The importance of critical thinking in innovation
Positive thinking leads to superficial and confined innovation. To embrace the full complexity of reality and anticipate failure, you should improve your critical thinking.
There is a misconception that only positive thinking leads to true innovation. I will show how critical thinking is an important innovation driver.
In a world of great communicators, think critical
I have thought that every time a public speaker course is completed, a critical thinking companion course should be delivered next.
I am not afraid of a world where AI is all around. I am terrified by a world with people who can't challenge their point of view.
I'm lucky enough that my masters of critical thinking are many and range from my high school English teacher - who used to make us analyze the speeches of politicians- to my professor of sustainability at the Polytechnic -who argued that despite the material deception, a Louis XIV chair is more sustainable than a cardboard one.
What’s critical thinking, and how is it connected with innovation?
Design Thinking and Critical Thinking processes align
There is no unique definition of critical reflection, but I appreciate the definition of one of the greatest US philosophers and educators, John Dewey:
Active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge
in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends.
John Dewey (1910)
If we compare Dewey’s process of Critical Thinking as an educational goal and The Design Thinking process as a problem-solving goal, they perfectly align. There is a moment of understanding when we reframe the problem and we make a hypothesis (Suggestion about the solution, Intellectualizing the problem, Hypothesis guiding observation - Dewey), a phase when we Elaborate an idea, and a moment of Testing the hypothesis.
The later cost of only-positivity leadership
Even though the two approaches to problem-solving are similar, there is a widespread notion that positivity and convergence of views within a team alone lead to innovation. One-sided, positive thinking speeds up the process, but it comes with a cost: after the launch of a service, the different point of view will be that of the customer and it will be late (or very expensive) to adjust the product to accommodate the complexity and richness of all the points of view and all the non-positive parts that the team has ignored throughout the course of the project.
How can we embrace critical thinking while innovating?
How can we improve our innovation process by embracing a more critical mindset? What are the design methods that enable your team’s critical thinking?
Validate your assumptions with available data.
If you are in the research and understanding phase, trying to look at the problem from a different perspective, challenge your assumptions with data, starting from your personas. If the population is becoming older, why do I see a gigantic amount of GenZ as personas? If the average time spent commuting in Milan is 45 minutes, why are your personas living in the city center in a neighborhood they can’t afford anymore?
Be mindful of your design perimeter and boundaries
The Dark Horse prototype is an activity that requires an analysis of the project boundary and the elimination of an assumption of the initial challenge or group. The team pushes itself to the limit and explores the actual perimeter of the project by removing a limit of the given design space.
What if the solution is not digital as we assumed from the beginning? We always thought we had to design a product, but what if it was a service that exploited already available assets?
Bring the unpopular opinion to the table
We all want to be surrounded by kind people but you don’t (or shouldn’t) want to be surrounded by people-pleaser colleagues. Find the person in your team who is not aligned with the mainstream view of things, the outsider, and give voice to them. They are typically the direct and sometimes a little bit annoying colleagues or vice versa the always silent one: find a way to connect with them because this person is your precious source to anticipate criticism and feedback you will receive anyway after launching the service.
Accept that people won’t use your design as you expected
To give voice to all those people who won’t use your service as designed, build an anti-persona: a fictional character using your product/service in the wrong way. Anti-personas prevent and anticipate an improper use of a product as a design opportunity, before launching the service and having a real problem of misusage.
After the launch of the solution, be ready to change it
Teams working in agile development are already prepared and organized to evolve their solution. For teams that are not organized to evolve and maintain a product over time, make sure your team will have the space and time to embrace feedback and change their design for the better. A good way is to test the crucial parts of your design with real people using your service and prioritize the insights to create a roadmap for future development.
Design methods helping Critical Thinking
I just mentioned a couple of Design Methods supporting Critical Thinking
Personas based on available data
Anti-personas
Dark horse prototype
User Test
Are there other design methods and tools that can improve our Critical Thinking? Share your experience in the comment section.