Superpower Thinking

Origin. Design-thinking workshop practice.

Mechanism. Grants the solver an impossible capability, then asks what the capability is being used to buy. The capability is discarded; the purchase is kept and re-costed against real means.

Procedure. Choose a superpower (omniscience about users, infinite compute, teleportation). Solve the problem with it. Identify the specific bottleneck the power dissolved. Attack that bottleneck directly.

Applies to. Locating the true constraint when several candidates present themselves.

Limitations. Yields nothing when the power dissolves the whole problem uniformly; the diagnostic value comes from the power being narrow.