When Cognition Interferes with Innovation: Overcoming Cognitive Obstacles to Design Thinking

Abstract

Many organizations have become enamored with design thinking. As breakthrough innovation becomes the default mode for corporate growth, design thinking offers a struc- tured methodology for generating innovation—a clear pro- cess that begins with ethnographic research to develop empathy and define user needs, then moves to ideation to explore possible solutions for improving the user experience, then refines concepts through an iterative process of proto- typing and testing. Proponents such as IDEO founder David Kelley suggest that design thinking means innovation need not be the sole domain of the creative genius (Kelley and Kelley 2013). The appeal is easy to see: the design thinking approach can empower mere mortals to generate disruptive breakthroughs. Unfortunately, human beings are not naturally inclined to excel at design thinking. Design thinking is an unnatural act that challenges the human brain to work in ways that run counter to routine patterns of thinking. The processing routines that help us navigate daily life are an impediment to design thinking, which demands that old assumptions and preexisting beliefs be discarded. The way in which a problem is framed can narrow the set of solutions consid- ered, and the iterative prototyping process can clash with resistance to feedback and an unwillingness to abandon entrenched ideas. For these reasons and others, young stu- dents and seasoned executives alike struggle with the design thinking process. Succeeding in design thinking requires careful attention to these cognitive obstacles and metacognition to help par- ticipants recognize, and counter, cognitive blind spots. In six years of extensive teaching and research, with university students and executives, we have witnessed the cognitive challenges posed by the design thinking process and exper- imented with strategies for overcoming these obstacles (see “Our Design Thinking Experience,” page 46). Based on that experience, we offer an overview of the most common cognitive traps and strategies for escaping them.