Creative Discovery Method

Four steps.
Ten principles.
One practice.
This page is the practice. Not just words about discovery—an actual discovery experience.
🔍 Start exploring...
How This Emerged
We didn't invent a methodology and then execute it. We executed, over and over, and this methodology emerged from the pattern of what actually worked.
This is the shape our practice takes when we're doing it right. When we're learning the most. When we're making discoveries that surprise us.
It's not a guarantee. It's not a formula. It's an explicit practice for doing work where the outcome isn't known at the start.

Start with what you don't know.

The Four Steps

This is what you do. A cycle, not a line. Click each step to unlock an interactive experiment.
1

Question Generator

Build unexpected questions by combining unrelated elements

What ifcouldlike?
What if chocolate could self-assemble like biology?

Real Budmen questions that started projects:

🍫"What if we could share a sensory experience?"→ 3D Printed Chocolate
🖨️"What if we could 3D print food?"→ Food Printing Research
🏥"Can we respond to an emergency in 48 hours?"→ COVID PPE Response
2

Discipline Mixer

Drag two disciplines together and see what emerges

Click any two disciplines to discover what emerges at their intersection:

🥐 Pastry
🤖 Robotics
🏛️ Conservation
📷 3D Scanning
🚨 Emergency Response
🏭 Manufacturing
The Intersection

Select two disciplines above...

3

Material Simulator

Draw with virtual materials and watch them behave

Click each material to discover how its constraints shaped our process:

🍫

Chocolate

Melts at 30°C

We printed horizontally in a cold room. The constraint forced us to rethink the entire process—and discover new forms only possible with food.

→ 3D Printed Chocolate
🖨️

Plastic

Layers visible, takes time

Instead of hiding layer lines, we embraced them as texture. Speed became an aesthetic choice, not a limitation.

→ Rapid Prototyping
🏺

Porcelain

Reflects light, breaks scanners

We scanned in complete darkness with special lighting. The "impossible" surface became our specialty.

→ Museum Digitization
🥐

Pasta

Dries out, clogs nozzles

Every failure taught us about hydration and timing. The material demanded we slow down and observe.

→ Food Printing Research

Each constraint became a teacher. What seemed like limitations revealed new possibilities.

4

Constraint Flipper

Flip a constraint and discover creative solutions

Click the card to flip your thinking:

CONSTRAINT
Food materials melt at high temperatures
tap to flip
CREATIVE SOLUTION
Print horizontally in a cold environment
tap for next
1 / 6

The pattern:

Every constraint contains a clue to its solution. The limitation points to what needs to change.

Abstract question marks and curiosity

Questions lead to intersections

STEP 1

Start with Questions

Curiosity Over Answers
QUESTION NO. 029-0394-03

WHAT IF WE COULD SHARE A SENSORY EXPERIENCE REMOTELY?

← Swipe to explore branches →
Don't start with a solution you're trying to build. Start with genuine curiosity about something you don't understand.
In practice: Our 3D-printed chocolate project didn't start with "let's print chocolate." It started with a question.
The best questions don't have obvious answers. They pull you into the unknown.
The question is the project.
Intersecting circles and overlapping disciplines

Intersections need hands-on making

STEP 2

Explore the Intersections

Click or drag disciplines into the circles. Watch what emerges where they overlap.

Drop Here
or click a discipline
Drop Here
or click a discipline

Innovation lives in the overlap. Try different combinations to discover what emerges.

In practice: The chocolate printer emerged at the intersection of food science, precision robotics, and material behavior. None of those fields alone would have gotten us there.
Innovation lives in the overlap.
Hands building and prototyping

Making reveals assumptions to challenge

STEP 3

Think with Your Hands

Make to Learn
Early attempt - ugly but informative
Early attempt - ugly but informative
After 5 iterations of learning
After 5 iterations of learning
Don't plan endlessly. Make something. Even if it's rough. Even if it fails.
Thinking happens in the doing. You learn what works by watching it break.
In practice: We didn't spend months designing the perfect chocolate extruder. We built a rough one in a week. It looked terrible. But it taught us everything we needed to know for version 2.
The workshop is your laboratory. Your hands are your research method.
Make to learn. Don't just plan.
STEP 4

Challenge Assumptions

Test What You Think You Know
Tap the cards to flip • Hover to see principle connections →
Card back

The Rule

You can't scan white porcelain
Light reflects too much. It's physically impossible.

How We Broke It

We scanned in complete darkness
Flipped the constraint into the solution. It worked.
Card back

The Assumption

Experts have all the answers
You need credentials to innovate.

The Reality

Curiosity beats credentials
The willingness to be wrong and surprised matters more than accumulated knowledge.
Every constraint is also an opportunity. Every "that won't work" is a chance to prove yourself wrong.
The biggest breakthroughs come from flipping the constraint into the solution.
The constraint is the solution.

Answers become new questions.

The Ten Principles

The four steps are what you do. These ten principles are how you be.
Click to explore each principle in depth. When principles connect, they reveal how they relate.
Seek WhatThey Sought
No Lonely Islands
Be as the ReedIn the Wind
Life is Nota Straight Line
Work Fromthe Unknownto the Known
Experimentation Over Expertise
CelebrateFailure
No Threats,Only Opportunties
Timing Has A Wayof Working Out
Everyone hasSomething to Teach
A method tells you what to do. Principles tell you how to be.
The four steps give you a cycle to move through. The ten principles give you values to operate by.
Together, they create a practice. Not a formula. Not a guarantee.
A practice you can come back to. A practice that evolves with you.

This isn't a recipe. It's a practice.

The Creative Discovery Method isn't a formula that guarantees results. It's a way of working that invites discovery.
What you discover? That's yours.
Every question is different. Every intersection is unique. Every failure teaches something new.
We share this method not as "the right way" but as one way we've found to practice applied curiosity—to turn wondering into making, and making into learning.
If you've explored this page fully, you've discovered hidden elements, unlocked experiments, seen connections between steps and principles, and experienced what discovery feels like.

That's the method in action.

Ready to Practice?

Join a Budmen workshop and experience the Creative Discovery Method hands-on.
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