Notice that we began this process by merely taking the characteristics of the
wheel—roundness, rubber material, ability to roll, and so on—and applying
them to the weed cutter. Other ideas may then develop based upon simple ver-
bal relationships or similar-sounding words. For example, the word “brakes”
led to the idea of a weed cutter that does not “break.”
This technique takes little time. If the forced relationship being used does
not seem to be profitable, one can simply select a new random element and
repeat the process. As with other idea-generating techniques, many impracti-
cal, even foolish, ideas may be generated. Evaluation of these ideas should not
be undertaken during the idea-generation stage.