Using the MPPF Method in the Double Diamond Design Process

Rafiq Elmansy 00:07:
Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Rafiq Elmansy. Today, we have Dr. Stuart English, who introduced us to his multi-perspective problem framing method, a profound way to solve Design Thinking problems. Welcome, Dr. Stuart.

Stuart English 00:25:
Thanks very much, Rafiq. I’ll just share my screen. I’m Stuart English, and I’m CEO at Iconet ideas lab. And I’d like to introduce an innovation method that we’ve termed multiple perspective problem framing.

Stuart English 00:47:
Now, multiple-perspective problem framing is based on the idea that our capacity to innovate is bounded by the way we’re able to perceive problems and opportunities. In design terms, this is often called a well. This is often an understanding of problem space and how we understand the factors that relate to the problem. But in multiple-perspective problem framing, we call this a value arena because it is continually developing, it’s complex, it’s fluid, and it’s ill-defined, and it doesn’t necessarily relate to a problem; it may just relate to a situation.

So, in design thinking, we need to know about a lot of different things. Design thinking is often described on particularly innovation in terms of design thinking is often described as an overlap between business viability, human desirability, and technical feasibility, which means we need to know about people we need to know about, we need to empathise with people’s experience, we also need to understand how things can be made practically.

And we need to be able to prototype those things. And we also need to understand how they sit in the world. So, how do our propositions sit in relation to lots of other factors, from legal factors to environmental factors to social factors? So, we need to gather a vast amount of information to build up that value arena.

In terms of the Double Diamond, the Design Council Double Diamond, multiple perspective problem framing, sits at the end of the Discover phase, through the Define Phase and into the start of the Develop phase. So, it is about expanding the investigation that we make into the factors that are relevant to our discovery. When we have that kind of complex information, we need to adopt certain tools to be able to define what’s important and to be able to frame the problem effectively.

And we need to be able to use that as the basis for ideation. So, multiple prospective problems, framing fits at the end of the Discover phase and at the beginning of the end of the Discover phase, through the design phase and into the start of the developing phase. And it involves collecting data from wildly different perspectives. Synthesising this into one complex dynamic map of interrelated factors. We call this a value arena.

This has been combined with novel methods of interpreting complexity, for example, relational grouping and centrifuge methods, to arrive at a set of cornerstones of innovation. These are the critical framing factors that allow us to focus our attention on the space that’s important to us. So, critical framing factors create the space in which innovative strategies can be fully conceptualised. These cornerstones of innovation also underpin the articulation of universal form that describes the genre of particular design things.

So, we can think of design as a universal design, which is a grouping of things. And we can think about design in terms of particular physical or particular physical things. And here we’re talking about universal form. We’re talking about the genre of design things.

Stuart English 05:10:
So, in summary, multiple perspective problem framing can be described as a 12-stage model. And that 12-stage model can be split into three sections. First of all, in the knowledge section, what do we know? Secondly, the skills section includes using and refining design thinking and framing skills. And thirdly, the expertise search section is about applying discipline-specific expertise and resources. In the first stage, we’re concerned with identifying fields of inquiry. So, you know, what are those investigations that we need to make in order to collect that data from the perspective of business viability, human desirability, and technical feasibility? So, what fields of inquiry do we need to investigate? Then, within each of those fields of inquiry, we can create push questions. Now, the thing about push questions is they are simply about gathering information.

They’re about completely populating those fields of inquiry; as much as possible; we may collect data that we don’t subsequently need. But we don’t really know that until we get to that point. So, in answering those push questions, we collect push data, which allows us to map out the value arena. So it is a value ring, then is a complex map of interrelated factors that completely describe the situation that our proposition will be going into. The second phase is really about giving form to that to that value arena. So, the first thing we can do here is look at conceptual grouping; we may have similar factors or related factors that have appeared in different fields of inquiry.

And these can be grouped together. To create one conceptual grouping or a number of perhaps conceptual groupings. Another thing we can do is use the centrifuge method, which is about making personal and expertise-based judgments to interpret the value arena. This can be done individually, or it can be done with with with a team; an executive team could bring different perspectives to that central use method. But essentially, this is about deciding on and agreeing on what key framing factors are and perhaps more peripheral or contextual factors. So, we retain all of the data that we’ve created within that value arena.

But we give it some form; we use the centuries method to identify what we term cornerstones of innovation, which are these keyframing factors that focus our design, innovation, and attention. And those cornerstones of innovation can be used to create a universal form. So the universal form is the genre of the idea, not the genre of the idea into which or, or in which a variety of particular designs might occur. We can then move on to the third stage, which is really about the focusing of expertise. And what we want to do with all of the data that we’ve collected. So, it starts with the definition of pull questions.

Pull questions are different from push questions in that pull questions are about how we can do something and how we can solve this problem. How can we provide this benefit to the customer? Push questions, or as an example, push questions, might ask how much water goes down this river in a minute. A pool question might be, how can we get across this river? So, poor questions are about solving some sort of problem or addressing some kind of issue. And in response to those poor questions, we can generate a whole variety of ideas and solutions. And this is really at the start of the development phase of the double diamond. In doing this, we can create purposeful ways of seeing or a mental model of the situation. So we can decide how to see the situation in order to elicit the response that we tried to create. You know, this is very prominent in advertising, where we’re presented with a way of seeing a particular situation or particular product in order to encourage us to buy the product.

So, that mental model is a choice. Really, it isn’t the way the situation is; it’s a way of representing that situation in order to encourage us to do something. Finally, we can use the entirety of the value arena map to defend our purposeful proposition. We already have all of the related data that we’ve created through that value arena. And we can use it to defend the proposition or the mental model that we’ve proposed. Because all of that relates to all of that data, it remains related within that map. And so not only can we present that purposeful proposition, but we can also defend it. So, this is really a summary of the 12 stages of multiple perspective problem framing. I’d be delighted to hear from anyone who is interested in this or interested in applying this, so yeah, please, please do to do make contact me if you’d like to do that. Thank you very much.

Rafiq Elmansy 11:54:
Thank you so much. The pursuer This is very interesting. I hope you all enjoy the multi-perspective problem framing method and try to explore to think how this method can be useful in your design thinking practice. Feel free to share your thoughts with us. Thank you so much. Thank you