Abductive thinking is a different kind of problem solving that works to generate new ideas, new scenarios, and new options for consideration. Rather than working from first principles, or from the current state of things, this generative approach is all about creating new possibilities. It’s a cornerstone of design thinking, and the approach of rapid prototyping, scenario design, structured brainstorming, and other methods are pillars in applying design to business value*.

I do wonder about the challenge of the Paradox of Choice with this approach - if, past a certain threshold, people are less satisfied with a given choice when they have more choices, then abductive thinking that generates a high volume of ideas is going to lead to dissatisfaction.

In my own practice, the key has been having agreed on metrics for narrowing the possibilities - and I’ve never been on a project where the volume of ideas didn’t rapidly weed itself out when confronted with the needs of reality**. However, there have still been times when we’ve been considering a range of options, and people have been less satisfied by picking one approach.

Hybrid approaches and iteration (taking the good ideas and creating some sort of solution mashup) can help, but can also create frankenprojects. What other things have you done to balance generating a lot of ideas, with being able to execute really well on one approach?

* yes, businesses use many methods, like brainstorming, without a designer in sight
** and sometimes, we reframe reality to make sure that we’re not abandoning the best ideas.