Is Design Thinking A Victim Of The Curse Of Knowledge?

Can you imagine not knowing what you know?

Developing a Design Thinking elevator pitch is a good idea to spread its value among with a wider range of people.



"Constellation" by Elia

Wikipedia definition:
"The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias according to which better-informed people find it extremely difficult to think about problems from the perspective of lesser-informed people. The term was coined by Robin Hogarth.

Many sensible strategies fail to drive action because executives formulate them in sweeping, general language […].Top executives have had years of immersion in the logic and conventions of business, so when they speak abstractly, they are simply summarizing the wealth of concrete data in their heads. But frontline employees, who aren’t privy to the underlying meaning, hear only opaque phrases. As a result, the strategies being touted don’t stick. The problem is that once we know something  […] we find it hard to imagine not knowing it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us. We have difficulty sharing it with others, because we can’t readily re-create their state of mind".

As a senior marketing communication professional and designer, I 'm aware of how easy it is for a Brand to become a "victim" of the curse of knowledge because of an insensible communication strategy. A "cursed brand" lacks a humanized, empathic perspective therefore it fails to share its personality, value and meaning to its stakeholders.

Becoming a human-centered organization must be a business strategy itself.

In a business context is easy to fall into assuming that everybody knows what we know and its also easy to confuse communication with a summarizing of the benefits of a product -even in a bullet point format-. This is a great challenge for brands in 2014 that seek to engage and be "chosen" by actual and potential customers. Brands: You need to be aware of your problem to overcome your "curse"!.

The way out is to conceptualize the strategy and use a concrete language understandable for everyone to share meaning and intentions: Concrete language simplifies a complex reality and a concrete and common language -storytelling- ensures that everyone have a common picture and meaning that they can relate to in a meaningful and personal way.

1. Do you think that it is also easy to fall into assuming that everybody knows what you know in creative contexts? Sure.
2. Is Design Thinking a victim of  the curse of knowledge?

I think about it a lot

In fact, my personal purpose of evolving Design Thinking is being as straightforward as I can be to share DT meaning by conceptualizing a definition of the term that could simplely explain What is DT versus the HOW to practice it: In my opinion, a sum of processes is not a definition.

Analizing and applying DT to this issue:

Before the HOW we do it, it's the WHY: Analizing and understanding the WHY comes the definition of the WHAT it is Design Thinking. And that would be our Ariadna's Threat to sharing the value and meaning of DT in a concrete, human-centered language with the stakeholders: Ourselves and the rest of the world.

I'm quite obsessed with keeping ideas as simple as possible for two reasons:

• Because I truly want to share what I've learned
• Because I really need an amplified feedback from a wide range of people, not only experts.

My take is to share a simple, easy-to-understand statement: An elevator pitch. A short definition of DT that summarizes what it is and its value as a way to share meaning with non experts.


My2014 DT definition (DT elevator pitch):

"Design Thinking is a creative construction-driven process of thinking, focused in understanding the context of a problem in order to generate integral solutions leading to a collective change by creating value for people and organizations".

This is briefing the insight I wanted to share with you.

RFV & My Portfolio Of Insights For 2014

"You have to feed forward if you want feedback“. Matt Kahn. Stanford design professor 

http://www.eliaillustration.com

This is my very personal "Request For Vision" (RFV) statement to conclude 2013 and my planning for 2014.

Why did I start blogging?. I needed to force myself to articulate my ideas for a broader audience to  advancing my thinking on design and management. I wanted feedback. 
My goal was to create my communication design and develop my own tools and Design Thinking processes and capacities related to sharing ideas: Extroverted my design process and advance my knowledge by pushing myself out of my comfort zone. And, since I wanted/needed to test my ideas with a global audience, I had to add more complexity to my design project by writing in English (I'm Spanish).

I designed an investigation on Design Thinking processes involved in communicating ideas on social media. In 2012 I was focused on communicating by writing about Design Thinking-in-action, and in 2013 I focused my investigation and analysis in the process of communicating by talking about Design Thinking related insights.
  
Applying a theory from one context to another has always limitations, so my main concerned was to "sense" that I was evolving my understanding in every post I wrote. My technique?. Observation and watch carefully for changes in me and in the context and make course corrections when it didn't feel right. And no sticking to a fixed idea: I focused on my own process and in the evolution of my thinking patterns and the conscious practice of new capacities to broaden frames of reference that included the use of instinct and flowing, randomness, networking and co-creation. And a very clear writing philosophy: Keep it simple. 

So far I have defined the communication pattern that suits my purposes and my vision and fits with my personality. I could considered myself an expert in applying Design Thinking principles to communication. 

I'm ready for the next move:

I wrote a post in 2013 titled Intersection Of Science & Design Thinking : Scientific studies  reveal that depending on the place that you occupy in a network (like this one), you might be able to predict the future, meaning that people located at the central places in that network (pattern), would be aware of information before it gets to people situated at the edges of that network. (This is my interpretation of Nicholas Christakis' article). Therefore people located at a central position and with a pattern recognition capacity, could

Predict the future of the edges (the rest of the community)

The questions is… Have I had the instinct to position myself at a center of the network? Have I recognized patterns, connected any dots to predict tendencies?

I'm going to play "being a hub for design" and I`m going to predict the following trend topics on design and management: 

These are the core ideas that I'll be exploring and writing about in 2014.

• Communication as a core process of Design Thinking: Forward thinking for getting feedback.  By Extroverting my design process I've advanced my knowledge and connection with current reality (context). I believe it's a MUST for a design thinker learning and experiencing social communication  processes. Design yours. 
• Visual Thinking: Boost to this design discipline that makes your thinking visible to others and foster CO-creation and engagement and alignment to solve problems as a team.
• On training intuition: Unknowable and uncontrollable knowledge. How to make strategic choices. How to look at a large set of information and discover the inherent connections? 
• Outsiders: Out of my comfort zone: The advantages to write in a second language. Doubles the effort but is worthy: Getting used to be out of your comfort zone and assuming constant mistakes: Great and generous people out there!. I'll encourage non English to join in the global conversation.
• Evolution of design thinking: Design 3.0 & 4.0. 

  Mastering context defining, integrative thinking, shaping problems  before they can be solved. Redesigning periphery and organizations. Innovation.

• Venture capital, Design thinking and the connection economy: Design is how we decide. And with the virtual, physical, and social modes of design increasingly converging, we can expect design and how it is practiced to morph and embed in business definitely. 
• Go local: Design discipline accessible to a majority. How to share knowledge with emerging countries. My personal challenge for 2014. Have to find the best way to do it. 
• Creativity and management: "A civilization grows when its elite is creative enough to attract inside and outside constituents. by arthur Toynbee is the author of “A study in history“. On Education, the selection and the recruitment of managers.

….And my favorite topic for 2014:

Why taking intellectual risks is worth the reward.