The Creative Problem Solver

vii.

Reverse engineering

‘One man’s magic is another man’s engineering.’

ROBERT HEINLEIN

Reverse engineering is a term generally used to describe taking apart a ‘thing’ (whether mechanical or technological) that you didn’t create, in order to understand how it works so that you can then create a replica of your own.

A famous example is cracking the Enigma code in World War II – a brilliant piece of reverse engineering by cryptologists.

Here I mean something slightly different. In problem solving, we can reverse engineer from the solution. In other words, start at the end – with the solution or innovation you want – and work backwards from there.

Visual

The visual shows some of the elements of your business. Working out how to get them to fit together ...