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Abstract There’s More Than Enough in the Gaps

We want digital & design solutions to focus on and support people — the whole variety of people on our planet. Despite growing voices for inclusivity and respect for the differences among us, many orgs have returned their attention to investors, advertisers, and “this next big tech trend.” Once again, orgs are making solutions with new tech having only an inkling of what purpose it might serve, or whose purpose it might disrupt.

Has your organization answered these questions? Or even asked them?

• How do we measure improvements in how people or communities can address their purpose their way?
• How is what I am building going to interrupt, trigger, or take something from the people we mean to support?
• Where are gaps or harms in existing solutions that we can address?
• Where can our competition find a wedge in our market? (And how can we wedge into their market?)
• What variety of solutions can we start with to fill these gaps and extend our reach?
• How can we refocus on long-lasting, sustainable support for people (and profit for us)?

Indi will show the power of knowledge from answers to the above questions, and how those answers support the trend toward organizations that support people, employees, ecosystems, and the planet. Instead of ignoring the gaps, Indi advocates highlighting them to feature people and their purposes.

This method began 30 years ago with an idea that she drew from a word in BayCHI presentation. It’s an empirical method, just as repeatable as Big Data, but focused on people and their purpose. The goal is to shift mindsets away from creating one solution toward creating multiple solutions at once that scale.

BIO

Indi Young is a purpose-focused qualitative data scientist.

She spends the majority of her time helping spread techniques, confidence and humanity among UX and Product practitioners. Indi also runs research project for clients, and coaches teams through their research studies. Indi teaches applied research skills such as listening and qualitative data synthesis through courses and Live Practice hosted on her website.

Indi’s method is focused on people, not users.

She pioneered opportunity maps, which are mental model diagrams of people’s approach to a purpose aligned with the support a solution provides — or doesn’t. She helps teams map thinking styles with careful attention to resisting assumptions and representing the interior cognition of people in their own context. Teams can then measure the level of harm they cause to approaches that are outside the org’s assumptions.

Indi’s practice creates a variety of solutions to the same purpose, in support of the variety of thinking styles people have.

Indi has written three books, Time to Listen, Practical Empathy and Mental Models. She is at work on another book in the series, Assumptions Aside, that will cover thinking styles.

She was one of the founders of Adaptive Path, the pioneering UX agency.

You can follow Indi on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter and access many resources on her website IndiYoung.com and at medium.com/inclusive-software.