A generative metaphor shapes how you think about a problem.
The term is due to Donald A. Schön in Ortony 1993. His essay is titled "Generative Metaphor."
See Paintbrush as Pump for an example.
Schön describes metaphor use:
> One can characterize the metaphor-making process by saying that the researchers, who had begun by describing painting in a familiar way, entertained the description of a different, already-named process (pumping) as an alternative description of painting and that in their redescription of painting, both their perception of the phenomenon and the previous description of pumping were transformed. [...] *Everything one knows about pumping has the potential of being brought into play in this redescription of painting.* There is, in this sense, great economy and high leverage in this particular kind of redescription. (My emphasis)
This seems to me a description of Conceptual Metaphor, except that Schön's emphasis is on problem-solving rather than understanding or interpretation of speech.
See also Latour Factory.