Ambiguity Archetypes
In Spring 2018, we asked about 150 d.school students to reflect on their relationship with ambiguity in the form of a metaphor. Some were brand-new to design, some were emerging from their first d.school experience, and others had already taken several d.school courses.
Our synthesis of the students’ metaphors revealed two things. First, we saw three definitive navigation strategies or archetypes emerge — endure, engage and embrace. Second, and more exciting, we saw evidence that a student’s relationship with ambiguity — and the way they navigate — shifts with time, experience, and growth in design skills and abilities. Students who had taken one or more d.school classes were more likely to have an attitude of engaging or embracing ambiguity, while new students more often gravitated towards enduring ambiguity. Bottom line? Just like your abs, navigating ambiguity is a muscle that can be strengthened.
But that doesn’t mean there is an end goal for navigating ambiguity. While one navigation strategy might feel more familiar or comfortable, they are all context-dependent and dynamic. Most importantly, these archetypes provide a comprehensive resource and a common language around ambiguity and how people interact with it.
Ambiguity is a moment of time that comes before a solution and is antagonistic to the objective — it must be conquered to reach a goal.
Ambiguity is an off-road adventure; an alternate path to a goal. It might be rewarding and helpful or dangerous and detrimental. Its value is a chosen gamble. Exhilaration and exhaustion are equally expected.
Ambiguity is oceanic and ever-present. Exploration is a challenge and an opportunity. The longer you spend in it, the more likely you are to discover something new. Every direction is a possibility. Navigation isn’t simple. It requires patience and practice.
Ambiguity is a moment of time that comes before a solution and is antagonistic to the objective — it must be conquered to reach a goal.
Ambiguity is an off-road adventure; an alternate path to a goal. It might be rewarding and helpful or dangerous and detrimental. Its value is a chosen gamble. Exhilaration and exhaustion are equally expected.
Ambiguity is oceanic and ever-present. Exploration is a challenge and an opportunity. The longer you spend in it, the more likely you are to discover something new. Every direction is a possibility. Navigation isn’t simple. It requires patience and practice.
Endure Ambiguity
Ambiguity metaphors within this archetype often imply a “push through” mentality — the person is eager to push through uncertainty to get to clarity and the “right” outcome. They communicate a lack of control over an unpredictable unknown, suggesting that ambiguity happens TO you, and you have to self-orient and navigate your way out.
Common Characteristics
- Feeling lost or disoriented
- Having obscured vision
- Overcoming a fear or challenge
- Seeking arrival at a singular greater clarity
- Wrestling with a choice
- Being in a state of unpredictability with low control
Engage Ambiguity
In these types of ambiguity metaphors, we notice learners having more of an explorer or adventurer mindset. There seems to be more comfort with uncertainty and having more questions than answers. Many metaphors seem to support the notion that “ambiguity is something that I can choose to engage,” often through a definite or dramatic action moment. Other metaphors capture an acceptance of, or comfort with, many possible outcomes. In all cases, they signal a greater degree of both agency and adaptability.
Common characteristics:
- Choosing/creating one’s own paths
- Taking the plunge
- Feeling acceptance or optimism in the face of the unknown
- Choosing to make challenges opportunities (or not)
- Sensing fear/danger and excitement simultaneously
- Actively working to make something better with time
- Undertaking work with an undefined “finished” state
Embrace Ambiguity
In these types of ambiguity metaphors, we observe learners approaching ambiguity with the implicit expectation that amidst and despite the obvious challenges, lies great reward. In fact, they see that their own work and effort creates this reward or value. But this is an undertaking that requires endurance and stamina, with the understanding that this thing of value is created or constructed slowly, and emerges with time. They are also excited (rather than overwhelmed) by a multiplicity of outcomes, and trust that if they can stay responsive, they’ll get to a great one. Underlying many of these metaphors is the idea that ambiguity can be used to their advantage. Discovery doesn’t happen to them — they make it happen.
Common characteristics:
- Working to find or interpret something of great value
- Actively working to make something better with time
- Undertaking work with an undefined “finished” state
A Framework for Navigating Ambiguity
We think agency and adaptability are 2 key dimensions that manifest across these 3 archetypes that are core to Navigating Ambiguity. For example, on the agency spectrum, a person might feel like ambiguity happens to them (Endure), or that ambiguity is something they can engage (Engage), or that they can use ambiguity to create meaning and value (Embrace). On the adaptability spectrum, a person might feel that they need to get to certainty and find the right outcome (Endure), or accept that there are many possible outcomes (Engage), or be excited by a multiplicity of outcomes, and have confidence that by staying responsive, they will get to a great one (Embrace).
