Designing Tools for Collectively Solving Ill-Structured Problems

Abstract

Ill-structured management problems are of paramount importance for organizations today. As they are complex to solve, they are undertaken by teams of diverse individuals who make use of tools to help them in solving such problems. Most tools either focus on supporting collaborative practices or are dedicated to solving specific ill-structured problems. In this paper, we bridge these two perspectives and provide design principles for tools that both support collaboration and are tailored for specific ill-structured problems. We derived these design principles from our participant observation of two critical cases of such collaborative tools: the Business Model Canvas and the Team Alignment Map. We lay the theoretical and design foundations for future developments of similar collaborative tools. Our paper illustrates the value that the IS discipline can bring to the increasing call for a design approach to management by rigorously developing tools for co-design.

Assessing and Changing an Organization’s Innovation Culture with the Workspace Catalyst Canvas

“…(3) We developed and designed the canvas. For the development, we identified relevant constructs that were summarized in an ontology, as suggested by [2]. For the design, we followed design principles from Gestalt Theory [1], as well as the canvas design guidelines suggested by [21].…”

“…The development and design of our canvas is guided by Avdiji et al [2] , who suggested three steps for developing a canvas: (1) ontology development, (2) transfer of the ontology to a visual representation, and (3) a collaboration format. Based on related theories and empirical evidence from our evaluation workshop, we identified nine relevant constructs and transferred them into an ontology (depicted in Figure 1).…”

“…According to Schein [17], organizational culture consist of three elements: (1) visible artifacts (such as style, clothing, and the workspace design), (2) espoused beliefs and values (such as strategic goals and philosophies), and (3) underlying assumptions (perceptions, thoughts, feelings). All three aspects form the organizational culture.…”

Formative Evaluation of Data-Driven Business Models – The Data Insight Generator

“…The artifact was developed based on semistructured interviews and a literature review [14]. As identified, one of the main problem [44] with DDBM is that the purpose of the data use should be clear to all stakeholders [14]. The BMC does not explain this connection.…”

“…The three lines Think, Validate and Know should be used during an iterative process. First, workshop participants gather everything on sticky-notes [44] in the Think row. Afterward, they sort these ideas into Validate or Know lines.…”