Power of Ten is a show about design operating at all levels of zoom, from thoughtful detail to changes in organisation, society and the world, hosted by design leadership coach, Andy Polaine. 

Indi Young is a solution strategist who uses purpose-focused qualitative data science. She created her method over a 30-year span, and teaches that method in courses, coaching, workshops, books, talks, and through working with teams on research studies.

Indi discusses how people are complex and nuanced and their mental models and thinking styles are not fixed personas or personalities. They changed based on context and it is essential that organisations listen to and consider different ways of thinking and addressing user needs.

Indi was a joy to speak with and this is a long episode, but she articulates her thinking and insights so well I could not bear to edit out more.

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction

01:25 Indi's background

04:12 Origin's of design and strategic research - before UX research existed!

08:50 Persuading stakeholders to trust research

18:25 On Netflix, bias and unintentional harm

26:42 On Mental Models and interior cognition

33:20 The gobstopper/jawbreaker model

40:01 Thinking Styles

47:35 Why do companies still get this wrong all the time?

55:07 One small thing

56:52 Where to find Indi online

57:45 Outro

SHOW LINKS

INDI

Website: https://indiyoung.com/

Indi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/indiyoung/

Indi on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/indiyoung.bsky.social

Indi's Newsletter: https://indiyoung.substack.com

Indi on Medium: https://indiyoung.medium.com

Time to Listen - https://indiyoung.com/books-time-to-listen/

Practical Empathy - https://indiyoung.com/books-practical-empathy/

Mental Models: https://indiyoung.com/books-mental-models/

ANDY

Website: https://www.polaine.com 

Newsletter: https://pln.me/nws 

Podcast: https://pln.me/p10 

Design Leadership Coaching: https://polaine.com/coaching

Courses: https://courses.polaine.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apolaine/ 

Mastodon: https://pkm.social/@apolaine 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine

MENTIONS

Lisa Dance's Today is the Perfect Day to Improve Customer Experiences: https://serviceease.net/book