S4 Ep5: Indi Young - Mental Models and Thinking Styles

Power of Ten with Andy Polaine

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