Solutions Thinking ..


Solution Thinking involves evaluating a current problem or situation and determining a reasonable, practical plan to attack that problem or situation. The mindset is:
  1.     There is a solution to this problem or situation
  2.     I possess the skills, talents, and resources to discover the solution
  3.     I will devise a workable plan and make it work.
There are three key principles to working in a solutions focused way:
  1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
  2. Once you know what works, do more of it.
  3. If it's not working, do something different.
Tools/Frameworks that help in Solutions Thinking journey:
Cynefin Framework explores the relationship among "man, experience, and context" and proposes new approaches to communication, decision-making, policy-making, and knowledge management in complex social environments.It has five domains -
  1. Obvious - Relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the approach is to Sense - Categorize - Respond and we can apply best practice.
  2. Complicated - Relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond and we can apply good practice.
  3. Complex - Relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
  4. Chaotic - Relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel practice.
  5. Disorder - State of not knowing what type of causality exists, in which state people will revert to their own comfort zone in making a decision.

The Kano Model of Customer satisfaction divides product attributes into three categories. A competitive product meets basic attributes, maximizes performances attributes, and includes as many delight attributes as possible at a cost the market can bear.
  1. Basic
  2. Performance
  3. Delight

 Google HEART framework User Experience metrics fall into five specific categories -
  1. Happiness: Measures of user attitudes, often collected via survey.
  2. Engagement: Level of user involvement, typically measured via behavioral proxies such as frequency, intensity, or depth of interaction over some time period. 
  3. Adoption: New users of a product or feature. 
  4. Retention: The rate at which existing users are returning. 
  5. Task Success: Traditional behavioral metrics of user experience, such as efficiency (e.g. time to complete a task), effectiveness (e.g. percent of tasks completed), and error rate. This category is most applicable to areas of your product that are very task-focused, such as search or an upload flow.

ref:

 A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making(Cynefin Framework) - https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making

 The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world - http://xenia.media.mit.edu/~brooks/storybiz/kurtz.pdf

 Strategic Insight in Three Circles - https://hbr.org/2007/11/strategic-insight-in-three-circles

 Start with Why: Creating a value proposition with the Golden Circle model - http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-value-proposition/start-with-why-creating-a-value-proposition-with-the-golden-circle-model/

 Complete Guide to Kano Model - http://foldingburritos.com/kano-model/

 Understanding Kano Model - https://articles.uie.com/kano_model/

 Measuring the User Experience on a Large Scale: User-Centered Metrics for Web Applications(Google HEART metrics) - http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/36299.pdf

 Diffusion of Innovations Book by Everett M. Rogers - http://www.amazon.com/Diffusion-Innovations-5th-Everett-Rogers/dp/0743222091