Three voices, one problem
Product is the voice of value, design the voice of usability, engineering the voice of feasibility — three essential lenses on the same problem, not three competing agendas.
Innovation NavigatorStrategic Game
Creative Tension for Better Products
compromise→strategic tradeoffs
The Goal
Turn disagreements (e.g., Speed vs. Quality) into design tools.
Ideal For
Product vs. Engineering or Sales vs. Delivery conflicts.
The Shift
From compromise to strategic tradeoffs.
The Neuroscience
Reframing trade-offs as design tools reduces defensiveness, enabling integrative thinking — holding two opposing ideas in tension long enough to find a third option better than either.
The techniques, and why they work
Synthesis, not compromise
An excellent outcome isn't the midpoint between positions; it's a third option forged by disciplined debate in which each function pushes back on the others.
The leader as conductor
Not the peacemaker and not the decider: the conductor who ensures all three voices are heard and forced to engage with one another's truths.
Selected research
- Cagan, M. (2017). Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (2nd ed.). Wiley.
From the research
The thinking behind this lab, published in full: