TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving – or теория решения изобретательских задач, teoriya resheniya izobretatelskikh zadatch in Russian) is a problem to solution methodology based on the study of a multitude of patents by russian scientist, Genrich Altshuller. TRIZ helps users find a specific solution by generating a general TRIZ solution to a general TRIZ problem that has been informed by the specific problem the user intends to solve as illustrated in the figure below. Although this methodology has many tool sets, TRIZ is famous for its 39 contradictions and 40 inventive Principles which has been used to solve many design contradictions in various fields including Technical product design development.

To apply TRIZ, a design parameter that is intended to be improved (feature to improve) is checked against a contradicting design parameter that may get worse due to the improving parameter (feature to preserve). To reach a design solution for this contradiction, a TRIZ correlation matrix is used. As shown in the figure above, the Matrix features 39 rows of TRIZ’s contradiction features to improve and same on columns for features to preserve. The cells within the rows and columns in the matrix contain the principle solutions for each contradiction which are then used to check the correlating inventive principle numbers where the two compared parameters’ row and column meet. The TRIZ’s principle numbers contained in the meeting cell are then checked against a list of the 40 principles to obtain their respective definitions.

By using this digital tool, the otherwise cumbersome matrix search process is made a lot simpler and automated so that users can check contradictions while obtaining quick descriptions and examples with relative ease and speed. An example is shown below:

This tool is compatible with all operating systems that can run Microsoft EXCEL. For the best user experience please use Microsoft EXCEL 2010 version or above.

1. To use this tool, simply download the file to your computer and save in an appropriate file location. If your device already has Microsoft Excel installed, no further installation is required, otherwise check that your device can run Microsoft Excel (which can be obtained this from Microsoft store).
2. Open the downloaded file with Microsoft Excel.
3. Select your contradiction parameter feature to improve and feature to preserve from the dropdown fields provided. TRIZ's suggested solutions are automatically loaded into the TRIZ solutions bar.
4. Next, click on the 'EXPORT TO RESULT CHECKER ' button to load the displayed solutions into the result checker.
5. You can then check the description for each of the TRIZ solutions' principle numbers by clicking on the 'RESULTS CHECKER' data field and entering or selecting a principle number from the dropdown menu. For each valid principle number entered or selected, the RESULT CHECKER would load a full description of the solution with examples.

N:B - Sometimes, the TRIZ Solution bar may display an 'x' or empty space when certain features are selected for comparison. This means that the contradictions selected, when matched, do not have a known TRIZ solution. Please try a different valid contradiction match.
To read these instructions offline, Please refer to the accompanying readme .txt file.