Make To Think And Think To Make

I'm a passionate design thinker and I practice design thinking at any and all opportunities. Design thinking is part art and part science. John Maeda is one of my favorite thought leaders on design. He published a post talking about art as a form of asking "what do I want to know" rather than "what do I want to say."

As a product manager, making a product goes from what do I want to know — the requirements — to what do I want to say — manifestation of the requirements into a working product. I call it "Make to think and think to make". I make prototypes — make to think — similar to a form of an art, to help me think and ask the right questions to fulfill my needs of "what I want to know". The human beings better respond to tangible artifacts as opposed to abstract questions. These conversations stimulate my thinking to execute on those requirements — "think to make" — similar to "what do I want to say." The design thinking cycle continues.