World Economic Forum published top 10 job skills for tomorrow. Our blog series has already covered the first nine, and now it is time for the tenth one; reasoning, problem-solving and ideation. As all the other ten job skills, also they are soft skills. 

Of the job skills already presented in our blog series, reasoning, problem-solving and ideation is linked to analytical thinking and innovation, complex problem-solving, and creativity, originality and initiative. 

Reasoning means the ability to proceed from hypothesis to conclusion in a logical and sensible way. The skills needed in problem-solving in turn help solve problems quickly and effectively. Problem-solving requires both an ability to correctly define a problem and finding a solution to it. Ideation in turn is often regarded as creativity, the ability to come up with new ideas and ways of doing, of testing the ideas and thus solving problems. 

Service design in problem-solving and ideation  

Problem-solving and ideation automatically brings into my mind the service design process’s double diamond; a process model for service design developed by the British Design Council (link: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/what-framework-innovation-design-councils-evolved-double-diamond).  

Picture: Double diamond 

The first diamond in the double diamond helps define the problem that is to be solved (discover – define), the second diamond helps to develop a solution to the problem (develop – define). In both parts of the double diamond first as much information is gathered as is possible (divergent thinking,) and after that the information is analyzed and crystallized into a solution (convergent thinking). The double diamond is widely used and in addition service design companies have further developed their own versions of it. 

There is a wide range of methods and tools available for service design, and you can pick the ones that are best suited to your own work. The tools available for problem-solving and ideation support creativity and finding new solutions. If you want to learn more about the methods and tools for service design, I warmly recommend This is Service Design Doing by Marc Stickdorn et al (link: https://www.adlibris.com/fi/kirja/this-is-service-design-doing-9781491927182?gclid=Cj0KCQiAtJeNBhCVARIsANJUJ2ERp6R_g54Bx0tbQJL4pvv9qo6xrrb08B5MNm8cBnM6ZSHRisTGLogaAgMoEALw_wcB). 

Solutions to the correct problems 

In service design the problem to be solved is first defined. This helps to ensure that when ideation begins, we are indeed solving the correct problem. Although problem-solving is important, it is even more important that we are solving the correct problems. For this the discover – define phase of the double diamond are useful. Especially in the discover phase an open-minded, curious and empathetic approach is important. In the discover -define phase we are not yet finding a solution to the problem, we are concentrating on defining the problem that we will solve in the next phase.  

 – Anna Sahinoja 

MIF Academy’s Innocamp.