two of focused time. With AI, start with the prompt below.
Subject: a U-lock from a small hardware startup. Contradiction: improving strength worsens the weight of a moving object. Goal: resist bolt cutters and still weigh under 1 kg.
Split the shackle into short hardened links that fold into a compact bundle. The steel stays tough; the shape gets easier to carry.
Separate the heavy part from the journey: a heavy anchor stays at the office bike rack, and commuters carry only a small, light key piece.
Make the lock do a second job, such as doubling as a rear rack or kickstand, so its weight replaces a part the bike already carries.
Wrap a lighter core in a thin, very hard outer layer that dulls cutting blades, instead of using solid steel all the way through.
A lock that's flexible for coiling into a bag, then becomes rigid when closed, so it's hard to bend or lever open.
19 ideas from 5 principles in 75 minutes. Two removed the conflict instead of splitting the difference.
The hardest parts of TRIZ are naming your contradiction precisely and leaping from an abstract principle to a real idea. AI helps with both: it can reframe a vague trade-off as a crisp conflict and show how each principle has been used across many fields. You hold the real-world knowledge that decides whether an idea can actually work.
Turn a vague complaint into a precise “improving X worsens Y” statement.
Here's my problem. State it as 2-3 possible TRIZ contradictions: improving X makes Y worse.
See how a principle has worked elsewhere before you apply it to your case.
Show 3 real-world uses of Segmentation from different fields, then apply it to my bike lock.
For a physical contradiction, split opposite needs in time, space or condition.
My lock must be big when locked and small when carried. Separate this in time, space and condition.
Describe the perfect solution so you can see how close each idea gets.
Describe the ideal final result for my lock, then rate how close each of my ideas gets, 1-5.
Describe your trade-off, pick a mode, then copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. In coach mode the AI helps you pin down the contradiction first, then works through one inventive principle at a time with you.
The “Open in” links put the prompt in the web address. If your challenge includes anything sensitive, copy and paste instead.
After the session, click one to copy it, then paste it into the same chat.