Protocol
Name what improves and what gets worse
A trade-off becomes easier to invent around once both sides are written as variables instead of complaints.
When it fits
- A design discussion keeps circling around a compromise such as 'more speed means less safety' or 'more control means less flexibility.'
When to avoid it
- This operationalizes the existing corpus contradiction concept; not every multi-objective choice contains a useful technical contradiction.
Why it matters
Write the technical contradiction explicitly: if we improve X, Y deteriorates; if we protect Y, X remains insufficient. Keep X and Y observable enough that proposed concepts can be tested. Do not solve yet. The purpose is to remove vague compromise language and expose the paired tension.
Steps
- The team can state both sides of the trade-off and the mechanism connecting them without using 'just balance it.'
An example
Increasing automatic batch size improves throughput but increases the number of records exposed before an error is detected.
Check your result
The team can state both sides of the trade-off and the mechanism connecting them without using 'just balance it.'
Keep this limit in mind
- This operationalizes the existing corpus contradiction concept; not every multi-objective choice contains a useful technical contradiction.
Connected ideas
Use beforeTurn the conflict into one thing that must be opposite ways
Evidence and sources
Classical TRIZ defines a technical contradiction as an attempted improvement in one system characteristic that causes another characteristic to deteriorate.
Not every business tradeoff benefits from technical-parameter language; use it when the paired improvement and harm can be stated concretely.
Contradictions · Technical contradiction definition
The 2025 TRIZ process-improvement review concludes that technical contradiction with inventive principles is comparatively accessible, while more complex problems may benefit from algorithms or frameworks using advanced TRIZ tools.
This is the review authors' synthesis of heterogeneous literature, not a controlled head-to-head trial of tools.
Tools of Theory of Inventive Problem Solving Used for Process Improvement—A Systematic Literature Review · Abstract conclusion