Going beyond the method: The separation between great professionals and true experts

From Chadwicks Systems View of Planning, 1971

There is a lot of industry concerned with method. We buy books for cooking and we watch youtube videos to learn how to sing, play piano, knit, and skateboard. 

I suspect a method, however, is a little more developed than a technique. It is a string of techniques, and thus functions as a form of knowledge in itself. 

Back in the 1950s, the world was transfixed by methods. Lean manufacturing, urban planning, and design methods were all developed as ways to intelligently identify, engage, and solve complex problems. The industry is still booming today, with evangelists covering Linkedin and twitter for Agile Coaching, Service Design, and a range of other "isms." Job ads regularly hire based on method as well. Do you know how to do focus groups? UX Research? Rapid digital prototyping?  It is not enough to know how to write the code, you need to know the method to apply the code in a meaningful way.

Personally, I love methods. I collect them. I collect books on methods (like Chadwicks 1971 publication on systems planning, above) and I am constantly trying to learn new methods across many different fields. Consequently, what I find problematic about methods in industry is not the requirement or mastery, but rather the lack of imagination.

Product designers, for example, have thoroughly codified their profession around methods. Interviews, sketch sessions, value mapping sessions, and paper prototyping are a string of methods to inform product development and strategy. They work fairly well, and are therefore repeated across industries and problem sets. 

But what about the creation of new methods? Whose job is to do that? After all, someone invented many of the methods relied upon today. Specific persons pioneered these canvasses and concepts, then shared or taught them with others. 

What I find alarming is that so few designers are inventing methods. Creativity is a foundation principle of the discipline, and yet the methods are redundant. 

Perhaps then, this is the mark of distinction between good professionals and great ones, the question you should ask at your next interview: "Tell about a time you invented a method to solve a problem."