TRIZ Contradiction Matrix

Origin. Genrikh Altshuller, from an analysis of some 40,000 patents (1946 onward).

Mechanism. Altshuller's empirical claim: inventive problems reduce to contradictions between engineering parameters, and the resolutions of those contradictions across the patent corpus fall into forty recurring inventive principles. The 39×39 matrix maps an improving/worsening parameter pair to the principles that historically resolved it. Compromise is treated as failure to solve.

Procedure. State the technical contradiction as a pair of the 39 parameters, one improving and one worsening. Read the recommended principles from the matrix cell. Instantiate each principle in the problem's own terms. If the contradiction is physical (one parameter must take two values), use separation in time, space, scale, or condition instead.

Applies to. Engineering design with parameterizable trade-offs.

Limitations. The 39 parameters are mechanical-engineering parameters and the matrix's coverage outside that domain is asserted rather than shown. Mapping a software or organizational problem onto them is an act of interpretation that carries the answer. The classical matrix has also not been re-derived from a modern corpus.