Groan zone and four ways to break free from it

Picture yourself having completed a competitor’s analysis for the upcoming feature release. Which lists functions based on competitors’ features, strengths, weaknesses, and a heuristic score. Now you have a strong assumption on how to solve this problem based on the trend.

You feel excited and start discussing with stakeholders. However, you soon realise that they have different viewpoints. It’s clear that your approach differs from theirs.

Now you know what happens next! Either you engage in a loop of conversations to make them aware of assumptions or oblige to their attempted decisions. Eventually compromising on your approach because stakeholders have a familiar opinion about it which they’ve framed while drafting the requirement.

Into a Groan Zone

As per Sam Kaner’s Diamond participation model. This feeling is called as ‘Groan Zone’, which is a space between diverging ideas and converging agreement. Applicable in both the problem and solution spaces in any stage of the Double Diamond process.

It occurs because of diverse perspectives within the team and among stakeholders. Because their method involves deriving and prioritising solutions based on constraints and experiences. Which involve budget, technical limitations, and time constraints.

Also, many times, a designer’s proposal may raise intricate issues that demand for them to interact through multiple levels of information with other diverse stakeholders. Which may go against their limitation, developing on familiar opinions or reach early conclusions before they discover a solution.

Navigating out of the Groan Zone

Now, pressed by time and overwhelmed by the looming Groan Zone, you might seek a quick resolution with stakeholders. Any solution that facilitates their early closure. Without addressing your problem solving approach.

Later, as the work proceeds, you notice an emerging pattern where they give priority to assumed solutions over understood problems with strong assumption. Leaving you with a thought,

“How do I manage this unease? I can help them discover better opportunities, or a deeper understanding of our current situation and its reasons.

As a Design professional, you understand that problem solving often requires twisting, combining, or letting go of elements. This has the potential to give rise to conflicts stemming from individuals’ attachment to their perspectives during the product’s development. These conflicts can worsen over the course of a project, impacting the overall quality of the product delivery.

So, what is a way out?

The simplest way to navigate out is by creating shared context and building relationships. For aiding with this, here are four simple methods you can test out.

Listen to Understand

Easiest way is to encourage a dialogue over debate. Building up conversations will help you and stakeholders to explain each other’s perspectives, building trust.

For example, you can arrange a separate meeting with everyone to discuss the competitor’s analysis of the feature. Which helps stakeholders to understand the value proposition the solution should deliver.

Use a structured approach

Though expression is a powerful tool but it lacks natural record keeping and participation. So the second way is that you can organise structured activities for the problems you’ve identified or solutions you’ve found. This will help you guide the stakeholders with a goal in mind, providing a clear prioritisation technique. Structured activities will help you with highlighting constraints and note down of their thoughts around it. These activities can vary from a simple card sorting to the intricate task of polarity management.

For example, you can conduct a card sorting activity with stakeholders, which includes their desired functions and competitors’ function to be grouped into innovative feature.

Use tools to converge

Another way is to encourage different perspectives is by creating diagrams or visual models. These can help identify gaps, assumptions, or biases in the project lifecycle. Using a mix of structured activities and tools can drive creativity in project work and also make it easier to keep records.

For example, you can conduct Moscow analysis of the feature that includes desired and competitors’ function for an innovative solution.

Practice Design Thinking

Once you begin with work, you realise the Groan Zone is inevitable and it can create a drift that may occur throughout the project lifecycle. Above that, you may work with changing resources across different stakeholders. Leading to communication challenges and differing opinion at any stage of the project.

You can avoid such pitfalls by practicing design thinking. As it will help you with identifying the challenges worth solving and develop ideas in brainstorming sessions. Also, it helps you and stakeholders understand your users better and reduce assumptions.

For example, you can define the characteristic of a feature that makes users use the product. Asking relevant questions such as what you want users to feel? User to do? Etc. You can achieve this by improvising on the current features or envisioning new ones adopting to human centred design. Which keeps stakeholder and others aligned to same foundation.

Besides these four methods, there are loads of other ways to merge and fine-tune solutions to break free from the Groan zone.

Conclusion

The Groan Zone is an essential phase in product development. It shows that you are tackling problems and engaging in critical thinking. By recognising and overcoming these challenges, you can gain a comprehensive perspective that inspires opportunities for innovative ideas. By having awareness and effective process tools, you can perceive the Groan Zone as a crucial growth zone.