Question Innovation (QI)
Turn Research Problems into Structured Innovation Solutions
QI is a TRIZ-powered innovation engine that transforms contradictions into actionable solution strategies. Paste a problem or use a question generated by QM—the system delivers multi-angle proposals with feasibility insights in minutes.
Structured Innovation in Minutes
Accelerate Conceptual Breakthroughs
No more open-ended brainstorming. QI transforms your problem into structured innovation paths—so you can move faster toward experiments, prototypes, or proposal refinement.
Multi-Angle, High-Value Output
Solutions That Think Beyond the Obvious
Each run explores the problem from several inventive angles—contradictions, transformations, system shifts—yielding deeper, more substantive ideas than typical LLM prompting.
Feasibility-Anchored Proposals
Innovation You Can Actually Use
QI evaluates each solution through constraints and practicality. You get novelty with realism—not speculative ideas detached from real scientific logic.
—Built on TRIZ-powered reasoning. Validated across academic and industrial R&D workflows.—
What Question Innovation Does
QI turns a well-defined research or engineering problem into structured, multi-angle innovation strategies. Instead of open-ended brainstorming or shallow LLM ideas, you get:
- Breakthrough thinking paths that reveal what is blocking progress
- Cross-domain innovation strategies grounded in TRIZ reasoning
- Substantive, multi-angle solution proposals
- Feasibility-aligned ideas, not speculative suggestions
- Actionable innovation roadmaps for experiments, prototypes, or proposals
- Clear reasoning trails for academic justification or R&D review
With QI, you move from “I have a problem” to “I have structured, defensible innovation directions” in minutes.
How Question Innovation Works
Problem Abstraction & Contradiction Analysis
QI identifies the underlying physical, technical, or conceptual contradictions behind your problem to expose the true blocker—not just surface symptoms.
Inventive Principle Mapping
Each contradiction is mapped to relevant TRIZ strategies, linking your challenge to proven innovation patterns across disciplines.
Multi-Angle Innovation Generation
QI explores structural, functional, temporal, and systemic transformations—producing substantive solution strategies rather than incremental variations.
Feasibility & Constraint Screening
Solutions are evaluated for constraint alignment, plausibility, risk factors, and expected impact, yielding a curated set of actionable paths.
Why Structured Innovation Matters
Traditional brainstorming—and even LLM-based prompting—often produces shallow, inconsistent, or incremental ideas. A contradiction-centered, TRIZ-powered workflow provides a more rigorous foundation:
- Reveals the underlying contradictions, not just surface symptoms
- Breaks cognitive fixation and opens overlooked solution spaces
- Connects problems to cross-domain innovation principles
- Generates structurally novel, defensible ideas
- Includes constraint-based feasibility screening
- Creates a reproducible innovation reasoning trail for proposals and reviews
QI turns innovation from intuition-driven guessing into a systematic, logic-grounded engineering process.
Who Uses QI?
QI helps researchers and teams seeking substantive, not incremental, innovation:
- PhD students generating new directions or solving thesis obstacles
- Postdocs crafting conceptual novelty for manuscripts and grant proposals
- PIs and lab leads designing project pivots or evaluating solution feasibility
- Lab groups conducting systematic problem-solving workshops
- Corporate R&D teams exploring solution strategies across domains
- Innovation consultants synthesizing cross-disciplinary insights for clients
Because QI is domain-agnostic, it adapts to any scientific or engineering field.
Want to Learn How to Use QI Effectively?
Read our complete guide on using QI, understanding TRIZ-based innovation outputs, and integrating results into your research workflow.
Read the Complete GuideFAQ
What inputs does the Innovation Generator (QI) need?
QI requires a specific, actionable problem. The clearer and more problem-focused the input is, the higher the quality of the innovation output.
You can provide:
QM outputs
Paste a structured question produced by QM. This is the most reliable input because QM already frames the problem as contradictions.
Paper abstracts
Copy full or partial abstracts. If an abstract only states results (not problems), QI may have limited material.
Your research or engineering bottleneck
Describe the obstacle briefly. QI will abstract the problem, surface contradictions, and generate innovation paths.
Is TRIZ knowledge required?
No. QI applies TRIZ principles internally—you do not need to know TRIZ.
However, understanding TRIZ concepts (contradictions, abstraction layers, inventive principles) can help you interpret QI’s deeper reasoning.
What fields or disciplines can QI be applied to?
QI is domain-agnostic. Its workflow is method-oriented rather than domain-oriented:
- Abstract the problem
- Identify core contradictions
- Map contradictions to TRIZ inventive principles
- Generate multi-angle solutions
- Evaluate feasibility and constraints
Because the process is methodological, QI can be applied across engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, AI, social sciences, management, policy, and more.
Why can QI understand problems from almost all scientific fields?
Modern LLMs are trained on high knowledge-density corpora (scientific papers, patents, engineering reports, technical docs). These sources encode:
- Constraints and causal reasoning
- Failure mechanisms and optimization principles
- System-level structures
LLMs excel at logical decomposition and constraint-aware reasoning, making them ideal engines for contradiction analysis, which QI leverages via a structured innovation pipeline.
What advantages does QI have compared with other AI-for-Science methods?
Many AI4S tools rely on semantic exploration, which can produce noisy or incremental ideas. QI differs because it:
- Performs contradiction-centered abstraction (core TRIZ practice)
- Uses inventive principle mapping instead of free-form generation
- Enforces systematic reasoning across the entire problem
- Provides multi-angle structured solutions and feasibility notes
This leads to more substantive, higher-quality innovation paths.
Why should I use QI instead of a general-purpose LLM?
QI is a multi-stage innovation pipeline, not a single prompt. The process covers:
- Problem abstraction and contradiction identification
- System decomposition and inventive principle mapping
- Solution generation, evaluation, and iterative refinement
Each stage involves guardrails and checks that prevent drift. Generic LLM prompts demand expert prompting, often miss contradictions, and produce shallow outputs. QI delivers consistent, engineered workflows without extra effort.
Does QI generate solutions that are technically feasible?
QI generates structured innovation directions, not guaranteed blueprints. Solutions should be reviewed by domain experts.
The system emphasizes feasibility analysis, but final judgment rests with the researcher or engineering team.
Can QI hallucinate?
QI reduces hallucination through:
- Contradiction-based structuring
- Principle-based mapping and hard constraints
- Multi-step reasoning and feasibility screening
No AI is hallucination-free, but QI’s guardrails aim for logical consistency. Scientific accuracy must still be reviewed.
Can QI work with highly theoretical problems (e.g., physics, math)?
Yes. QI abstracts mathematical or physical contradictions, proposes transformation-based solution angles, and suggests conceptual reframing.
It may not output equations, but it uncovers viable conceptual approaches.
How long does a QI run take?
A typical run takes approximately 5 minutes or so, depending on the complexity of your input. In that time, you will receive a structured innovation report containing:
- Contradiction analysis: centered on up to two core contradiction frames.
- Multi-angle solutions: roughly 10 distinct solution paths generated from different perspectives.
- Ranked opportunities: concepts organized by impact and novelty tiers.
- Systematic report: an actionable summary designed to guide next steps.
How does QI ensure alignment with the original problem?
QI uses:
- Problem restatement and constraint locking
- Structural alignment checks and contradiction verification
- Iteration on unmet constraints
These safeguards prevent solutions from drifting into unrelated directions.
Is QI suitable for grant proposals?
Yes. QI is frequently used to:
- Deliver innovation rationale and novelty claims
- Demonstrate problem originality
- Refine solution pathways and feasibility constraints
It enhances the conceptual innovation sections of proposals.
Does QI store or reuse my data?
No. Inputs are processed securely and are not used to retrain any models. Data remains private within your workspace.
Can I customize or adjust scores within a team?
Yes. Teams can distribute credits among members.
I want to learn more about using QI effectively
We have a comprehensive guide that covers how to use QI, interpret results, and integrate outputs into your research workflow. Read our detailed guide: How to Use Question Innovation (QI) to Systematically Explore Scientific and Technical Innovation.
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