Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Situation: You Need to Get REAL Requirements in a Way That Makes Sense.
The Design industry is known for understanding what people need and how to satisfy those needs - that's what they do. Many of their approaches to defining those needs are stripped down versions of the sort of things we do in IT. Sometimes we immediately dive down into the details of requirements gathering exercises without stopping to figure out which of those exercises would be best given what we are trying to accomplish (our business results).Ideo Method Cards are a tool developed in house for the folks at Ideo. They use them with clients and also sell the cards for about $50. They are essentially flash cards that offer quick methods for understanding user needs, broken down into four categories of exercises: Learn, Look, Ask, and Try. Under each category are about 10-14 method cards. For example, Learn is "Analyze the information youve collected to identify patterns and insights." The cards under that category include:
- Activity Analysis
- Affinity Diagrams
- Anthropometric Analysis
- Character Profiles
- Cognitive Task Analysis
- Competitive Product Survey
- Cross-cultural Comparisons
- Error Analysis
- Flow Analysis
- Historical Analysis
- Long-Range Forecasts
- Secondary Research
The other 3 categories include other methods, but you get the idea. Each method card inlcudes a description of the technique.
So you sit your team down around a conference table and thumb through the cards and figure out exactly what sort of analysis would be helpful in the context of your project. The net result is a well thought out approach to requirements gathering.
Posted on: May 11, 2007 03:34 PM |
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