Challenging Assumptions in Creative Projects

🌟 Why We Need Child-Like Thinking in Professional Brainstorming and How It Accelerates Sustainability Innovation One of the most powerful tools we overlook in professional settings is child-like thinking the ability to imagine freely, question boldly, and see possibilities without the limits of “how things are usually done.” Children don’t think inside boxes. They don’t protect assumptions. They ask why again and again. And today, facing climate, social, and economic pressures, this mindset is exactly what sustainability needs. 🌍 The Link Between Child-Like Thinking, Behind-the-Line Thinking & the SDGs In sustainability, breakthroughs don’t come from repeating the same logic they come from stepping behind the obvious line, breaking patterns, and approaching problems with curiosity. According to the UN, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires: 🔹 4x faster innovation 🔹 Over $4 trillion per year invested in sustainable solutions 🔹 Entirely new models of circularity, equity, and resilience Traditional corporate brainstorming cannot meet this ambition. But child-like + behind-the-line thinking can. 📈 Evidence: Why This Mindset Works ✔ 60% faster problem-solving when organisations use unconventional thinking (McKinsey) ✔ Teams using curiosity-based approaches generate 2–3x more breakthrough ideas ✔ Silent ideation and assumption-challenging methods increase creativity by 40% (Harvard) When we think like children, we stop filtering ideas based on fear, hierarchy, or tradition we start designing solutions as if anything is possible. This is essential for SDG 9 (Innovation), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption & Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). 🧠 Techniques to Apply Child-Like, Behind-the-Line Thinking in Professional Brainstorming 🔸 “What if?” Exploration Ask the impossible question first it opens new mental pathways. 🔸 Reverse Thinking Flip the problem upside down. Children do this naturally. 🔸 Assumption Mapping Write every assumption on the table — then break them. 🔸 5 Whys Method Dig until the real root cause is uncovered. 🔸 Cross-Pollination Workshops Mix engineers with artists, policy people with designers just like children mix toys. 🔸 Scenario Imagination Think like a future city, a river, a customer, or a child designing a new world. 🌱 Final Thought If we want a regenerative, innovative, sustainable future, we must be brave enough to reclaim the creativity we once had as children. Child-like thinking isn’t immature it’s the birthplace of genuine innovation. Innovation begins where assumptions end. Sustainability begins where curiosity starts. #Sustainability #Innovation #ChildLikeThinking #CreativeLeadership #SDGs #ESG #SystemsThinking #NetZero #CircularEconomy #Leadership #UNSDGs

What if the biggest threat to your next project isn't a tight deadline or a demanding client, but you? I'm currently reading "True or False: A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News." A chapter on bias details concepts like cognitive dissonance (the mental gymnastics we do when facts contradict our beliefs) and confirmation bias (our instinct to seek out information that proves us right). It's a stark reminder that we are often blind to the most influential mental models in the room: our own. You spend countless hours mapping your users' ingrained assumptions. But what about yours? You know that feeling when you fall in love with a solution? That’s when the danger starts. Confirmation bias kicks in, and you might unconsciously start: → Hunting for user quotes that validate your hypothesis. → Dismissing contradictory data as "outliers" instead of a warning sign. → Defending a feature in a design critique even when you know the data is shaky. This is where the principles of Intentional Design are critical. My entire philosophy is built on the Inputs-Outputs Principle: the quality of a system is determined by the quality of its inputs. Our unexamined biases are the most dangerous, low-quality "inputs" we can feed the design process. They lead to "outputs" that don't serve the user, but instead serve our own ego. The real work isn't just facilitating conversations about the user's world; it's creating a "holding environment" safe enough to challenge our own assumptions. It’s building a team culture where anyone can ask: ✺ "What if we're wrong about this?" ✺ "What evidence would force us to change our minds?" ✺ "Are we solving a user problem, or just one that fits our preferred solution?" Surfacing mental models isn't just something we do to our users; it's a discipline we must apply to ourselves. What's one tactic your team uses to challenge its own biases? Share in the comments! #DesignLeadership #UXDesign #SystemsThinking #CognitiveBias #ProductDesign #IntentionalDesign

8 weeks of building the wrong thing. 90 minutes to validate what matters. The difference? A technique called Assumptions Mapping. I've watched teams burn months on ideas nobody wants. Yet they build in the dark. They assume customers want it. They guess at willingness to pay. They hope the tech will work. And they realize too late that they were wrong about everything. Assumptions Mapping changes the game completely. The key question: What has to be true for this strategy choice to succeed? Every strategic option you're considering rests on a set of beliefs. Most teams never make these beliefs explicit. They jump straight to execution, then wonder why their strategy failed. Here's how it works: 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (20 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀) → Ask: What has to be true about customers wanting this? → Map who they are, what value you're creating, how you'll reach them → Challenge whether they can already solve this problem elsewhere → Write each belief on orange sticky notes: We believe that... 𝗩𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (20 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀) → Ask: What has to be true about this being a viable business? → Question your revenue model, cost structure, pricing power → Test if this actually aligns to your vision and strategy → Capture each assumption on green sticky notes 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (20 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀) → Ask: What has to be true about our ability to build and deliver? → Face the technology risks, legal barriers, talent challenges → Identify the partners and positioning you're counting on → Document each belief on blue sticky note 𝗠𝗮𝗽 & 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 (30 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲𝘀) → Plot all assumptions on two axes: Evidence vs. No Evidence / Important vs. Unimportant → Focus experiments on the top right quadrant (important + no evidence) → These are your leap-of-faith assumptions—the ones that will make or break you → Start testing the riskiest ones first, not the easiest ones Why does this beat traditional strategy conversations? Most teams confuse assumptions with facts. They build on unproven beliefs. By the time they discover the truth, they've burned runway. Assumptions Mapping flips the script. Evidence becomes visible. Risks surface early. Teams align on what actually matters. You test before you build, not after you fail. I learned this framework from David Bland, who's been teaching teams to surface and test their riskiest assumptions for years. Because most teams don't distinguish between assumptions and evidence. They mistake confidence for validation. But confidence is where strategy failures hide. What has to be true forces brutal honesty. The sticky notes don't lie. And the map shows you exactly where you're gambling versus where you know. Your next strategic choice doesn't need more conviction. It needs fewer unknown assumptions. 8 weeks of building blindly or 90 minutes of strategic clarity? What would you choose?

Hack Your Team's Mindset: 5 Unconventional Warmups for Innovation Workshops 🧠⚡ Ever run an innovation workshop that felt like trying to start a car with a dead battery? That first 30 minutes determines whether you'll get breakthrough ideas or recycled thinking. Something that I call getting into the “psychology of innovation”. After facilitating several sessions, I've discovered something surprising: the traditional "let's go around and introduce ourselves" kills creative energy before it starts. Your team's brains are still in operational mode—not possibility mode. Here are five unconventional warmups I've tested that rewire neural pathways for innovation in under 20 minutes: 1. The Impossible Question Challenge 🔥 Start by asking questions that have no "correct" answers: "How would you design a restaurant on Mars?" or "What if sleep became optional?" This immediately signals we're breaking free from conventional thinking. 2. The Reality Bending Exercise ✨ Have everyone write down three "unchangeable facts" about your industry. Then challenge teams to imagine a world where each "fact" is no longer true. As Steve Jobs said, "Reality can be distorted"—this exercise trains that muscle. 3. The Reverse Assumptions Game 🔄 List 5-10 core assumptions about your business. Then systematically reverse each one: "What if we charged more for less?" or "What if our customers became our employees?" This shatters mental models almost instantly. 4. The "Yes, And..." Chain Reaction ⛓️ One person proposes a wild idea. Instead of evaluating it, the next person must say "Yes, and..." adding something to evolve it further. Continue for 3-5 minutes. This dismantles our innate criticism reflex. 5. Two-Minute Futures ⏱️ Give everyone two minutes to draw what your industry will look like in 2040. The time constraint bypasses the analytical brain and accesses the intuitive one. The crude drawings often reveal surprising insights about shared hopes and fears. Remember: Innovation doesn't need fancy frameworks—it needs minds free from invisible constraints. These warmups aren't just games; they're pattern-disruptors that help your team escape their mental programming. What's your go-to innovation warmup? Have you tried activities that break conventional thinking patterns? #InnovationWorkshops #CreativeThinking #DesignThinking #TeamFacilitation #Creativity #TransformativeMindset

Questions, especially the uncomfortable kind, are what truly unsettle the status quo, disrupt the assumptions and help us reimagine. They uncover blind spots, challenge ingrained beliefs, and spur the sort of breakthrough thinking that mere incremental improvements can’t reach. A disciplined questioning uncovers flawed assumptions before they derail the strategy. It reveals unseen opportunities by challenging conventional wisdom.  It ignites curiosity within teams, spurring innovation not through command but through inquiry. This is a skill, and it requires cultivating a mindset of perpetual skepticism - consistently doubting the convenient narratives that we become comfortable believing. It's recognizing that deeply held organizational beliefs, if left unquestioned, can quietly sabotage progress. Here are three ways that helped me develop my questioning practice: 1. Interrogate your successes, not just your failures. We instinctively scrutinize setbacks but rarely question successes. Yet, today's success often creates tomorrow's blind spot. 2. Question the questions themselves. I consistently reflect on whether I’m asking the right questions—not just good questions, but strategically valuable ones. 3. Prioritize questions that expand perspective rather than confirm bias. Confirmation bias is seductive because it simplifies decisions, aligning neatly with existing views. I intentionally seek out questions that provoke debate and discomfort. Our role is not to arrive swiftly at reassuring answers, but rather to keep our intellectual discomfort alive and productive. It's within this state of persistent inquiry—uncomfortable, challenging, yet ultimately clarifying—that breakthrough thinking emerges and transformative leadership truly takes shape.

We all bring biases into the room—some visible, many that quietly steer decisions. In product management, these biases can shape priorities, design, features… even who we consider “the user.” The danger isn’t that we have biases—it’s that we don’t notice them. Over the past few years I’ve been paying attention to patterns: • Some favor solutions that mirror what they’ve used personally. • Some assume certain workflows are “obvious” or “standard” because they align with past product journeys. • Some default settings for “who the user is” (and who they are not) that influence early sketches and roadmaps. Here are some practices I’ve started using to recognize bias (in myself and in teams), and to reduce its harmful impacts ⸻ 1. Observe early, listen more. Before defining features, run short feedback sessions with people who aren’t “in the room” regularly—different demographics, disciplines, or usage contexts. Ask: What would you expect? What feels missing or odd? 2. Question assumptions explicitly. When someone says “users will want X,” ask: Why do we believe that? What evidence? Whose voice? Make implicit assumptions visible so bias can be discussed, challenged, or changed. 3. Build diversity into your process. Not just diversity of background—but diversity of thought: mix introverts & extroverts, skeptics & optimists, technical & non-technical. Different viewpoints help pull forward what one person might have missed. 4. Prototype & test early, often, with “outsider” users. Prototype doesn’t need to be polished. When you test early with people outside your core team or “typical” user persona, surprising biases (in flows, visuals, content) tend to emerge quickly. 5. Feedback loops & retrospectives that call out bias. Make “bias check” a regular agenda item. After launches, designs, or feature decisions: What assumptions were we making? Which voices didn’t we hear? What could we do differently next time? Happily accept and constructively dish criticism. ⸻ When we do this well, two things happen: our products are better aligned with real needs, and our teams grow—becoming more curious, more inclusive, more resilient. Not perfecting bias is a work in progress—because honestly, we’ll keep discovering new blind spots. But embracing that discovery, making it part of our product DNA, that’s how we design the future we actually want. A case on bias at Google by Ben Thompson that I found insightful: https://lnkd.in/gS8FaMCi What have you done, in your product work, to notice bias earlier? I’d love to hear stories & practices

When Kelly Z. shares the origins of one of her greatest customer-focused innovations, she can’t help but be a little embarrassed by the truth: It all started in the bathroom. “After a few weeks, across multiple homes, we kept finding ourselves in bathrooms. Not at all a place where you’re supposed to be. But it wasn’t a one off. It was genuinely something that multiple people kept pointing us to — this one very unexpected place.” This sort of thing happens all the time when doing human centered design work: we find ourselves in places we “aren’t supposed to be.” We find customers taking the conversation in unexpected directions, challenging our carefully curated scripts and questionnaires. And that’s a good thing! In fact, we should be disappointed when we aren’t taken off script. Off-script is where all the interesting stuff is discovered. And usually, the way it strikes you isn’t “That’s exactly what I thought,” but rather “Wait, what?” As Isaac Asimov said, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but,‘Thats funny…’” Imagination is sparked by surprises. If we want to stimulate fresh thinking, we should seek surprises. Expecting them, welcoming them. The difficulty is that surprises often take the form of challenged assumptions, which we humans woefully resist. As Kelly describes the aha moment at Mattel, “A lot of us had the assumption like you wouldn’t want to put a little car in a tub — won’t it rust or won’t something happen? It’s not a place we were even advocating for the product to be used, but kind of it was…” Welcoming the surprise, however — allowing herself and her team to be taken in an unexpected direction — ultimately yielded an entirely new product opportunity: “It was completely novel. I think that was an example of like a category extension that was just unexpected. That had a really tangible benefit, so we got our product in a new place with the same consumer in a different way. That’s a gold star for what we’re trying to do. It opened up a brand new opportunity.” As Robert Grudin so eloquently put it in his fabulous, The Grace of Great Things, to innovate, “One must cultivate a chronic attention to things that do not totally fit, agree or makes sense.” In short, one must welcome surprises.

Every day, we move through life guided not just by knowledge, but by assumptions. They’re the invisible shortcuts our brain takes to help us act quickly. But while assumptions save time, they also quietly shape our choices, relationships, and even careers. Here are 5 assumptions I see often (and sometimes catch myself making too): 1️⃣𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 – “𝑳𝒆𝒕’𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒐𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅.” Advantage: Speeds up decision-making Limitation: Suppresses dissenting voices 👉 Best practice: Actively invite alternative perspectives before closing discussions 2️⃣𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 - “𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆; 𝒘𝒉𝒚 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘?”   Advantage: Builds confidence in proven methods Limitation: Blinds us to change 👉 Best practice: Test old strategies against current realities before scaling. 3️⃣𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 - “𝑰 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒃𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔.” Advantage: Creates quick rapport Limitation: Misunderstanding when others operate from different values or cultures 👉 Best practice: Pause and ask clarifying questions instead of rushing to conclusions 4️⃣𝐈𝐟 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭. - “𝑾𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒘!” Advantage: Keeps momentum Limitation: Neglects long-term priorities 👉 Best practice: Adopt the Eisenhower’s Matrix, separate signal from noise 5️⃣𝐀𝐈 (𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥) 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥. - “𝑻𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒆.” Advantage: Boosts trust in technology Limitation: Ignores hidden biases in algorithms 👉 Best practice: Keep humans in the loop; double-check critical outputs. 📌 The great Nobel laureate, psychologist, and author of Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, wisely said... “𝑾𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. 𝑾𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒆 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘.” Assumptions are neither good nor bad. The real skill lies in surfacing them, testing them, and replacing the brittle ones with stronger beams. What assumptions have you recently challenged, and what changed when you did? #careers #criticalthinking #decisions #futureofwork

Critical thinking is the foundation of your thesis project: do you know why and how? WHY? ➜Tackling complex problems with no straightforward solutions. ➜ Contributing original thought to your field: critically evaluate existing literature, find gaps in knowledge, and propose new lines of inquiry. ➜Ensuring rigour (robust, valid, reliable) of research design, methodologies, and analysis. ➜ Assessing quality and relevance of evidence and understanding limitations. ➜ Developing intellectual independence: question assumptions (including your own) and create your own academic voice. ➜ Developing ethical awareness by considering the implications of your own work. ➜ Navigating uncertainty and ambiguity. ➜ Challenging established paradigms by questioning the status quo in your field. ➜ Establishing interdisciplinary integration by drawing insights from multiple fields and synthesising diverse perspectives cohesively. ➜ A habit of continuous inquiry and a lifelong learning mindset. ➜ Think beyond academia to real-world application. HOW? ➜ Literature review: evaluating existing work, identifying what is known and not known, and what might be expanded further. ➜ Theoretical and conceptual framework thought and design: research philosophy. ➜ Methodology: choosing and defending what is most appropriate for addressing your research questions and acknowledging the strengths and limitations of your choice. ➜ Analysis: statistical or thematic skills to present and interpret your data and draw evidence-supported conclusions. ➜ Writing: constructing a well-balanced and coherent argument. Keeping the golden thread. ➜ Interacting and engaging with your network: intellectual discussions, debates, and critiques, all in an effort to refine your ideas and approaches. ➜ Presenting your findings and implications to the appropriate scholarly community. ➜ Reflection to critically assess your own research process, biases, and assumptions to ensure intellectual honesty and growth. ➜ Using technology effectively and leveraging tools while critically assessing their outputs and limitations. ➜ Incorporating feedback constructively and use it as an opportunity to refine your work. ➜ Practicing presenting your ideas persuasively, whether in writing or oral presentations. ➜ Sharing your knowledge with others to solidify your understanding and push you to think more critically. ➜ Building your resilience and persist through this arduous project, remembering that challenges and setbacks are all part of the journey. ➜ And, ultimately, to contribute to your field and establish your credibility. This is such an important life skill, what do you think?

Are your teams product decisions being made based on assumptions rather than validation? Just because your team has identified a problem, doesn't mean it's the right problem to solve right now. I've seen teams drop everything, make quick decisions and ship based on a hunch. Oftentimes they don't see the impact they expected and they end up paying for this in other ways. Why does this happen? ※ Curse of knowledge: What’s feels obvious to you may not be to others. ※ Confirmation bias: One complaint becomes “everyone wants this.” ※ Telephone effect: Insights get distorted across teams. ※ Time pressure: Shipping fast often feels easier than validating. Here's how to change the cycle: 1. Start small: Pick a project where assumptions might be wrong but stakes are manageable. 2. Reframe assumptions as hypotheses: “What if we’re wrong?” instead of blaming. 3. Quick validation: Find ways to validate quickly eg. 5-minute user check, support tickets, analytics, team conversations. 4. Build allies: Engage stakeholders curious about real user feedback. You don’t need a perfect validation process to design better. One hypothesis, one user conversation and your teams confidence and impact grow. 👇 What’s one assumption you could challenge this week?