Creative problem solving
Summary
Chapter M1-X
Timo Verkade
,M1 - Think
- Learning goal 1
- Learning goal 2
- Learning goal 3
Welcome
Linear method = all planned out in linear order, mistake = all over again. Helps to think all through.
Grey hair consultancy = professional services that are costly, highly customized and hard to scale.
Intrapreneurship = institutional/organizational entrepreneurship (within/internal locus of
innovation).
Service design
Ideas + concepts + imagination = creativity
Creativity + measurable + change + implementation = innovation (introducing something new)
This can create performance (measured by market value, operational cost, growth and survival)
Deductive logic = general principle or theory
Inductive logic = specific or information
Reading
Advancing an understanding of design cognition and design metacognition: Process and prospects
BALL AND CHRISTENSEN
Main takeaway
View design cognition through a metacognitive lens to get understanding of the strategy changes in
the process over the design time-course in response to fluctuating feelings of uncertainty and can
bring fresh ideas for future design research.
Cognition = mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought,
experience and the senses
Metacognition = awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes
A research used 2 methodologies to address the nature of design cognition:
1. Asking designers to think-aloud whilst engaged in design work
2. Researcher monitoring team-based design conversations and analyze transcripts
Design is an ill-defined task that needs reflecting on the problem (=problem formulation). Constraints
are introduced early based on domain knowledge and during the process as solutions are explored.
Expert designers define the problem and the constraints well before starting, but don’t spend
excessive amounts on time on it. They take a solution-oriented, conjectural approach (check whether
it meets the requirements and constraints).
Due to time constraints, designers are more likely to develop satisfactory solutions than optimal
ones.
Designers prefer initial, own ideas over potentially better ideas of others (high precision specified
meant that designers generated more solution alternatives, and the other way around).
Naming = having selected features of a problem to attend to (occurs throughout the design process)
Need to have a clearly articulated problem frame, identify different ones, explore.
There is a problem space and a solution space (co-evolution with each other)
, Team managers motivate and control ongoing design with metacognitive awareness to achieve
successful problem formulations and solution outcomes.
Subjective uncertainty appears to trigger metacognitive control processes that deploy strategies such
as analogizing and mental simulation.
Fixation = example solution concepts constrain a designer’s imagination (can also inspire, design-by-
analogy)
Self-generated analogies serve 3 primary functions: problem identification, solving and explaining.
This is a design strategy under metacognitive control. Yields enhanced team cohesion and improves
collaboration.
Mental simulation = sequence of events is consciously run to determine cause, effect relationships
and predict outcomes.
Breadth-first strategy = overarching problem is reduced to several sub-problems and these are
tackled a full level at a time.
Depth-first strategy = taking on one top-level sub-problem at a time
- Judgements of solvability = estimates of the probability of successfully finding a solution to a
problem
- Feeling of warmth/intermediate confidence = beliefs one is on the right track towards
solution
- Feelings of rightness = beliefs that a solution is effective or needs further development
- Final judgement of solvability/final confidence = sense that a problem is solves successfully
Micro conflicts between team members were followed by reduced uncertainty in successful design
teams but led to increased uncertainty in unsuccessful teams.
Summary
Chapter M1-X
Timo Verkade
,M1 - Think
- Learning goal 1
- Learning goal 2
- Learning goal 3
Welcome
Linear method = all planned out in linear order, mistake = all over again. Helps to think all through.
Grey hair consultancy = professional services that are costly, highly customized and hard to scale.
Intrapreneurship = institutional/organizational entrepreneurship (within/internal locus of
innovation).
Service design
Ideas + concepts + imagination = creativity
Creativity + measurable + change + implementation = innovation (introducing something new)
This can create performance (measured by market value, operational cost, growth and survival)
Deductive logic = general principle or theory
Inductive logic = specific or information
Reading
Advancing an understanding of design cognition and design metacognition: Process and prospects
BALL AND CHRISTENSEN
Main takeaway
View design cognition through a metacognitive lens to get understanding of the strategy changes in
the process over the design time-course in response to fluctuating feelings of uncertainty and can
bring fresh ideas for future design research.
Cognition = mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought,
experience and the senses
Metacognition = awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes
A research used 2 methodologies to address the nature of design cognition:
1. Asking designers to think-aloud whilst engaged in design work
2. Researcher monitoring team-based design conversations and analyze transcripts
Design is an ill-defined task that needs reflecting on the problem (=problem formulation). Constraints
are introduced early based on domain knowledge and during the process as solutions are explored.
Expert designers define the problem and the constraints well before starting, but don’t spend
excessive amounts on time on it. They take a solution-oriented, conjectural approach (check whether
it meets the requirements and constraints).
Due to time constraints, designers are more likely to develop satisfactory solutions than optimal
ones.
Designers prefer initial, own ideas over potentially better ideas of others (high precision specified
meant that designers generated more solution alternatives, and the other way around).
Naming = having selected features of a problem to attend to (occurs throughout the design process)
Need to have a clearly articulated problem frame, identify different ones, explore.
There is a problem space and a solution space (co-evolution with each other)
, Team managers motivate and control ongoing design with metacognitive awareness to achieve
successful problem formulations and solution outcomes.
Subjective uncertainty appears to trigger metacognitive control processes that deploy strategies such
as analogizing and mental simulation.
Fixation = example solution concepts constrain a designer’s imagination (can also inspire, design-by-
analogy)
Self-generated analogies serve 3 primary functions: problem identification, solving and explaining.
This is a design strategy under metacognitive control. Yields enhanced team cohesion and improves
collaboration.
Mental simulation = sequence of events is consciously run to determine cause, effect relationships
and predict outcomes.
Breadth-first strategy = overarching problem is reduced to several sub-problems and these are
tackled a full level at a time.
Depth-first strategy = taking on one top-level sub-problem at a time
- Judgements of solvability = estimates of the probability of successfully finding a solution to a
problem
- Feeling of warmth/intermediate confidence = beliefs one is on the right track towards
solution
- Feelings of rightness = beliefs that a solution is effective or needs further development
- Final judgement of solvability/final confidence = sense that a problem is solves successfully
Micro conflicts between team members were followed by reduced uncertainty in successful design
teams but led to increased uncertainty in unsuccessful teams.
