š¤ Feeling Stuck? Unblock Any Bottleneck With These 5 Frameworks
When standups and sprints aren't clicking, these tools can spark the next breakthrough.
š Hey, Chris here! Welcome to BrainDumpsāa weekly series from The Founders Corner. Every Thursday, I share unfiltered insights and stories from decades of first-hand experience. Itās a Substack exclusive, inspired by topics in my upcoming book, The Big Book of BrainDumps. Letās get into it! š
š Table of Contents
𧬠Great Products Donāt Just EmergeāTheyāre Designed to Evolve
šØ 1. Design Thinking: Empathy ā Insight ā Action
šø 2. The Lotus Blossom Technique: Expand the Edges
š© 3. Six Thinking Hats: A Team Favourite
ā 4. The Five Whys: Find the Root, Not the Symptoms
š 5. SCAMPER: The Framework for Feature Reinvention
š§Ŗ How to Use These Frameworks in Your Business
š A Story From the Trenches: When We Almost Missed the Big Idea
š¬ Final Thought: Innovation Is a MuscleāNot a Mood
𧬠Great Products Donāt Just EmergeāTheyāre Designed to Evolve
Over the years, Iāve sat across the table from dozens of brilliant software founders whoāve built fast, grown strongāand then stalled.
The cause? Not lack of capital. Not lack of talent. But a creativity ceiling.
Theyād stopped thinking differently.
They were too close to the product, too deep in the backlog, too overwhelmed with operations to imagine new futures.
And hereās the hard truth: in B2B SaaS, execution is criticalābut creativity is what separates you from the crowd.
Thatās why in this article, I want to walk you through a set of practical frameworks that weāve used, recommended, and deployed inside countless B2B product teams.
These arenāt theory. Theyāre tools.
And theyāre built to do one thing: help your team break through the noise and unlock product innovation.
Letās start with the one I always go back to.
šØ 1. Design Thinking: Empathy ā Insight ā Action
āDesign Thinkingā is the gold standard of product creativity for a reason. It starts where all great software should: with the customerās world.
The five-step framework is simple:
Empathise: Immerse yourself in the userās environment
Define: Articulate the core pain points
Ideate: Generate multiple potential solutions
Prototype: Build quick, low-fidelity tests
Test: Get real feedback and refine
I still remember a fintech founder I worked with who was deeply convinced they needed a new reporting module. The data said otherwise. But it wasnāt until they spent 3 days shadowing customers that they discovered the real pain: users didnāt need new dashboardsāthey needed clearer language and fewer inputs.
Lesson: Donāt solve what you think is the problem. Solve what actually is. And use empathy to get there.
šø 2. The Lotus Blossom Technique: Expand the Edges
This oneās less known, but incredibly powerfulāespecially for B2B teams dealing with feature sprawl or market expansion.
You start by putting a central idea or challenge in the middle of a visual āblossom.ā Then you add related themes around it. And then ideas around those.
Itās idea generation by expansion, not depth.
We once ran this in a workshop with a founder targeting procurement teams. One outer ring idea? āCarbon offset tracking.ā Two quarters later, it became a differentiating feature.
Lesson: Your biggest unlocks are often two layers beyond your current thinking. This technique gets you there.
š© 3. Six Thinking Hats: A Team Favourite
I love this one. Not just because it worksābut because itās a blast to run.
Edward de Bonoās āSix Thinking Hatsā assigns each team member a lens:
š© White: Data, facts
ā¤ļø Red: Emotions, gut reactions
ā ļø Black: Risks and caution
š Yellow: Positives and benefits
š± Green: Creativity and alternatives
šµ Blue: Process and control
In product meetings, people usually default to one or two perspectives. This forces the group to consider them all.
I ran this at a portfolio offsite once. The CPO wore the black hat and ripped their roadmap apart. The CEO, in yellow, reframed every fear as an opportunity. The dev team, in green, unlocked two new prototypes that hadnāt even been considered.
Lesson: Innovation doesnāt just need new ideas. It needs new perspectives.
ā 4. The Five Whys: Find the Root, Not the Symptoms
This oneās so simple, itās almost laughable.
But Iāve used it to fix more problems than any analytics dashboard ever has.
You start with a problem. Then ask āwhy?ā five times to drill down.
Problem: Users arenāt converting.
Why? They donāt reach the aha moment.
Why? They get stuck in onboarding.
Why? The copy is unclear.
Why? It uses internal language.
Why? Marketing wrote it without user input.
Thereās your answer.
A founder I worked with reduced churn by 15% using nothing but āThe Five Whysā to debug user drop-off.
Lesson: Every metric has a story. āThe Five Whysā gets you to the punchline.
š 5. SCAMPER: The Framework for Feature Reinvention
This oneās perfect for product teams that feel stuck or uninspired.
āSCAMPERā stands for:
Substitute
Combine
Adapt
Modify
Put to another use
Eliminate
Reverse
Each action prompts fresh thinking. For example:
Substitute: What if we replaced customer onboarding calls with Loom videos
Combine: Can we merge usage and billing dashboards into one view?
Reverse: What if our support team learned from churned users first?
We used āSCAMPERā to help a startup pivot a failing feature into a lead gen toolājust by changing how it was packaged and where it lived in the UI.
Lesson: You donāt always need new ideas. Sometimes you just need to see old ones differently.
š§Ŗ How to Use These Frameworks in Your Business
These frameworks are only useful if you apply them regularly. Hereās how weāve seen founders make them stick:
1. Use one framework per sprint
Every sprint planning session, pick a lens to view backlog items through. It keeps teams curious and prevents tunnel vision.
2. Run a monthly āCreativity Hourā
Get cross-functional. Invite devs, marketers, support. Pick one customer problem. Use one tool (e.g. āLotus Blossomā). Watch the magic happen.
3. Build a Framework Library
Print them. Share Notion pages. Include example use cases. Make creative thinking part of your operating systemānot a one-off.
4. Celebrate āwildā ideas
The best innovations often sound ridiculous at first. Make space for them. We had one founder build a prototype feature from a joke that came out of a āSix Hatsā session. It became their #1 retention tool.
š A Story From the Trenches: When We Almost Missed the Big Idea
Let me tell you a story from my own operating days.
We were building a finance automation tool. Solid growth, loyal users, and a good roadmap. But churn plateaued. Growth slowed. Our product was āfineāābut no longer exciting.
We ran a āSCAMPERā session out of desperation.
One dev suggested we āreverseā the core workflowālet customers set goals before seeing reports. It sounded backward. But we mocked it up. Tested it with ten users.
Seven said:
āThis changes everything.ā
Three months later, it was our most loved feature. NPS jumped. Activation soared.
Lesson: Creativity is not a luxuryāitās an unlock. But you have to make space for it.
š¬ Final Thought: Innovation Is a MuscleāNot a Mood
Most people think creativity is a spark. A eureka moment.
But in my experience, the best product innovation comes from structure, repetition, and deliberate practice.
These frameworks arenāt gimmicks. Theyāre reps.
And reps build muscle. Creative muscle.
So hereās what I want you to do:
Pick one framework.
Apply it this week.
Then another next sprint.
And another next quarter.
Make creativity a system, not a side project.
Because in SaaS, the best products arenāt just fast or feature-rich.
Theyāre surprising. Elegant. Insightful.
They make users say:
āWow, I didnāt even know I needed this.ā
Thatās the kind of product that wins.
āChris Tottman
Great reading and great compilation!
This a must read thread to all Co founders!