In the first post on this topic, I briefly pontificated on the term “Simplexity” and its symbiotic relationship with Design Strategy. In this post, as promised, we’ll get more into the meat of that relationship. I’ll outline how to recognize a Simplexity challenge, the basics of Design Strategy, and a few easy steps to integrate Design Strategy into everyday business operations. It’s a lot for one blog post, so let’s just address how to identify a Simplexity challenge.

A challenge characterized by Simplexity is generally either a seemingly simple problem with an apparently complex solution, or a seemingly complex problem with an apparently simple solution. It could also be that the seemingly simple problem is indeed quite complex, that the apparently complex solution might be simple, and so on. You get the idea.

So, how do you recognize a Simplexity challenge in your organization? Take a look at anything for which you’ve made an assumption, then look a little deeper and challenge that assumption. Is the problem really as it seems? What about the solution? Also take a look at challenges you’ve avoided addressing and solutions that you just “knew” would work but didn’t. Therein lies Simplexity, and you can deploy Design Strategy to help you sort through the options and arrive at a satisfactory outcome.

Next post in what’s turned out to be a series – the basics of Design Strategy!