Glossary

A standardised list of 39 generalised characteristics—weight, speed, strength, ease of manufacture, and so on—used to describe the two sides of a technical contradiction so it can be looked up in the Contradiction Matrix.

A set of 40 generic strategies—such as Segmentation, Merging, and Prior Action—that describe recurring ways engineers have resolved contradictions in successful inventions. They are the best-known tool of classical TRIZ.

A structured catalogue of 76 typical fixes for Su-Field models—ways to complete an incomplete model, remove a harmful interaction, or improve an existing one. They provide off-the-shelf moves once a problem has been modelled.

The vague, surface-level statement of a problem—"we need better results but don't know how"—that has a goal but no identified technical conflict. TRIZ reframes it into a technical or physical contradiction that can actually be solved.

The Algorithm for Inventive Problem Solving, a step-by-step procedure for tackling difficult problems where the right tool is not obvious. It guides the user from a fuzzy problem through contradiction analysis to a solution, and was refined across many versions from 1956 to the 1980s.

A 39×39 lookup table whose rows are the parameter to improve and columns the parameter that worsens. Each cell recommends the inventive principles most often used to resolve that particular contradiction.

In Su-Field analysis, the form of energy or interaction—mechanical, acoustic, thermal, chemical, electric, magnetic—through which one substance acts on another. Choosing a different field is often the key to an inventive solution.

A method that maps a system as components and the functions they perform on one another, classifying each as useful, harmful, insufficient, or excessive. The resulting model exposes where to trim, improve, or resolve a conflict.

An imagined end state in which the required function is delivered by itself, with no machinery, cost, or harm. Describing the IFR first frees the designer from current constraints and points toward the most elegant solution.

A measure of a system's value defined as the sum of its useful functions divided by the sum of its costs and harms. TRIZ pushes designs toward ever-higher ideality—more benefit for less cost and fewer side effects.

Altshuller's classification of solutions into five levels, from routine tweaks within one specialty (Level 1) up to rare discoveries that open a whole new field of science (Level 5). His analysis found that most patents sit at the lower, more routine levels.

A creative technique in which the problem zone is imagined as a crowd of tiny people who can be told to behave however the solution needs. Picturing them helps overcome psychological inertia and reveals new arrangements a rigid model would hide.

A 3×3 thinking grid that views a problem across system levels (sub-system, system, super-system) and across time (past, present, future). It counters tunnel vision by prompting the solver to look beyond the object in front of them.

A situation where a single parameter must take two opposite values at once—for example, an aircraft's landing gear must be present (for landing) and absent (for low drag in flight). It is usually resolved with the separation principles.

The mental habit of framing a problem in familiar, specialist terms and reaching for the usual solution, which blocks people from seeing radically different options. Many TRIZ tools exist specifically to break this inertia.

Any substance, field, space, time, or property already present in or around the system that can be put to use at little or no cost. TRIZ prizes solutions that exploit existing resources rather than adding new components.

The observation that a technical system's performance over time follows an S-shape: slow infancy, rapid growth, then maturity and stagnation. Recognising where a system sits on its S-curve helps predict when to innovate or switch to a new technology.

An organised knowledge base linking functions you want to achieve (to move, to heat, to detect) with the physical, chemical, and geometric effects that can deliver them. It lets a designer borrow effects from outside their own field.

The main way TRIZ resolves physical contradictions, by separating the conflicting requirements in space, in time, between the parts and the whole, or upon condition. For example, a bicycle chain is rigid across each link yet flexible along its length.

A modelling method that represents any function as two substances interacting through a field (mechanical, thermal, electromagnetic, and so on). Incomplete or harmful models reveal exactly what must be added or changed to make the function work well.

A situation where improving one parameter of a system makes another parameter worse—for example, making a part stronger also makes it heavier. TRIZ treats resolving such trade-offs, rather than compromising, as the heart of inventive design.

A set of empirical patterns describing how technical systems tend to develop over time—toward increased dynamism, greater use of fields, transition to the micro level, and increased ideality. They are used to forecast a technology's next generation.

Deliberately removing a component and reassigning its useful function to another part, a resource, or the object being acted upon. Trimming lowers cost and complexity while pushing the design toward higher ideality.

A Russian acronym for the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, developed by Genrikh Altshuller from the study of tens of thousands of patents. It holds that inventive problems and their solutions follow repeating patterns that can be learned and applied deliberately.