We’ve all been there.
We’ve all tried to tackle a significant problem only to realise the information we need is too elusive, too complex or too vague. There are methods out there that can pin down hard-to-access information, but they’re scattered across many different disciplines.
Hyde and Rugg have been tracking down these methods. We’ve brought them together in an approach to problem-solving we call knowledge modelling. The methods are powerful, and solidly evidence based. Most are simple, easy to learn, inexpensive, and can quickly give you the information you need. We’ve successfully applied them in fields as diverse as IT, security, safety-critical systems, engineering, education and social work.
For example:
- If your customers can’t explain what they want, our methods can unpack what they mean.
- If your client isn’t sure what they want, we show how to map out their goals and intentions.
- If your solutions don’t seem to be working, you can find out how to check for classic pitfalls in reasoning.
- If you need new ideas, we highlight richer and more systematic methods for tapping into your creativity.
This is how it happened…
In the mid-1980s, Gordon and his colleague Peter McGeorge were researching expert systems – software that’s meant to mimic how experts solve complex problems such as the diagnosis of disease. But expert systems weren’t working as expected.
It had initially been assumed that experts, of all people, would think rationally and logically, but it turned out they didn’t. Also, experts’ thinking showed particular patterns of error. Gordon and Peter set out to discover how experts really did think.
They soon found that the obvious fields – computer science and psychology – didn’t offer the methods they needed, so they searched domains such as mathematics, anthropology, sociology and market research, and collated a range of methods for eliciting information from experts.
It became clear that there were different types of knowledge, and that different elicitation methods mapped on to them. This prompted Gordon and his colleague Neil Maiden to develop the ACRE (ACquisition of REquirements) framework. He then went on with Jo Hyde to develop the Verifier method for identifying expert errors.
Gordon applied Verifier to a problem that had eluded experts for decades – the Voynich Manuscript. Sue Gerrard applied it to autism – another long-standing theoretical challenge. Both pieces of research resulted in papers published in leading peer-reviewed journals.
The mechanisms underpinning knowledge are complex, but the techniques we use to elicit, represent, test, and transfer it are simple, inexpensive, and easy to learn. We’ve presented summaries, tutorials and practical examples on the resources page of our website. We hope you find them useful.
For further information, to ask about our training or consultancy, or to sign up for our newsletter, you can contact us here.