Seeing through new eyes

ideation tool 'thinking like _______'

Sometimes you find that inspiration doesn’t always strike on demand when it’s time for workshop participants to ‘brainstorm new ideas.’ You may have to supply some tools that help people to come up with transformative, breakthrough or out-of-the-box ideas.

An example is ‘Thinking like ________(fill in the blank).’ With this exercise you look at your challenge through the eyes of someone very different than you. For example you might think like:

• a well-known person or expert that you respect (for example a health guru, leading business executive, fashion designer, or technologist)

• An archetype such as an indigenous Eskimo, farmer, personal trainer, poet, pilot, crane operator

• outliers, such as an elite athlete, homeless person, a high-end hand-maker (gowns, leather bags, bicycles), a historical figure

To use this technique, pick three people to ‘think like’. A few minutes of research can add enriching details about the people you’ve chosen. Here’s an example of three I chose:

fashion design Eileen Fisher

• Her styles have been called simple, tasteful, dignified, elegant, comfortable.

• Even as she pursued timelessness, she was ahead of the times in enacting sustainable practices and social accountability. She also bucked corporate management hierarchies for more collaborative and flat organization.

• As part of the fashion industry she produces collections, shows and has retail outlets

personal trainer

• help people focus on their goals – the ‘big why’

• connect workouts, nutrition, hydration and sleep

• demonstrate and supervise exercises, sets, routines

• make training accessible by offering modifications to exercises, since we’re all at different levels

• how muscles work, targeting muscles, heart rate, breathing

homeless person

• fear, worry (some of the other people on the street are dangerous or unpredictable)

• shame (haven’t told family because I don’t want to put them through that)

• ill health, addiction

• scarcity, adapt objects and materials to hand, repurpose items

• seek out places to be:  ‘third spaces’ such as the library, public transport; living in encampments, under freeways and in other urban crevices

To apply the ‘thinking like’ technique, ‘ask’ these people for their perspective. Remember it’s important to start with a well-defined challenge or question. Example challenges could be:

• How might we get science museum visitors to engage more with the space exhibits?

• How might we attract wedding planners to our catering business?

• How might we get a pocket park installed in front of 4389 Orange Street?

Let’s see what my three people show me, at first glance, about getting science museum visitors to engage more with the space exhibits.

Eileen Fisher: Produce elegant exhibit collections, perhaps seasonal, around themes (food? Materials?). Find timeless aspects that will resonate with a wide audience, exploration of the unknown, what’s out there? Come at it from a political angle (social, sustainable) how are space agencies confronting social equity, diversity, earth’s sustainability? Get different well-known design personalities to create new designs or re-designs of space artefacts.

Personal trainer: Think about human body movement in space. Align an exhibit or area with the museum visitors’ goals. How can lessons from exhibits help visitors reach goals. Offer exhibits with beginner, intermediate, and advanced options for people with different levels of knowledge.

Homeless person: Shame – what are taboo subjects and how are they dealt with in space? Delve into how space engineers, mission controllers, astronauts, deal with worry and fear. How do astronauts address feelings of ‘home,’ or ‘creating a sense of place’ while in cramped, impersonal space facilities—how do they adapt?

You can cycle through more pairs of eyes, as needed. If you do this exercise with a group, it can help to work ‘silent and solo’ for the first few minutes, then share thoughts and build on them together. You can also give each person in the workshop a different person to ‘think like’ and see how many overall ideas the team generates.

To see how AI might help you with this activity, check out my substack post on AI boosting.

Have you used this exercise? What are some other people it could be interesting to ‘think like’?