Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Thinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
Summary
Key Insights
-
•
Thinking styles describe people’s cognition within a specific frame or goal, not as universal personality traits.
-
•
Demographics do not reliably predict thinking or decision-making patterns in users.
-
•
The same individual can exhibit multiple thinking styles depending on context or over time.
-
•
Thinking styles include a mix of inner thoughts, emotional reactions, and personal guiding rules.
-
•
Using thinking styles layered over mental model skylines reveals gaps where a product may fail to support certain cognitive approaches.
-
•
Storytelling characters embody thinking styles rather than demographic stereotypes to foster nuanced understanding.
-
•
Designing by thinking style rather than demographic allows better inclusivity for different cognitive needs.
-
•
Friction and adversity in situations often trigger changes in thinking styles, requiring adaptable design.
-
•
Thinking styles are frame-dependent; one person’s style as a caregiver differs from their style as a professional or friend.
-
•
Applying thinking styles to product features and strategy helps align solutions with users’ real lives and intentions.
Notable Quotes
"We are marinating in this assumption that demographic groups define cognition, but they don't."
"Thinking styles are not horoscopes or Myers-Briggs; they only apply within a specific frame of intent or goal."
"If you try to describe a person as 'the grumbler' across all their life, you miss the context and purpose."
"Demographics don’t cause thinking; past experiences, personal rules, and emotions do."
"Your thinking style while caregiving might be ‘Give dignity and agency’ but change as resistance grows."
"Friction in a situation can cause a person to switch thinking styles, not personality types."
"We can use mental model skylines with thinking styles to find support gaps we didn’t see before."
"Casting diverse characters who represent thinking styles breaks down demographic stereotypes."
"A frustrated passenger at a delayed flight might just need acknowledgment, not dismissal."
"Talking about thinking styles is just as easy and fast a shortcut as talking about demographics, but more useful."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We stuck with NPS because it was a pure metric with a long history we could trend, instead of muddying things with loyalty or revenue."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"The Library of Congress web presence was a findability nightmare, like the Winchester Mystery House."
Peter MorvilleThe Architecture of Understanding
May 13, 2015
"Only one internal hire on the UX team was a huge misopportunity for us."
Renee ReidBecoming a ResearchH.E.R (Highly Enterprise Ready)
June 3, 2019
"Our bodies profoundly influence the way that we think about ourselves, others, the world, and everything in it."
Dane DeSutterKeeping the Body in Mind: What Gestures and Embodied Actions Tell You That Users May Not
March 26, 2024
"Involving people with disabilities from the start reveals impact and usability issues that automated testing simply cannot catch."
Sam ProulxOnline Shopping: Designing an Accessible Experience
October 3, 2023
"Digital channels now have higher standards—customers expect personalization at all times."
Andrew Custage Michael MallettThe Digital Journey: Research on Consumer Frustration and Loyalty
March 29, 2023
"It’s okay to be goofy and have fun—creating space for awkwardness and playfulness helps engagement."
Shelby SwitzerMaking Space for Community Knowledge-sharing in a Distributed World
December 10, 2021
"If we want our value to be defined as anything other than studies run, we must learn how to trace and articulate the actual business impact."
Llewyn PaineCoexisting with AI: A practical guide for researchers to navigate tools, ethics, and integration
March 11, 2025
"The only thing any of us can control is how quickly we learn and then act based on that learning."
Robin BeersNavigating organizational systems: Rethinking researcher’s role in driving change
March 13, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What is automation bias and how can UX design mitigate its risks in AI-augmented clinical decision support?
How does including metadata like methodology, market, and date improve the quality of research repository search results?
What strategies help UX researchers gain access to healthcare workflows in overwhelmed systems?