Frequently Asked Questions
These common questions and their short answers are taken from Sheryl Cababa’s book Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.
- What do you mean by systems thinking?
This is a very good question because you’d be surprised at how many different answers there are to this question. For example, there are ideas and practices oriented around hard systems methodology, which is focused primarily on finding and enacting effciencies within a given system. This includes approaches such as systems engineering.
In this book, your main concern will be oriented around soft systems methodology, which can be described as understanding a problem space, creating a holistic view of it, and considering where intervention can happen to create certain outcomes. - I feel intimidated by systems thinking as a practice. Can I really use systems thinking as a designer?
Designers sometimes tell me that they feel like systems thinking requires complex software to be able to model causal loop maps and simulate how systems will change. This often feels like a barrier to being able to engage.
The tools that are the focus of this book mostly involve various forms of visual mapping. If you, as a designer, use outputs such as user journeys, service blueprints, or other forms of mapping as analysis, then this approach should resonate with, and feel accessible, to you. You do not need complex software to engage in the mindset of systems thinking and make it actionable in your process. It could be helpful to engage with experts in systems analysis if that’s what your project work requires, but I do not view it by any means as a necessity. As you grow as a systems thinking-oriented designer, your practice might shift to involve different tools and collaborations with other experts, but this is not a requirement from the beginning.
If you know how to facilitate workshops, engage a diversity of stakeholders, use sticky notes, and create visual maps on paper or in tools like Miro and Mural, then you are already well on your way to being able to incorporate many of the mapping tools and frameworks within this book. - Can systems thinking work with design disciplines such as service design and user experience design?
Systems thinking can absolutely work with these design practices. In Chapter 3, “Systems Thinking and Design Thinking,” you will find a framework that describes how systems thinking intersects with the typical design-thinking approach. The key thing to remember is that systems thinking is much more of a mindset than a codified set of practices, so you can employ a systems-thinking lens to your exist- ing practice and tools, as well as enhance your current practice with some of the tools and frameworks introduced to you in this book. For example, mapping outputs such as service design blueprints could be paired with outcomes mapping or theory-of-change frameworks to broaden the perspective of how to enact change. (See Chapter 7, “Creating a Theory of Change,” for mapping tools that are oriented toward envisioning the future.) - Are design systems and systems thinking the same thing?
A design system is, as described by Nielsen Norman Group, “a set of standards to manage design at scale by reducing redundancy while creating a shared language and visual consistency across different pages and channels.” This includes components of the system and ways of using them.
Systems thinking is a mindset and approach that helps you consider and analyze systems as a whole, consider the relationships within them, and investigate cause and effect that leads to specific outcomes.
So design systems and systems thinking are not the same thing. However, because creating design systems involves creating a pattern language and acknowledging how components affect each other, a systems-thinking mindset intersects with the mindset required to create a design system. The creation of design systems has more alignment with hard systems methodology, whereas soft systems methodology is the main focus of this book. (The Chapter 2 sidebar, “The System of Systems Thinking,” is good for understanding systems methodology.)
Design systems are not addressed in this book as most of the tools and frameworks are oriented around more broad practices of systems thinking combined with design strategy, but if you are interested in the mindset required for creating good design systems, see the interview with Nicole Sarsfield at the end of Chapter 3. - Do I need to use all the tools and frameworks in this book in order to engage in systems thinking?
You can use whatever tools in this book you find useful for the kind of problem-solving you are engaging with. If, for example, you are using systems thinking to facilitate how your own company or organization can change, you might find analysis tools such as the iceberg model a good way to gain alignment on the problem space. (See Chapter 6, “Mapping Forces,” for more systems-thinking tools to model the status quo.)
The tools and frameworks outlined in this book are not by any means a codified set of tools that all systems thinkers use. They have been collected from various forms of systems practices, and represent those that I’ve found most useful for design practitioners. There are many more tools out in the world, and I encourage you to continue exploring and growing your practice.
