A Journey Through My Design Mind
By: Siva Krishna Shushanth Somisetty
Tags: Problem Solving, Design Thinking, Product Management, Design Mindset, Growth Mindset

Design Mind is not about how you’re showcasing something but about finding answers for “Why” you’re doing “What” you’re doing and “How” you’re doing. I’ve been developing a design mindset that helps me to decide between intuition-driven decision-making and cognition-based decision-making, to uncover the problem and communicate it with the right frame, to delve deep into the mind and find information that could help in finding the solution, and to create a hypothesis and validate it through experimentation. Moreover, one of the most exciting discoveries I made is constraints are blessings in disguise, and they are the founding stones of innovation and creation. Additionally, I learned to flex my creative skills by knocking down the barriers and connecting the dots. Without any delay, let me take you through my design tunnel and give you a glimpse of my journey from finding the problem to solving the problem.

Problem…

A problem can be in any form — obvious or non-obvious, interesting or mundane, intuitive or intricate, transient or long-drawn, etc. The moment I see the problem, my design mind kicks in and start the process of:

· framing the problem in the right way,

· estimating scope and impact of the problem,

· finding the constraints,

· figuring out “how” to do “what” is required.

First thought in the Mind aka Intuition…

the solution, so I can right away go ahead and solve the problem. For instance, the answer for 2+2 is based on intuition for me; medicine for common cold or flu is based on intuition for a general physician; add a feedback effect for action by the user is based on intuition for a UX designer, etc. Food for thought — the more I learn and the more diverse the experiences are, the better is intuition and efficiency in handling the problem. However, I’m quite vigilant of letting intuition making me ignorant, so whenever my System 1 kicks in, I create a new thread that evaluates the solution based on all the attributes and constraints of the problem — what if the problem is known but underlying constraints are different? Contrarily, what if this problem is not something that I don’t come across regularly? Time to dive deep!

Delving deep aka Knowledge in the Mind…

Most of the problems don’t come with the same constraints and attributes. If a problem is new or different, then intuition is not sufficient to solve the problem. This very moment, I entrust this task to my System 2, delving deep into the unconscious memory and system and finding the right entities for the solution. Okay, it’s time for a coffee. When I am exploring through system 2, I try to find the relevant dots of information and evaluating whether the information is required to solve the problem at hand. Once I gather the information and approach for the problem, the next question that kicks to the top of the stack is — Do I have the approach and all the information needed to solve the problem? The answer to this question helps me define the next set of steps to handle the problem. If I have all the information and approach to solve the problem, it’s time to coherently connect the information, create a hypothesis, validate the hypothesis, and solve the problem. However, if I don’t have all the information, it’s time to go in another direction and on an exploration of information and find the right resources.

Time to gather information aka Knowledge in the World…

Knowledge in the mind is limited to what I learned or what I know! If the problem at hand demands more, then it’s the moment to go on exploration for the right resources and information; in short, time to tap into my network and information cloud. This step may sound effortless, but it’s one of the challenging steps as I need to filter out the relevant information from the streams of information. In this step, I take two routes to gather the information — one, my network, and two, the information cloud. From my network, I filter out the relevant individuals to know their insights and involve them depending on the possibility. Through the information cloud, I find the data pertaining to the problem, this data can be information about a new tool, user patterns, usage statistics, qualitative data, etc.

Information Container aka Buffer…

I created this step mainly to handle the streams of knowledge that I gather from the world. It’s quite common that once I explore for information, I will get it from multiple directions. Some of these information streams might be incongruous with some of the other streams, so, in my opinion, it’s important for me to collect all this information in an information container and to analyze the rationale and logic behind every information stream. Once I study the information from the container for a well-informed decision, I could garner the most reliable, relevant, and promising information to find the solution for the problem at hand. Even though information gathering and container filling might take less time, analysis of this information is cognitively demanding.

Connecting the Dots, Ideation aka Prototyping…

I’ve information that I need to solve the problem. Now, my design mind wants to make the best sense of this information and find the best possible solution. In my opinion, connecting these discrete information streams coherently is the most challenging task yet exciting to do. This step demands the utmost creativity and intellect as I need to create mental maps, do to-and-fro mental travel, define a coherent connection between potential streams, and analyze the logic behind every connection. Connections between these discrete streams help my mind to create a hypothesis. However, the caveat here is there is a high possibility of multiple hypotheses due to multiple coherent connections between information streams. Though this step is highly demanding, the output is highly promising and define the right direction to uncover the final solution.

Hypothesis Validation aka Experimentation…

Once I create the hypothesis, the best way to validate this hypothesis is to experiment. Experimentation is the most fun aspect of the process. In my opinion, experimentation is a must because a hypothesis can have a promising face value, and I wouldn’t let System 1 carry away without validation. In the case of multiple hypotheses, I will use experimentation to find the best problem-solution fit. Moreover, experimentation is insightful because experiments create a pragmatic channel to understand the user and the process to create experiments induces dynamism in the operations. Overall, I can logically extrapolate the scale of success of the solution based on the results that I see through experiments.

Problem Resolution aka Bliss…

Once I connected the dots, formed the hypothesis, and validated the hypothesis, I now know the best approach to solve the problem. The only aspect left is joining the last piece of the puzzle, achieving bliss.

My Design Mind:

Design Mind that I developed is my attitude and conviction to find the real purpose and right approach to the problem, task, or next step in life. Moreover, I see my design mind in the shape of a forward-moving arrow that depicts my intention to move ahead with every problem that I solve or with every step that I take.