This is a beautiful explanation. Every time that I work with a new product manager or business owner I always explain that I ask a lot of questions. When we are working together, I am going to explore the constraints and boundaries of the problem. When I explain it that way they do not feel that I am just being argumentative. Continuum has done a nice job of embedding this into their process and culture. Entering cultures that do not do this is a challenge because many people are sensitive to feeling a question is challenging their work.

On the point of say “no, because,” I try to avoid “no” in many cases because it is so final. I rather say “what about …, what do you mean …, I thought it was …”

I have worked with individuals and teams where we do these 5 things and it does help explore the solutions space. It is a mindset that all team members need to have to work. For many, the suspension of disbelief has to be requested so that they can go through the process and learn to trust the questioning/arguing for the purpose of exploring the solution space.

Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively by Daniel Sobol

1. “NO HIERARCHY
   Breaking down hierarchy is critical for deliberative discourse.
2. SAY “NO, BECAUSE”
   No is a critical part of our process, but if you’re going to say no, you better be able to say why.
3. DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES
   This model works for us because deliberative discourse requires a multiplicity of perspectives to shape ideas.
4. FOCUS ON A COMMON GOAL
   Argument is productive for us because everyone knows that we’re working toward a shared goal.
5. KEEP IT FUN
   Our work requires intensity, thoughtfulness, and rigor. […]

This article makes the case that with the increase in data, there is a greater need to make decisions on the data and therefore a need to better represent the information for human consumption and decision making.

“Manually analyzing data is time consuming but is often done in order to maintain core business capacity, operational continuity, competitive advantage and compliance. Reviewing stacks of numbers and text is not only error prone but also makes it difficult to analyze data in order to:

1) Develop or assess a hypothesis: Those managing regulatory compliance may need to consider and assess a hypothesis like Hyman Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis to protect their firm’s future.
2) Discover errors and outliers: From a risk and compliance standpoint, a firm may want to find a way to easily monitor risk exposure across a portfolio on a trade-by-trade basis and manage outliers or trades that are over certain limits.
3) Map trends: From an investment management perspective, a firm may want to track volatility across sectors or industries to capitalize on market opportunity.
4) Create categories: A valuation and risk group may want to know if it can readily quantify exposure to all counterparties by subsidiaries.
5) Make decisions: A structured products group may want to know if it can create “what if” stress scenarios and decide on optimal product selection.
6) Understand relationships, such as spatial hierarchy and rank: For energy traders, the need may be to determine if a company can manage pipeline operations and portfolio optimization across crude, refined, natural gas and other commodities.
The need to effectively and efficiently address these concerns, individually or in combination, is a challenge for many firms. Following a thoughtfully crafted method to hone the possible visualizations choices […]