The document discusses using mental models to improve product success. It defines mental models as representations of how people think about themselves and their environment. The author advocates conducting problem space research to develop cognitive empathy and understand people's motivations. This involves listening sessions without directing the conversation. Mental models can then be used to identify opportunities by mapping people's intents, summaries, and thinking within and between mental spaces. The mental models provide a framework for areas like risk mitigation and designing for different thinking styles.

1. Using Mental Models
for Product Success
Key takeaways from Indi Young’s Methodology
Tafida Negm
@FidaNegm
ProductAnonymous‘19

4. A little about me

6. ● Freelance researcher and speaker
● Author of Mental Models & Practical Empathy
● Educator and coach
● Co-founder of Adaptive Path
Indi Young

7. 1. What, why & when
2. Solution space research
3. Problem space research
4. How to (overview)
5. Using Mental Models
6. Q&A
Overview

8. What are mental models?

9. Models people have
of themselves, others,
their environment and the
things they interact with.”
Don Norman, Co-founder NN Group
What are mental models?
“

10. Mental models give you a deep
understanding of people’s motivations
and thought-processes, along with
the emotional and philosophical
landscape in which they operate”
Indi young, Author mental models
What are mental models?
“

11. Mental model diagram

12. ● Innovate in a new direction
● Strategise broader & farther than your current solution
● Spend a lot of time re-architecting / re-inventing
● Existing user research is fragmented
● Recognise you are out of touch with your audience
○ Think everyone is your user
○ Make-believe & assumptions drive design decisions
○ No improvements after test & iterate cycles
When do you need this?

13. Problem Space Solution Space
Opportunity
Backlog
Strategy
Product
Backlog
Product
Discovery
People
Mental
Model
Thinking
Styles+
Ref: Amended from Advanced Problem Space Research Training Series, by Indi Young
Product
Develop-
ment

14. source:
Ref: Dave Landis

15. source:
Ref: Indi Young

16. Ref: Indi Young
What next

17. Solution space research
Think
Make
Check
Solution

18. We ideas

19. Solution space

20. We agile
(Read: we love speed)

21. Move fast works for
engineering, not for
understanding people.”
Indi young, Author Mental Models
“
Solution space

22. Solution space

23. Solution space

24. We’ll just go with
a product concept test,
and do deeper
research later.
Solution Space

25. Solution space

26. (Read: we seek certainty over ambiguity)
We quant
Solution space

27. Show me the numbers to give
me confidence the product/feature
will be successful. Things we can
measure with accuracy. I want this
organisation to be data-driven.”
“
Solution space

29. Think Make
Check
Idea
Listen Cultivate
patterns
Develop
empathy
People
Problem space Solution space

30. Problem space
Think Make
Check
Idea
Listen Cultivate
patterns
Develop
empathy
People
Solution space

31. The point is to understand
people deeply - so deeply
you could live their life, walk in
their shoes and make decisions
exactly as they would.
Cognitive Empathy
Problem space

32. Explanations
Preferences
Generalizations
Statements of fact
Opinions
Inner thinking
Reactions
Guiding principles
Surface
Depth

33. Person
What a person wants to accomplish or
achieve in the problem space.
E.g. Intent = Take my elderly
grandmother to the Eiffel Tower
Exploratoration of opportunities
Has all the power
Long lasting (+/- 10yrs)
Less common
User with (potential) relationship to your org
User behaviour in relation to the services
or products your org provides
E.g. Task = book a return flight
Goal = plan a vacation
Generative & Evaluative directed at solutions
Gets all the attention
Short-mid term
Common
Problem space Solution space

34. SCOPE
RECRUIT
LISTENING SESSIONS
COMB FOR CONCEPTS
CULTIVATE PATTERNS
THINKING
STYLES
DECORATE
MMD
Problem space study
How to - overview

35. SCOPE
RECRUIT
LISTENING SESSIONS
COMB FOR CONCEPTS
CULTIVATE PATTERNS
THINKING
STYLES
DECORATE
MMD
Problem space study
How to - overview

36. Active listening to develop cognitive empathy
● Non-directed
● Always one-on-one
● Usually over the phone
What is a listening session?
How to - overview

37. ● Pair up with your friendly neighbour.
● Ask the question: a
“What went through your mind the last time you decided
to stay in a hotel?”
● ONE RULE: as a listener you don’t say anything. Just pay attention
to what goes through your mind when you are listening.
● After 2 minutes we will switch.
Activity 1
2 minutes each

38. What went through your mind when you were listening?
Activity 1 - reflection

39. ● Focus on immediate experience
● Only open ended questions
● No words of your own
● Dinner party rule
● Don’t focus on tools used
Tips for listening sessions

40. Thinking Styles are deeply researched, demographic free*, bias-free
behavioural-based audience segments.
For Thinking Styles we cultivate patterns across participants looking at what defines
the different approaches to achieving their purpose. What’s the thinking that
underpins their approach?
* Demographics rarely cause reasoning/behaviour (unless in reaction to discrimination, physiology or possibly
culture/environment)
Thinking styles

41. Ref: Thinking Styles Healthwise, by Indi Young

42. 2. Summaries
3. Intent
4. Mental space
1. Quotes
Ref: Indi Young

43. Anatomy of a Mental Model
Mental space
Intent
Summaries

44. From Mental Model
to Opportunity Map

45. From Mental Model
to Opportunity Map
Add org capability

46. Ref: Mental Modelling: Qualitative Mapping Audience Behaviors, by V Malzer & S von Schrader, Cornell Employment & Disability, digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/edicollect/1354/

47. ● Gap analysis - the difference between approaches and your orgs capability
● Risk mitigation - verify solutions are aligned to people
● Widen knowledge of the possibilities in the problem space
● Clarify positioning & prioritisation
● Diversification - more closely align design possibilities to the nuances of
different thinking styles.
● Content mapping of a proposed solution
● Consolidate existing research into one overview
Uses of a mental model

48. Gap analysis
Using MMD

49. Gap analysis
Using MMD

50. Overlay thinking styles
Using MMD

51. Overlay metrics
Using MMD

52. Add competitor capability (or technical foundations, business goals)
Using MMD

53. You represent an insurance company offering auto and home insurance. Recently,
they conducted some problem space studies, one of which was about what goes
through people’s minds during and immediately after an auto accident. Because of
what they discovered, the group suspects there might be something related to
learn from thinking patterns during near-misses.
So they conducted another study in order to have a stronger foundation from
which to create their potential ideas for new directions. The scope of their
subsequent study is: “What was on your mind during and after a memorable
near-miss accident?”
Use the supplied documents (i.e. the mental model, the business goals and the
highlighted patterns) to help the organisation develop opportunities.
Give it a go!
15 minutes

54. ● Be aware of broader cultures and approaches
● Stop assumptions & convention from deciding
● Recognize the narrowness of current solutions
● Multiply the goals your org seeks
● Support broader sets of people
● Consolidate research and have a powerful overview
● Have continuity of design strategy and org vision
Benefits of Mental Models
Using MMD

55. ● Problem space research is like fertiliser for the solution space
● Take time to understand people deeply
● Design with thinking styles in mind
● Listening sessions are awesome!
Key takeaways
Outro

56. Further reading
Practical Empathy & Mental Models
Indi Young
Listening Well
William Miller
Mixed Methods
Sam Ladner
Technically Wrong
Sara Wachter-Boettcher

57. The more technology becomes
embedded in all aspects of life,
the more it matters whether it’s
biased, alienating, or harmful.”
Sara Wachter-Boettcher, Author Technically Wrong
“

58. What resonated with you?
Tafida Negm
@FidaNegm
tafida@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/tafida/
Let’s talk!