The Regenerate Web

Dan Russell is filling in for Kathy Sierra on Creating Passionate Users.

He has written this article starting a discussion about how people approach the process of making sense out of something.

Sensemaking 1

As a systems analyst, or whatever I am, I have found that I am virtually always in the process of making sense of things, especially those that on the surface... DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE!!!

So in response to Dan who is tackling a really important questions for software professionals of all kinds, managers, leaders, product managers, and virtually any thinking person, I will share my own take on techniques that I use to make sense.

Start with what you know or believe - you probably aren't totally clueless. If you are, then a small amount of basic research or assume the belief system of someone you trust as a starting point.

Collect additional pieces of information and validate them against your starting knowledge base. - If they can fit within your framework, then they are easy to assimilate. So what do you do when you find a fact or group of facts that do not fit with your starting point? Try to reconcile. Talk to other people who are knowledgeable - try to understand whether the problem is multifaceted, and you have revealed another facet, or whether your original assumptions (hypotheses) were incorrect and why.

Divide and Conquer - When you discover that the problem continually appears to become more complex, you can choose from two basic techniques - 1) divide into chunks or 2) divide along axes. These types of divisions provide useful means for organizing complex problems. Divide into chunks (or classes) allows things that work the same, that share basic parts of a domain to hang together. Divide along axes allows you to group things that the solution or complexity appears to run in the same direction together. Remember that these divisions are arbitrary, and can be erased and re-drawn, like lines on a plastic overlay.

Visualize - not in the sense of imagining the solution in your mind, but draw some diagrams that help you represent your ideas to other people. Diagram the whole, then by division break things down. If you can't draw it, you probably don't understand it.

Define - make sure that you define the key terminology that is used to describe the problem and the solution. Our language is notoriously imprecise. Words can have many definitions, and nuances based on context. Build a glossary to refer to when using jargon, or technical terms, or common business terms, so that your communication is crisp. Sometimes the problem with our understanding is that we use the same word to refer to more than one concept, and we assume there is only one.

Synthesize - That is rebuild the whole out of the parts and see if is still makes sense. Find the parts that "fell out" because they are the key to the errors or fallacies in your division strategies. If there is major fallout, then return to step 3 and adjust your divisions until you are pleased with it.

Solve - Review each division and identify possible solutions. Review each of these ideas with people who have helped you understand in step 2, and carefully listen to their feedback. Select the best two opportunities for each division.

Gain Perspective - Look from multiple points of view - every party has a different perspective on a situation. After you have synthesized, walk all the way around the issue, and try to imagine the biases of each perspective, and how those may have colored your read of the information. try to eliminated the biases that may have distorted the picture.

Simplify - this is the last step. Once you have built a structure (logically) to house all of the information related to the problem, and are happy that the structure neatly holds all of the information. Then, you can make some simplifying assumptions, (these are actually compromises) to that you can decide how to take action. That is if you are responsible for solving a problem, what steps will you take, and in what order. Look at the solution opportunities that you proposed and selected and propose an order to implement.

Simulate - play your solutions in your mind and look at possible and probable outcomes.

I don't know if this is helpful, but it helped me to remember my list for my current challenge...