Dozens of questions arise during your day job. Most questions have a pretty straightforward answer. However, some questions have the potential to unlock real new insights and ask for more time to research. It’s essential to collect and curate those questions. Lessons learned #4: Curate essential questions. An interesting source for speculative questions is edge.org – an organization dedicated to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Does your organization investigate experimentally?
Lessons Learned #5: Develop enough alternatives. This may also be a no-brainer for a designer. Ask yourself: how often have you thought about more than two alternatives to solve an issue? If you go for quantity and force yourself or your team to develop more alternatives the probability is much higher that you’ll find a really good solution. Moreover, if you use the approach also for the next level of granularity the details of the solution will be also richer. A good way to find alternatives is to walk along unusual paths, as e.g. Nushelle describes in a blog post on “Exponential Ideation” at an art gallery (rich post btw).
