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Ideating within constraints — utilizing context to design strategically
Leveraging the constraints around our work to envision a broader range of ideas that incite critical thinking & debate.
A challenge I commonly see designers struggling with is their ability to stay creative and push their thinking within the constraints that exist around their work. Deadlines, availability of resources, business goals, team dynamics, and existing ways-of-working all contribute to how they can approach and solve a problem.
Within the context of a problem, constraints present us with both challenges and opportunities — learning to understand and embrace them as opportunities is not only creatively liberating, it’s also a path toward showing and proving the value of design in driving business outcomes and efficiencies.
Craft & context.
As designers, how we approach a problem is equally important as the solutions we build to solve it. As our career evolves, the development of a deeper perspective on creative problem solving, our ability to think critically and be strategic, becomes equally, if not more important than our technical skills.
Being strategic — what’s it mean?
In simplest terms, being strategic is the ability to understand and consider the context that surrounds a problem, balance the internal and external constraints that exist within that context, then appropriately develop solutions that aim to solve the problem within these constraints.
Constraints = challenges & opportunities.
With the context of a problem, constraints present us with both challenges and opportunities.
