Choose
From Mugshot Developer Wiki
A tool in the design thinking toolbox.
Decide what to do!
To Choose, You Might
- Review the objective
- Set aside emotion and ownership of ideas
- Remember: the most practical solution isn't always the best
- Select the most powerful idea
- Be brave and courageous
Here be Dragons
The Choose step is the one everyone naturally jumps to right away - it takes discipline to force yourself to first define, then research, then ideate, then prototype, all while leaving the options wide open!
To be sure you don't choose too soon, here are some tactics:
- Be up-front about your agenda or preconceived notion. Write it on the whiteboard; then set it aside.
- Be sure you define in a way that allows alternative ideas and agendas as answers.
- Don't debate. Some debate or discussion is needed in the Define stage to get everyone in agreement, but it's better to broaden the definition of the problem, or go meta on it ("the problem is how to define the problem"), than it is to get stuck on debate. During research, ideation, and prototyping, debate is a sure sign you're jumping ahead to choice too soon.
- Break out groups. If there are several perspectives, split up for a fixed time (30 minutes?) and have everyone research or prototype their ideas. Then come back and have everyone present to the group.
And to be sure you choose well, try to assign the job to one or two people, not the whole team or committee.
- Who is best qualified for a particular question? Give them all the ideas and prototypes of the group, then let them make the call.
- Consider deciding this in advance, as part of the define stage.
If nobody clearly "owns" the topic, either pick someone arbitrarily, or find ways to vote:
- First-pass narrow down lots of ideas by having everyone pick a top few, or having everyone put a post-it by their favorite, or similar techniques.
- Just take a show of hands (virtual or physical)
Voting isn't the same as consensus. When voting, you can have a couple of strong, unwatered-down prototypes and pick one of them. In consensus, it's likely you'll have to combine the prototypes and file off any sharp edges from the resulting compromise.
See also Reserve Judgment
