Team Cognitive Walkthrough: Fusing Creativity and Effectiveness for a Novel Operation

Abstract

For first-of-its kind operation, it is valuable to bring together system designers and combatants to generate creative and feasible concepts to deploy robots in future operations. System designers will share the perspective in the terms of the technological possibilities and system limitations while the combatants bring with them the rich battlefield knowledge. The proposed methodology is the “Team Cognitive Walkthrough” which leverages on the strengths of both Design Thinking and Cognitive Walkthrough techniques to encourage collaboration to derive concepts for a novel operation. The Team Cognitive Walkthrough is conducted over a series of 3 day-long workshops with participants, made up of an equal mix of soldiers and engineers to define the problem statement, identify opportunities, and co-create a suite of solutions.

Through weaving Design Thinking methodologies into Cognitive Walkthrough, creativity and effectiveness can both be achieved at an early stage of the development. LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY ® provides a common language through the use of LEGO® bricks to establish rapport and common understanding amongst the participants. Collaborative Sketch allowed all participants to have equal voices in the first round of design. Application of the low fidelity paper prototypes during the Cognitive Walkthrough meant that the design changes could be effected rapidly. The initial findings have indicated that the ideation workshop involving the combatants and engineers together had led to the derivation of creative solutions. The combatants acquired a better understanding of the technological challenges while the engineers gained a deeper appreciation of the battlefield considerations.