Mental Models

Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.
1 From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
2 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?

You do
6 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?
this through multiple workshops with team members and stakeholders in your organization, which develops understanding and innovation.

“The deepest form of understanding another person is empathy...[which] involves a shift from...observing how you seem on the outside, to... imagining what it feels like to be you on the inside.”1

You line them up in towers; then line up the towers into groups that represent different cognitive spaces.

These mental models represent what a person is trying to accomplish in a larger context, no matter which tools are used.
2 Jay Morgan, Applied Cognitive Scientist, MS in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience, University of Texas at Dallas, 2004.
8 Chapter 1

I want to acknowledge this distinction because those in the field of cognitive research have explored mental representation in great detail in the past decade, and I want to indicate where these mental models might fall within the currently defined parameters.

Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.
1 From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
2 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?

Cognitive research is now so specialized that article abstracts begin with verbose strings of qualifiers to narrow down the type of mental representation they mean.”2

Because the mental models in this book are collections of the root reasons why a person is doing something, they belong to the set of mental representations that are built over a long period of experience and are thus resilient.

These mental models represent what a person is trying to accomplish in a larger context, no matter which tools are used.
2 Jay Morgan, Applied Cognitive Scientist, MS in Applied Cognition and Neuroscience, University of Texas at Dallas, 2004.
8 Chapter 1

The mental models defined in this book are models of a person’s somewhat stable behaviors, rather than ephemeral models that are temporary representations of one situation.

In other words, you align the features that your business values beneath concepts that people mentioned.

The mental models defined in this book are models of a person’s somewhat stable behaviors, rather than ephemeral models that are temporary representations of one situation.

“‘Mental model’ has become a more generic term for mental representation.

CHAPTER 1
What and Why? The Advantages of a Mental Model
What is a Mental Model? 2 Why Use Mental Models? 9 Confidence in Your Design 9 Clarity in Direction 16 Continuity of Strategy 23
1
What is a Mental Model?

CHAPTER 1
What and Why? The Advantages of a Mental Model
What is a Mental Model? 2 Why Use Mental Models? 9 Confidence in Your Design 9 Clarity in Direction 16 Continuity of Strategy 23
1
What is a Mental Model?

“The deepest form of understanding another person is empathy...[which] involves a shift from...observing how you seem on the outside, to... imagining what it feels like to be you on the inside.”1

To create a mental model, you talk to people about what they’re doing, look for patterns, and organize those patterns from the bottom up into a model.

What and Why? The Advantages of a Mental Model 7
What is a Mental Model
The Mental Model Process
First, reach out to actual users and have a conversation with them, collect- ing their perspective and vocabulary.

Mental models give you a deep understanding of people’s motivations and thought-processes, along with the emotional and philosophical landscape in which they are operating.

You need to know the person’s goals and what procedure and philosophy she follows to accomplish them.

You do
6 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?
this through multiple workshops with team members and stakeholders in your organization, which develops understanding and innovation.

Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.
1 From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
2 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?

Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.
1 From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
2 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?

Affinity diagrams, in the simplest interpretation, show groups of related things.

Since the phrase “mental model” is somewhat commonly used—at least in the realm of research—I want to set out what I mean by the term and then outline why you would ever want to make one.

Mental models give you a deep understanding of people’s motivations and thought-processes, along with the emotional and philosophical landscape in which they are operating.

In Figure 1.2, dark green indicates a primary match for the feature.

Mental models are simply affinity diagrams of behaviors made from ethnographic data gathered from audience representatives.
1 From the book Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen of the Harvard Negotiation Project, Chapter 9, “Empathy is a Journey, Not a Destination,” p. 183.
2 Chapter 1
What is a Mental Model?