Jumping to Conclusions

It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to jump to conclusions in our life.  We as humans like to generalize, and simplify things as much as possible (heuristics, anyone?) so we can understand it.  

What has surprised me this semester is how easy that is to do during the design process.

We were brainstorming the other day of ways to make the adjustment to adulthood easier for 18-25 year old people.  We started by writing all different types of problems down we could think of: things like finances, stress, and careers.  My team decided to hone in on self-actualization.  

Brainstorming at work

After doing some initial brainstorming, we came up with a service that would push you out of your comfort zone, through things like travel, classes, and other experiences.  The basic idea is that you learn the most about yourself when you are uncomfortable.

Well, this idea was so great, we had a hard time thinking of other ideas (even though we were supposed to come up with other possible solutions).  Even individually, most of ideas we came up with were in a very similar vein to the one discussed.  

Why was that? 

Was it laziness? 

Or was it just a darn-good idea?  

I wish I had the answer.  I came across similar problems in my other design class, Design Thinking for Our Community.  Often the ideas we ended up prototyping and testing were some of the first ideas that came to our mind.  

I guess there is nothing wrong with it, per say.  As long as you are able to put the idea through the tests, poke holes in it, and see where it needs improvement - and throw it away if necessary.

It is only a problem if you don't do any of that refinement.  If you think the idea is the best and needs no extra thought...well you should probably put some thought into the lives of some of the best inventors, like Thomas Edison or Walt Disney.  Just as genius is not born overnight, nor are good products.  They are the result of much hard work.