Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Problems with Problems: Reconsidering the Frame of Designing as Problem-Solving
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Traditional design as problem solving originates from 19th-century manufacturing constraints and assumes fixed problems with final solutions.
-
•
Horst Rittel’s concept of wicked problems challenges stable problem definitions, suggesting complex problems are better seen as ongoing messes or tangles.
-
•
The sensor revolution, cloud computing, big data, and AI are driving a new wave of digital transformation in design and business.
-
•
Organizations evolve along a data learning curve from data aware to fully autonomous, model-driven, and digital twin-animated systems.
-
•
Digital twins serve both operational and experimental roles, enabling detailed real-time simulation and improvement of physical and business systems.
-
•
Designers are shifting from being sole problem solvers to facilitators who create conditions for systems and stakeholders to co-evolve.
-
•
Design is moving from objects to systems and complex adaptive systems, requiring new values such as collaboration, adaptability, and embracing complexity.
-
•
Automation and AI introduce ethical, privacy, and political challenges, making design a deeply political activity involving stewardship.
-
•
Organizations and designers need ongoing engagement and adaptation rather than one-time solutions, shifting business relationships and consultancy roles.
-
•
Historical design leaders like Steve Jobs distinguished between design as mere veneer and design as the fundamental soul of a creation, relevant to today’s evolving design roles.
Notable Quotes
"Designers often describe what we do as problem solving and that’s fine, but it’s tied to a 19th-century view of design as preparing things to be manufactured."
"You don’t think of raising a child or teaching a student as solving a problem, it’s an ongoing process—and so is design today."
"Horst Rittel introduced wicked problems to describe problems where consensus on definition is difficult, and calling them problems can be misleading—maybe they’re better called messes or tangles."
"The average car today has 60 to 100 sensors generating a terrifying amount of data that will increasingly make its way to the cloud."
"Small companies like Descartes Labs built supercomputers entirely in AWS with no physical servers, showing a profound shift in how computing power is accessed."
"Digital twins are replicas of dynamic systems that help both individuals and populations manage and improve operations."
"Designers are creating conditions in which systems can grow, learn, and thrive—moving beyond just solving problems to meta-design."
"Corporations are already largely self-driving often in a bad way, operating on autopilot by policies, which requires human intervention."
"Steve Jobs said design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation, expressing itself beyond just surface veneer."
"We are moving from direct work to mediated work, from wanting things perfect to good enough for now, and from complete to adaptive and growing systems."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Listen for the 10% truth in difficult people's words and build on that."
Tutti TaygerlyVideconference: How to Work with Difficult People with Tutti Taygerly
June 25, 2020
"The dynamic between employer and employee is changing a lot, and from a Design Ops perspective, that's something to keep our eye on."
Dave Malouf Meredith Black Farid SabitovThe Past, Present, and Future of DesignOps: a 2-part DesignOps Community Call (Part 1)
February 17, 2022
"Research is democratized: if you’re not democratizing, you probably don’t even realize everyone in your company is talking to users in different ways."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"I was driving home in silence and remembered playing volleyball, feeling focused and in the zone."
Jacqui FreyFlow and Superfluidity for Design Orgs
November 7, 2018
"Automation frees us up to do more for the organization, but if overdone, it can strip away the human aspect critical to culture."
Bria Alexander Meredith Black Tim GilliganState of DesignOps Panel
October 1, 2021
"It takes roughly one and a half times more investment to build reusable widgets, so we aim for a minimum of three adoptions to ensure ROI."
Dawn ResselFull-Stack User Experiences: A Marriage of Design and Technology
June 9, 2016
"Onboarding feels like somebody's holding your hand, even though you're remote, which makes a huge difference."
Kim Holt Emma Wylds Pearl Koppenhaver Maisee XiongA Salesforce Panel Discussion on Values-Driven DesignOps
September 8, 2022
"Being intentional about how we spend our time is the purest manifestation of our values and our value."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"Design is open source; everybody participates, but you need facilitation to make good on that promise."
Bob Baxley Sara Asche Anderson Sharon Bautista Frank Duran Jamie Kaspszak Abbey Smalley Sylas SouzaTheme 4: Discussion
January 8, 2024
