Coaching practices for Technical Contradiction Triz

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Technical Contradiction Triz, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I keep going in circles on this because every fix just shoves the problem somewhere else
  • I’ve been brainstorming this for hours and every idea is a slight variation on the same one
  • What I’ve built has gotten so complicated that it keeps breaking in new places, and I suspect half the moving parts are doing work something else could absorb
  • Every option I’m weighing is just a tweak on what already exists
  • My first instinct is always that I need more

Practices that may help

  1. TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
    TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) is a systematic innovation method developed by Genrich Altshuller after analyzing hundreds of thousands of patents. Its core insight is that most breakthrough problems contain a "technical or physical contradiction" — a situation where improving one parameter worsens another — and that inventors across fields resolve these contradictions using a surprisingly small set of recurring strategies.
  2. Name the contradiction at the heart of the problem
    State exactly which parameter you need to improve and which parameter gets worse as a result.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
  3. Sample inventive principles to generate solution directions
    Apply one or more of TRIZ’s 40 inventive principles as generative lenses, even without the full contradiction matrix.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
  4. Trim components to find what you can remove
    Systematically ask which components in your current solution could be removed if another component took over their function.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
  5. Define the ideal final result first
    Describe the perfect outcome as if the solution already exists and costs nothing, then work backward to what could enable it.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
  6. Inventory available resources before adding anything new
    List all time, space, information, and energy already present in or around the problem — solutions often hide there.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions
  7. Audit which constraints are real and which are assumed
    List every constraint you’re working under, then test each one for whether it is actually fixed.
    Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First
  8. Filter the matrix with cross-consistency assessment
    Identify which value combinations are impossible or contradictory to reduce the space to viable solutions.
    Morphological Analysis, Made Practical
  9. Distinguish technical problems from adaptive challenges
    Separate problems you can solve with existing expertise from those requiring you to change.
    Kegan’s Subject-Object Theory, Made Practical
  10. Calibrate whether the problem requires invention or just search
    Determine whether your problem is already solved elsewhere before investing in original invention.
    TRIZ: Systematic Invention and the Logic of Contradictions

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