where design strategies come from

When a designer or entrepreneur approaches a problem, they bring to the table the sum of all their past experience.

Through the process of sensemaking, they have taken their experience and built a body of knowledge.

Of course, there are always gapsin what is known, so they fill the gaps by doing research.

When enough is known about the problem space, they can funnel that knowledge through the processof creativity, using lateral thinking.

The creative process is messy and iterative, triggered by provocation and explored through sketching and modeling.

Through the process of creativity,the designer/entrepreneur can reach an abductive hypothesis—an idea ofhow the world could be, or how the problem could be solved.

Based on the abductive hypothesis, they can form a strategy for moving forward.

Each move brings them to a point of testing the hypothesis, which allows them to iterate on it and move forward again. By repeating the process they gain experience,which can then generate new knowledge, with whichto repeat the cycle.

To sum up: a designer/entrepreneur brings their past experience to approach a problem. Their experience,along with the research they conduct, is the basis for their knowledge of the problem space. By applying creativity to their knowledge, they can form a hypothesis upon which to build a strategy. By testing the strategy, they gain new experience to bring to bear on the next problem.