Today I rewatched the 2018 film ‘Searching’ directed by Aneesh Chaganty. The movie is worth a watch just for the way it is filmed. All the shorts are through the desktop of the main character’s computer, with the story told through video calls, text messages, web searches, and the occasional TV news report. It sounds like it would not work, but it does, partly down to the excellent editing.
The exciting thing about this film is how much you can do with your computer if you set up a link between your phone and laptop. The main character approaches the investigation into his daughter’s disappearance like a ninja project manager. He starts by creating a table with questions that he then goes through each of his daughters 96 Facebook friends completing a row for each. He goes through search history, social media accounts, text messages, and email, meticulously logging everything he learns and gradually finding clues to create a timeline of the days running up to the disappearance.
The situation in the film is extreme, but it showcases how much of the world’s information is online and how a computer can aid a systematic approach to solve a problem. It raises the question about how much more productive you might be if you learned to use your computer better and how methodical you are in your approach and documentation when problem-solving.
Two tasks for me this week:
Become a power user with my computer
Be deliberate in my approach and documentation in my problem-solving.
Problem-solving can be explained in four simple steps:
Define the problem
Generate multiple solutions
Evaluate these possible solutions and select the best fit
Implement the solution and gather feedback on its effectiveness
All design and development methodologies, from software engineering to city building, follow these four steps. The QS Global Graduate Skills Gap in the 21st Century employment survey placed problem-solving as the number one skill missing from graduates in the workplace. If you can get really good at performing each one and put them together in order, you will be effective in most jobs.
Traditional project management starts with a brief, and you go through several steps to get to a solution. In the Double Diamond, this is called the design phase and involves a period of divergence followed by convergence. The divergence and convergence process is done twice, first to go from problem to design brief, and second to go from the brief to the solution.
Divergence and convergence
The most crucial concept in solving any problem is to have multiple ideas and then chose the best. Before committing to a solution to develop, you need first to think up and test multiple ideas to find the best one.
Divergent thinking is a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions.
Wikipedia
Convergent thinking is the type of thinking that focuses on coming up with the single, well-established answer to a problem.
Wikipedia
You will have done this process of divergent then convergent thinking in school many times. First, you brainstorming as many ideas as possible, not worrying about the quality of what you are writing, then you choose the ones that sound the most suitable and investigate them further. Finally, you select one single idea that performs best in your tests. This process was to train you on how to think about a problem and come to a solution.
Designing things right and designing the right things
Designing things right requires a design process where the problem definition is used to develop, test, and deliver a solution. You collate many potential solutions by generating ideas and then trying them. You can then deliver solutions that work to users and listen to their feedback to refine your solution further.
The best designers spend time designing the right thing first by researching the problem to create a problem definition or design brief. You need to gain insights into the challenge through exhaustive research and then scope down the focus by exploring this research to come to a clear definition.
The Double Diamond design process model
The British Design Council published the double diamond as a visual representation of the design and innovation process in 2004, adapting it from similar iterative models used by IDEO and the divergence-convergence model. The aim was to produce a simple way to share a strategic approach to a design and innovation project. The Double Diamond was published alongside the Methods Bank resource to define the British Design Council’s innovation process.
The double diamond collects divergent and convergent thinking ideas and design principles and the Methods bank to create an innovation process that you can use in any field.
The design process has four stages:
Discover – question the problem and research to identify users needs
Define – make sense of the discovery phase findings to create a design brief
Develop – develop, test, and refine multiple potential solutions
Deliver – Select and prepare a final solution for launch
The DMI Design Value Index measured design-focused publicly traded companies’ performance against the larger stock market. For a company to be counted as a design-led, it must meet six design management criteria:
The organisation must be publicly traded in the US for 10+ years.
The scale of the design organisation and deployment is an integrated function.
Growth in design-related investments and influence have increased overtime.
Design is embedded within the organisational structure.
Design leadership is present at senior and divisional levels.
There is a senior-level commitment to design’s use as an innovation resource and integrative force.
These criteria assessed whether design was a long term strategic priority, built into the organisation’s structure, and well resourced through hiring practices, facilities, and technologies. Qualifying companies needed a design-focused C-level executive and CEO and leadership team publicly recognising the importance of design in their work and publicity.
Simply put, design is a method of problem-solving. Whether it is an architectural blueprint, a brochure, the signage system at an airport, a chair, or a better way to streamline production on the factory floor – design helps solve a problem.
The Design Management Institute
The DMI, funded by Microsoft, identified fifteen companies that meet all six criteria, including Apple, IBM, Nike, Procter & Gamble, and Starbucks. Results showed that design-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 index by 228% over ten years.
SamuelJTanner 