A design exercise I often use is to try and create the *worst* possible version of a project. This helps shake up my thinking and reveal the core points of the experience, because I have to identify them in order to thwart them. I recently found out Katerina Kamprani tried the same thing with everyday items.
Dan Felder 
Not only are these great from a sheer laughter perspective (gotta love visualizing people using these), but the design challenge of thinking about the worst possible design is really helpful. I hadn’t, however, been able to previously verbalize why it’s so useful. ‘Revealing the core points of the experience’ is perfect.
Also, this gave me an excuse to watch the ‘Wild Wacky Action Bike’ parody commercial, lol.