User research, analytics, hypotheses and experiments: we are focused on gaining understanding through data, validating that our interventions bring about the (user) behaviour we desire. We design systems, the systems we design interact with other systems, and it’s all getting awfully complex. Can we truly understand what’s going on? In this talk, Johanna will introduce you to core principles of systems thinking, and discuss how they relate to our work as designers of products, services, companies. What methods and tools can we employ to make sense of systems? How do we enable users to form a mental model of a system - and what role are we designing for our users? Expect to walk away with some systems theory, some practical take-aways, and the insight that the system is always one step ahead of you.

1. Understanding systems
Johanna Kollmann | @johannakoll | the lean event, Brighton

2. “A system is
a set of elements or parts
often classified as its function
or purpose.”
that is coherently organized and
inter-connected in a pattern or
structure
that produces a characteristic set of
behaviors,
Donella Meadows

3. “Systems-based thinking is the process of
understanding how things influence one
another.
!
Then drawing on that knowledge to create
efficiencies of process, infrastructure and
communication.”
Abby Covert

4. Hard systems
Soft systems
!
You can’t “fix”problems with systems
thinking, instead there are “situations you
could improve”.
Peter Checkland

5. Systems exhibit purposeful behaviour over time.
Systems get ‘soft’, unpredictable once humans
are involved.

6. TOOLS
USERS
SKILLS

7. TOOLS

8. Tools for MODELING systems
Tools for MEASURING systems

9. Models are the starting point to look at
the situation, and see what change should
be introduced, and how.

10. Categorisation model:
precedes the data.
Sense-making model:
created from data;
the data precedes the framework.
Dave Snowden
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7oz366X0-8

11. Business Model Canvas

12. Journey maps

13. Checkland’s ‘Rich Picture’
1. Construction of the Humber Bridge (adapted from Stewart and
Fortune, 1994)© The Open University
2. Distance Learning Situation © Wood-Harper et al, Information Systems
Definition: The Multiview Approach, Blackwell Scientific Publications 1985

14. Checkland’s ‘Rich Picture’
Stakeholders
Worldview
Connections
Conflicts

15. Eric Ries
!
“Only by building a model of customer
behaviour
and then showing our ability to use our
product or service to change it over time
can we establish real facts about the
validity of our vision.”

16. Measuring tools
Custom analysis based on raw data
Logging tools
Dashboard
Content marketing tools
(combined with qualitative research!)

17. 3 things to pay attention to in a system:
1) Stocks & Flows
2) Feedback loops
3) Delays

18. 1)Stocks & Flows
inflow outflow
information
feedback, control
stock

19. 2)Feedback loops
A feedback loop occurs when a change in something ultimately
comes back to cause a further change in the same thing.
Reinforcing Loop
(positive loop)
births/year population
Population
Growth
Balancing Loop
(negative or goal-seeking loop)
heat
Thermostat
temperature
target temperature
temperature
gap

20. 3)Delays
inventory
days

21. 3)Delays
inventory
days
Reacting faster

22. 3)Delays
inventory
days
Reacting slower

23. Look at systems behaviour over time, rather than
focusing on single events.
!
Spot trends, and ask:
‣What came before?
‣What might happen next?

24. By the time you see what is going on in a
system, it has already happened - and you
are already a step behind.

25. USERS

26. Mental Model
System Model
Conceptual Model

27. We are not only explaining a system and
making it easy to use:
we are also shaping the role of the human
actors in the system.

28. For reference: Donella Meadows, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Structure of information flows
‣How does information flow through the system?
‣What information is shown, how, and to whom?
‣Who can manipulate and control information?

29. For reference: Donella Meadows, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Rules of the system
‣Constraints, social rules, rules about roles of actors in the system
‣Who can take which actions?
‣How can actors in the system engage?

30. For reference: Donella Meadows, http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/
Conceptual model
Information flows
Rules
How users understand the system,
and how they can engage with it

31. “When designers center around the user,
where do the needs and desires of the other
actors in the system go?
The lens of the user obscures the view
of the ecosystems it affects.”
!
“For users, this is what it means to be at the
center: to be unaware of anything outside
it.”
Kevin Slavin
Photo by Peter Tannenbaum

32. SKILLS

33. Russell L. Ackoff
The ‘Systems Age’ is about expansionism - all objects,
events and experiences are part of larger wholes.
!
Rather than focusing on ultimate events, it’s about
interrelated parts, about systems.
!
Instead of an analytic mode of thought, we
need a synthetic mode of thought.

34. Skills for the systems age:
1) The ability to think abductively.
2) The ability to synthesise information.
3) The ability to choose the right level of abstraction.

35. Abductive reasoning
Abductive logic allows for the creation of new knowledge and insight.
The conclusions from an abductive argument might turn out to be false, even if the
premises are true.
You make inferences (or educated guesses)based on an incomplete
set of information in order to come up with the most likely solution.
Sources: Jon Kolko, http://www.jonkolko.com/writingAbductiveThinking.php; Andy Budd, http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2016/04/what_the_hell_is_design_thinking_anyway/

36. Ability to synthesise information
The process of drawing together concepts, ideas, objects and other qualitative data in
new configurations, or to create something entirely new.
!
Synthesis
‣typically deals with non-numeric data.
‣often undertaken towards the end of an analytic process as the reverse
of deconstruction.
‣can also form part of an exploration
Source: Steve Baty, http://johnnyholland.org/2009/02/deconstructing-analysis-techniques/

37. Ability to choose the right level of abstraction
Models make complexity visible, tell a story, and allow us to create shared
understanding. Successful modeling requires abstraction.
!
‣define the boundaries
‣abstract with a purpose in mind
‣it’s about the process - not about deliverables
‣steward the process of abstraction

38. Skills for the systems age:
1) The ability to think abductively.
2) The ability to synthesise information.
3) The ability to choose the right level of abstraction.

39. Matthew Milan
“The fundamental shift design will
need to navigate over the next
decade:
Going from designing for people to
designing with people at scale.”

40. TOOLS
USERS
SKILLS

41. Use this tool to
help you think
more systemically!
THE ICEBERG MODEL
EVENTS
What is happening?
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
What trends are there over time?
SYSTEMS STRUCTURE
How are the parts related?
What influences
the patterns?
MENTAL MODELS
What values,
assumptions, +
beliefs shape
the system?
IncreasingLeverage
Download at: http://donellameadows.org/systems-thinking-resources/

42. Design as Participation |Kevin Slavin
http://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/design-as-participation
Cynefin Framework|Dave Snowden
http://cognitive-edge.com/
Jon Kolko
http://www.jonkolko.com/writingAbductiveThinking.php
!
Andy Budd
http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2016/04/what_the_hell_is_design_thinking_anyway/
!
Steve Baty
http://johnnyholland.org/2009/02/deconstructing-analysis-techniques/
Special thanks to Livia Labate, Erica Heinz, Jonathan Flintham and Adrian Howard <3