R&D LAB Method Shipped Used in our own pilots
Contradiction
TRIZ as a working instrument
Our TRIZ application: state what has to improve and what gets worse, and get the principles that resolved that exact pair, with inventions that actually did it.
- 1 248matrix cells
- 40inventive principles
- 22patent-backed cases
- 1file, usable offline
Pick improving against worsening and the cell answers with principles and with inventions that broke that exact pair. Here: strength against weight, resolved by Segmentation.
Why this is published
Every consultancy claims a method. This is ours, a TRIZ instrument built as a working instrument rather than a slide: a trade-off goes in, a shortlist of resolutions comes out, and each one is backed by an invention with a patent number attached. It is the artefact we actually run pilots with.
TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem solving, comes from Genrich Altshuller: he read a very large number of patents and noticed that the same handful of moves resolve the same recurring trade-offs. The contradiction matrix that came out of it is usually reproduced as a lookup table and left there. This turns it back into an instrument: pick the pair, get the principles, then read a case that broke exactly that contradiction, with the record to check.
A trade-off is an address, not a verdict
Choose the parameter that must improve and the one that degrades. The matrix returns the principles that historically resolved that pair, ranked by how often they did.
That reframing is the useful part. "Stronger but heavier" feels like a law of nature until you see that 1,248 other people also arrived at that cell and that four moves keep showing up in the answer.
Every principle carries a precedent you can check
A principle on its own is a slogan. Segmentation means nothing until you see de Mestral answer "must open easily, must hold hard" by replacing one strong joint with thousands of weak ones, which turns a strength problem into a statistics problem.
Twenty-two cases are written the same way: context, the contradiction stated plainly, how it was broken, the outcome, and the patent record. The images are patent sheets and freely licensed photographs, chosen so the whole thing stays distributable.
One instrument, five rooms
What is actually in the file
SolvePick improving against worsening. The cell returns its principles, ranked, with the precedent list underneath.
PrinciplesAll forty, each with its own reading, its sub-moves and worked examples.
SeparationFor the case the matrix cannot express: when the thing that must improve and the thing that degrades are the same property.
MethodHow to state a contradiction properly, and what TRIZ does and does not do. That is where most workshops actually fail.
How it is used
From a stuck trade-off to something to try
The instrument does not invent anything. It shortens the distance between a team being stuck on a trade-off and that team having three concrete precedents to argue about, which is where a pilot workshop actually starts.
A closer look
Under the hood
Where it fits
- A development team stuck on a trade-off that keeps returning to the same argument.
- Innovation workshops that need a structured move after the brainstorming has run out.
- Engineering reviews where "that is physically impossible" deserves a second look.
- Teaching a method to a client team rather than performing it for them.
How this was made
The application and this article were produced with AI assistance under human direction. Reviewed by: Aashwin Shrivastava.
Checked
- Contradiction matrix parsed from a published copy of Altshuller's 39×39 table: 1,248 populated cells, spot-checked against the source.
- Every patent number in the case library was checked against Google Patents, Espacenet or a USPTO record. Where no single patent applies the field is empty and the application says so.
- The 40 principles carry Altshuller's canonical names; all gloss text was written for this application.
- TRIZ is credited to Genrich Altshuller by name and date on the page. The method is not claimed, only the implementation.
- Every image is a screenshot of our own application.
Not checked
- No person has re-verified the patent numbers against the registers since the research pass. This is the highest-value open item, because the numbers are the article's hardest external claim.
- Matrix cells beyond the spot-checks have not been compared against the published table individually.
- The case narratives have not been independently fact-checked by a person.
Origin of the method: TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem solving, was developed from 1946 onwards by Genrich Saulovich Altshuller (1926-1998) and his collaborators, out of the analysis of patent records. The contradiction matrix, the 39 parameters and the 40 inventive principles are his work, and this application would not exist without it. We claim no ownership of the method whatsoever. Ours is the implementation alone: the presentation, the selection and research of the cases, the interactive models and the writing. Image credits: screenshots of our own application.
“A problem well stated is a problem half solved.”
Why this is published
What this means for your project
More from the lab
Computational Design Mechanism Lab Sixty mechanisms across ten chapters, each driven by exact kinematics, each reporting numbers that are true of what is drawn. 
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