Solution Thinking and the
Design of Development
An Overview

Solution Thinking and Design
For skilled and professional problem solvers, there has been a remedial expansion of the
problem set that falls under the umbrella of “design” solutions.
The expansion asserts that design is something that should be applied to a broader range
of reasons why a problem is “important”.
For example, aesthetics, economies, learning, ecology and other matters are all “valid”
subjects for design.
Part of seeing design as a more conceptually global practice has included some popularity
of equating design with problem solving.
In that sense, it is equated with solution development and, furthermore, is sometimes
positioned as essential to problem solving where complexity is a challenge to gaining a
necessary and sufficient outcome.
In that attitude, designers who solve problems are looked at for their methods of solving,
particularly the “thought processes” involved.
In that way, even the layperson can appreciate the implications of looking for “design
thinking”.

The design of Development
However, maintaining some distance from the cache of the Design Thinking term and its
related vocabulary is not a bad idea.
In a different perspective, designers (and however they think) are participating in
development of solutions; that is, they are participating in Solution Thinking.
A “solution” to a problem is normally an acceptable outcome of intentionally developing a
future state. However, there are such things as unintentional solutions. The thinking that
supports successful development is the essence of purposeful “Solving”. The primary
contribution of Design to solutions is in the managed intentionality of the development to
produce an accepted outcome.
While we can see design as a set of influences on the terms of acceptability used in
development, the progression from problem to solution is per se Solution Thinking.
We can certainly consider “the Design process” as a process of arriving at the terms of
acceptability used during development.
However, we can argue quite strongly that the work of progressing the solution from a
state of need to a state of agreeable usage is development.
Development uses design as part of Solution Thinking. In the following, that idea is
described on its own terms.

EXPLORATION EXPECTATIONMODELINGEXPERIMENTATION
• Observed similar phenomena
• Isolated or targeted occurrence
• Characteristics of the anticipated situation with which the solution effort must contend
• Created examples explicitly representing qualifications preferred for the solution
• Final decision agreed as the next selected current state
Meaning:
Cases
Instances
Circumstances
Proofs
Acceptance
PRESUMPTIONS REALIZATIONSPROPOSITIONSASSUMPTIONSAcknowledge
current state
Develop
future state
Variables:
With or without coordination, some or all of the above can exist simultaneously.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

EXPLORATION EXPECTATIONMODELINGEXPERIMENTATION
• Histories
• Precedents
• Conditions
• Concerns
• Ideas
• Requirement (why)
• Scope (where)
• Definition (what)
• Delivery (how)
• Adoption (who)
• Priorities
• Purposes
• Forms
• Production
• Testing
• Constraints
• Concepts
• Techniques
• Prototypes
• Demonstrations
Research (Intelligence) Provision (Value)Configuration (Options)Analysis (Prospects)
Cases
Instances
Circumstances
Proofs
Acceptance
PRESUMPTIONS REALIZATIONSPROPOSITIONSASSUMPTIONSAcknowledge
current state
Develop
future state
Influence or feedback Influence or feedback Influence or feedback
How:
Maturation towards acceptance
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

Developing the
future state
Progress occurs within a stage,
but also across stages in an
upward spiral of maturing
satisfaction, towards final
acceptability.
Each of the four upward stages
has its own way of revisiting
the same five issues:
• Cases
• Instances
• Circumstances
• Proofs
• Acceptance
Each stage seeks clarity and
agreement about each issue.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

EXPLORATION
EXPECTATION
MODELING
EXPERIMENTATION
Develop the
future state:
Each of the four
stages has its own
way of addressing
the same five issues:
• Cases
• Instances
• Circumstances
• Proofs
• Acceptance
The way an issue
shapes up in a later
stage of maturation
can feedback to that
same issue in an
earlier stage.
Desired Intelligence
Desired Impacts
Desired Options
Desired Prospects
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

THESE CAN COME INDEPENDENTLY OF EACH OTHER, FROM DIFFERENT SOURCES AND TIMES.
EXPLORATION EXPECTATIONMODELINGEXPERIMENTATION
Research
(Intelligence)
Provision
(Value)
Configuration
(Options)
Analysis
(Prospects)
Develop
future state
Influence or feedback Influence or feedback Influence or feedback
Using…
With
alignments…
SOLVING:
acceptance cases
proofs instances
circumstances
ideas histories
concerns precedents
conditions
demos constraints
prototypes concepts
techniques
testing priorities
production purposes
forms
adoption requirement
delivery scope
definition
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

EXPLORATION
EXPECTATION
MODELING
EXPERIMENTATION
Research
Provision
Configuration
Analysis
Intelligence
Value
Options
Prospects
What is being
done
What is being
developed
SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT
Awareness
Impact
Confidence
Preference
Milestone*
achieved
* Milestone failures cause solution efforts to be rejected.©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

Archestra notebooks compile and organize decades of in-the-field empirical findings. The notes offer explanations of why
things did happen or can happen in certain ways or to certain effects. The descriptions are determined mainly from the
perspective of strategy and architecture. They comment on, and navigate between, the motives and potentials that
predetermine the decisions and shapes of activity as discussed in the notes. All notebooks are subject to change.
©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research

©2016 Malcolm Ryder / Archestra Research
www.archestra.com
mryder@archestra.com