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Thinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
Summary
Thinking styles are not like horoscopes, which apply to every aspect of a person's life. Instead thinking styles describe a person's core approach to a particular purpose. The point of thinking styles is to recognize that there is a variety of approaches to a purpose, none of which is "better" than another. And thinking styles derive from qual research. This makes thinking styles incredibly powerful for your team and your org. You can easily embrace broader perspectives, invent more, and fill the gaps in your solutions.
Key Insights
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Thinking styles describe people’s cognition within a specific frame or goal, not as universal personality traits.
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Demographics do not reliably predict thinking or decision-making patterns in users.
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The same individual can exhibit multiple thinking styles depending on context or over time.
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Thinking styles include a mix of inner thoughts, emotional reactions, and personal guiding rules.
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Using thinking styles layered over mental model skylines reveals gaps where a product may fail to support certain cognitive approaches.
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Storytelling characters embody thinking styles rather than demographic stereotypes to foster nuanced understanding.
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Designing by thinking style rather than demographic allows better inclusivity for different cognitive needs.
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Friction and adversity in situations often trigger changes in thinking styles, requiring adaptable design.
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Thinking styles are frame-dependent; one person’s style as a caregiver differs from their style as a professional or friend.
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Applying thinking styles to product features and strategy helps align solutions with users’ real lives and intentions.
Notable Quotes
"We are marinating in this assumption that demographic groups define cognition, but they don't."
"Thinking styles are not horoscopes or Myers-Briggs; they only apply within a specific frame of intent or goal."
"If you try to describe a person as 'the grumbler' across all their life, you miss the context and purpose."
"Demographics don’t cause thinking; past experiences, personal rules, and emotions do."
"Your thinking style while caregiving might be ‘Give dignity and agency’ but change as resistance grows."
"Friction in a situation can cause a person to switch thinking styles, not personality types."
"We can use mental model skylines with thinking styles to find support gaps we didn’t see before."
"Casting diverse characters who represent thinking styles breaks down demographic stereotypes."
"A frustrated passenger at a delayed flight might just need acknowledgment, not dismissal."
"Talking about thinking styles is just as easy and fast a shortcut as talking about demographics, but more useful."
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