Stop Fighting Your AC , You’re Losing
Think of the last time you sat in a parked car. Not a cab or an Uber, your own car, or a friend's, or a relative's. Given how punishing the heat is across most of…
Category: The known unknown
Different Kitchens
There's a useful way to understand the difference between a corporate manager and an entrepreneur. Picture a MasterChef kitchen. The manager is told which dish to prepare. There are people everywhere: leadership priorities, team dynamics,…
The Chakravyuh Effect
There is this behavioural pattern; I'll call it the 'Chakravyuh Effect.' It occurs when parents hold one set of rules for their children while having lived by another, failing to communicate the intentionality behind their…
The Hit-Making Algorithm: Behavioural Design or Manipulation?
There is something quietly telling about how modern songs are put together. The average English song repeats its central hook three to four times. More recently though, that number seems to have crept up to…
Footwork, Footloose
Discover the Unconventional What does a traditional Ukrainian folk dance have to do with a 396–1 boxing record? In my book, Main Batata Hoon, I explore the fascinating story of Vasiliy Lomachenko, whose legendary dominance…
On Clarity
There's a particular frame of time I'm sure you have experienced. You have a big presentation later today, or you're travelling for a week, and suddenly you have a mental clarity that's often missing from…
The Questions We Don’t Ask: How Problem Framing Determines Solution Quality
I often wonder about how we frame problems (challenges, as I prefer to call them), and more importantly, how that single decision can ripple out for decades, sometimes centuries. Back in the 1950s, the consumer…
Customer is KingDesign ThinkingDTEverydayHuman BehaviourImproveInnovateLife or something like itThe known unknown
When Did We Stop Designing for Humans?
In the past year, customer experience has taken a real nosedive. Big brand products and services making baffling choices. Let's start with recent Panasonic/Google TVs. With any TV including the good old ones, adjust the…
The Return to Innocence
A lot of people go from lighthearted when young to bitter and caustic or indifferent as they get older. They might remain adequately friendly and cheerful in public, knowing well not to cross boundaries or…
Gimme Your Best Question!
A few days ago, I shared how one re-framed question unlocked a breakthrough solution for a pediatric hospital project, and opened up a contest for you to share YOUR transformational questions. I've been thinking about…
The Timing Paradox: Why Rating Your Driver Is Harder Than It Seems, and when 5 Stars isn’t quite Honest
After an Uber or Ola ride, the app asks you to rate your driver. Simple enough. But when should that prompt appear? Ask too soon, and users hesitate. Some worry the driver might instantly receive…
A Coupon Code for my Potato Book
My "potato book" was feeling left out with all the posts and coupons for the two design thinking books. So here's a coupon for Main Batata Hoon, a collection of short stories written in a…
Design ThinkingHuman BehaviourImproveInspireLife or something like itNot So SeriousThe known unknown
On Writing..
One of my favourite fictional characters is Poirot. In the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice, when explaining his method, he says: “When a crime has been committed, I can, by application of order and…
Instagram – Are People Reeling in their Posts?
Not sure if this is a more common pattern, but it has been my observation at least with regard to a bunch of friends who are active on Instagram that they have considerably reduced posts,…
Part 5: The Final Reflection (for now) on 12 Years as a Freelance Innovation and Strategy Consultant
Part 4 was about how we should proactively try to improve or disrupt where necessary, the inefficient parts of the sector or space we work in. And now, arguably the most valuable lesson I was…