Applied Teamology: The Impact of Cognitive Style Diversity on Problem Reframing and Product Redesign Within Design Teams

Greg L. Kress () and Mark Schar ()
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Greg L. Kress: Stanford University
Mark Schar: Stanford University

A chapter in Design Thinking Research, 2012, pp 127-149 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the words of Professor Larry J. Leifer, “All design is redesign.” As designers collect information about a problem, they form a mental frame of the problem space that is the scaffolding around which to build a solution. When presented with new information, successful designers can “reframe” the problem and the solution as part of a successful iterative cycle. These iterative cycles are central to the Stanford Design Thinking process. A team’s capacity and willingness to reframe can be measured by means of a closed-form assessment tool that eliminates many of the confounding variables of the previous longitudinal (project performance-based) approach. We propose the Stanford Design Thinking Exercise (SDTE) as a measure of reframing behavior and design team effectiveness. The exercise is standardized and can be conducted in a controlled lab or classroom setting in 1 h. The SDTE is designed to be a first step toward a quick, reliable and standardized technique for evaluating design team effectiveness. We found that the SDTE is a robust measurement for reframing change, in that it reports a range of reframing results across a participant population group, but attempts to align the instrument with participant cognitive characteristics were unsuccessful indicating that more work needs to be done to understand specific indicators of reframing.

Keywords: Cognitive Style; Cognitive Characteristic; Design Team; Group Consensus; Fourth Round (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-31991-4_8

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