Design Principle 6 – We Will Challenge Assumptions and Design With Evidence
Studio Notes | Short Reads
This post is part of a series exploring the Design Principles for Government in Ireland. If you’d like to start from the beginning, check out our introductory post here.
The sixth design principle calls out something that holds back business, government, and society – and is usually barely noticed. Human beings have evolved to learn, to form safe routines based on those learnings, and to apply those routines in our lives as we grow up. Our minds are also powerful at inferring relationships – if one thing we understand looks similar to another thing we have not seen before, we can assume that they both work in the same way.
This applies to everything from door handles (see Don Norman’s writing on “affordances”) to big and complex processes in our working lives.
Unfortunately, in high complexity situations, chances are several-fold higher that our reductive minds may miss something, infer an inaccurate similarity, or assume that a new thing will work the same way as an old thing did.
And as the old adage goes… “Assumption is the mother of all…” – I’ll let you google it!
Design Principle 6 calls for the constant challenging of assumptions, and the best means by which to do so is with questions, and empirical evidence.
Assumptions can be big, exclusionary generalisations like “Older people won’t use their mobile phones to access this service”. They can also be small, specific thoughts such as “People will know not to bring their children to the waiting room”.
Assumptions can make sense in the moment, in that meeting or discussion about a new service transformation, or in a draft of a proposal. Unfortunately, if they are not challenged, they have a nasty habit of sticking – and can be found in the specification of hugely expensive technology platforms, in policies that will roll out over years, or in capital projects which can exist perhaps for a century (e.g. “Everyone’s going to want to bring a car.”).
Assumptions are tempting shortcuts that help us get to outputs – the project is delivered, the policy is enacted, the service is transformed. But often, they can lead us to unpredictable outcomes – a group are disenfranchised or excluded, a cost has shot up, a cohort of staff are deeply unhappy.
This principle requires a mindset shift. It requires public servants to be brave – to put a hand up and ask “Do we really know that is the case?”. It also requires leaders to admit that we need to test our assumptions – getting out to ask people, understanding more about what is required, building small solutions and piloting them fast to eliminate assumptions and reduce risk.
This requires a whole new way of managing projects. We can no longer build a specification based on the assumptions of a small group of staff and consultants and then roll it out to millions. We need to gather evidence for our approach through solid data, qualitative and quantitative, and strengthen that evidence through co-design and prototyping to test solutions.
So what does this look like?
The National Museum of Ireland strategic plan (2023-2028) commits to Increasing Accessibility and Engaging Community.
“The National Museum of Ireland will be a place of sanctuary and surprise. Through greater accessibility to our collections, we will strengthen how our audiences can engage with their cultural heritage. We will offer unexpected and diverse public programmes and develop opportunities for increased research and collaboration.”
– Strategic Plan 2023-2028
We have been helping the Museum on this transformational journey by gathering evidence using mixed methods to develop a better understanding of the experience of the museums’ audience. We’re helping to quantify the level of engagement among different demographics, with this evidence we have challenged assumptions which might have been made about what needs to be prioritised in order to achieve strategic goals.
The Museum has applied an open mindset, allowing us to conduct a broad sweep of research. This included more than 400 conversations with visitors at the various museums, in-person moderated demographic surveys, as well as interviews with stakeholders and staff.
What emerged is a rich library of insight stretching from the expectations of visitors, and how they might be influenced by their other experiences to their impressions of the museum experience – what worked well, and not so well.
The overwhelming positive of doing this work – is that it inspires. If we do not collect new evidence, we can remain trapped by our assumptions. Stories and insights that good design research can bring have the power to free an organisation – to reprioritise, to address quick wins, and to transform for the better.
How might we get started?
Principle 6 starts with the individual, but needs the support of the organisation. You might be an individual who puts up a hand and asks “But are we sure that this is how we should be doing things?” or “Has anyone asked the customer, or a customer-facing person how this works for real?”. You instinctively challenge assumptions, or you might want to.
That’s the first step.
Unfortunately if leadership shuts that conversation down, it becomes increasingly unlikely that anyone will ever challenge an assumption again.
That’s why it’s equally necessary for leaders to do two things. First, you need to become more conscious of your own assumptions. Ask yourself if you’re making a decision because “we’ve always done it this way”. Then ask yourself if that’s appropriate.
Second, and perhaps more importantly – if someone pushes back on a suggestion or decision, consider that they may be constructively challenging an assumption. Ask for new evidence, or come up with a plan together to gather more insights. For example, don’t just rely on surveys – conversations have a power to uncover new possibilities which far surpasses that of surveys. Surveys are good for validating or invalidating what we already think.
As services last for years or even decades, they will constantly change and evolve. By constantly challenging our assumptions we can ensure that services don’t become stale, exclusionary, or unfit for purpose as our society, people, and technologies change all around them.
