The space to create – an insight into product development

At Emergn we dedicate quite a bit of time into creating new products and services and exploring new ways of doing things. We have a team that is dedicated to it and to test them in the market. We are able to do this because we have the space to think differently, to challenge assumptions and to experiment.

Helping enterprises with the development and implementation of new ways of working is at the core of what we do. But how good are we, this small “rogue” team, at applying these practices to ourselves? How do we create new thinking and working that allows enterprises to push forward?

One of the latest challenges we had was precisely around how to create a discovery mindset, which involved changing thinking patterns and behaviors.

Having a beginner’s mindset is crucial to solving problems creatively, we’ve learnt this through our experience of creating products that aim to change behaviors and, sometimes, entire belief systems.

So, how did we start?

We started by understanding what the problem we were trying to solve was at it’s core – what the problem was composed of.

Adopt a beginner’s mindset – Explore the space

We started with the goal of helping people to develop a discovery mindset. But that’s the outcome, and there are multiple ways to achieve it.

While I’m a big proponent of meditation and similar practices, using those methods to create a discovery mindset was not an option for the fast-paced environment of our enterprise setting.

We needed something that would teach a structured and repeatable process and delivered the results (value) that people would expect from a discovery mindset, in an engaging, easily digestible and quick way.

So we asked ourselves the question, who has, in any shape or form, been consistently delivering value from such a mindset? Who, in the face of uncertainty, figured out a way of getting to a good solution more often than not?

With the first question we ask we’ll find the first trap to the process. Almost all of us will immediately jump into what we know and have a definitive answer, so, the quickest workaround is – don’t have an answer, build a list.

Our list included people from different backgrounds, like Philosophers, Artists, Business People, people in the Military, Sportsman, amongst others, including, of course, Scientists. We looked at fields like decision making, heuristics, group behaviour, etc.

This allowed us to broaden our knowledge and approach the problem from various different angles.

Reframe the problem – what are we really trying to achieve

There is something in Philosophy that is key, the Socratic Paradox! “I know that I know nothing” was a good starting point for us. Great thinking, and progress, comes from identifying the gaps in knowledge and working towards eliminating them.

The scientific method is, today, the best model to frame our thinking around how to understand the unknowns.

That sounds obvious right? After all, the scientific method has been responsible for the most prolific era of mankind. Sure, but by going broader, we gathered insights from multiple other areas that allowed us to transform something complex, into a simpler format, that adapts itself to the level of complexity that we choose to use.

Looking into decision making and team dynamics, for example, allowed us to create a process that achieves the goal without forcing people to change belief systems or do something that is not familiar to them already, after all, we are all scientists, we just haven’t realized that yet.

So, the challenge could be framed like this – how can we unlock the scientists with us in a couple of hours?

This challenge is different from creating a discovery mindset, sure, the outcome is still the same, but the way we tackle it is specific, and the delimitations are clearer.

Reframing the problem, having a beginner’s mindset and going wide before narrowing in, are key elements of solving problems and creating new things.

So, make sure you explore the space before jumping into solution mode. What problem are you really trying to solve? Who faces analogous problems? How can you leverage what you have learned to solve your problem?

How easy is this process?

It requires discipline and refusing to get to an answer before you really understand the problem, and that’s hard in today’s world. But that’s the difference between good and great. There are many off-the-shelf products and explanations of how to solve a problem, but the thinking behind it is frail or superficial, at best.

In the next post I’ll continue to explore how to focus on what’s needed, making things simple, questioning everything and getting feedback are all crucial aspects to creating something new.