His research on how firefighters made decisions in their work showed that laboratory models of decision making were not fully accurate. His work in developing cognitive task analysis and his co-authorship of the book Working Minds have provided the training-and-development field with a seminal guide. His recent work on how people develop real-world insights is reorienting the field of creativity research and practice. In 1969 Klein received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. In the 1990's he founded his own R&D company, Klein Associates, which he sold in 2005. He was one of the leaders in redesigning the White House's Situation Room. He continues to be a leading research-to-practice professional.