The Double Diamond

Explains how the f**k creative process works.

Published in

MethodKit Stories

4 min readJan 9, 2015

This is part of a series of write-ups I ment to write for a long time. Accually seven years and this was something that especially was on my mind when working full-time with Project of How 2011–12.

Last month I was listening to 12 students on what they learned the first half year on Hyper Island. That reminded me on my own time at the school 7 years ago. This is a part of the summary I wanted to have myself.

For quite a while I felt that many of the current models have been poorly described to easily be put to action. Not that they are flawed but they are sometimes hard to use in a practical sense.

/Ola Möller (@olamoller)
Founder & Designer at MethodKit

This is a part of The Creativity Series. Previous: Part 1. The Walnut

1. Introduction

The double diamond describe the mix of phases that is needed in a creative process. That you first need to come up with a multitude of ideas to be able to have something to choose from. The double diamond model was introduced to me by getting in contact with people educated at the Kaospilots especially through Changedesign. The model seems to orginate from British Design Council by name, the model first appear in it’s visual shape by Bela H. Banathy (1996) that IDEO picked up. Something that probably led to it being so wide-spread.

Exploring phases

(Idea generation & concept development)

Creative environment

Creating an environment that leads and allows you to explore. An allowing place where diverse set of ideas are accepted.

**The two divergent stages:** Idea generation + concept development.

Examples: Divergent thinking

Many ideas, diversity of ideas.
Brainstormings in groups.
Brainwriting in silence. (Diversity)
Many ideas
Mashing up ideas
Craziness

Selection phases

(Idea & Concept Evaluation)

The selection processes need a more analytic & logical approach.

Structured environment

To be able to evaluate ideas and concept a more structured environment is needed to be able to assess and compare the things that have been thought of in the discovery phase.

**The two convergent stages:** Idea evaluation + concept evaluation

Examples: Convergent thinking

Narrow down the number of ideas
Sort & cluster them
Analytical approach
Assess what’s good & bad
Which criteria make a good idea
Walls with grids
Cluster post-its
Selection based on criteria
Analytical/critical approach
Discussing pros/cons
Top lists
Yes/no stacks

Picture from the e Big Post on Selecting Grand Ideas.

I dedicated the Big Post on Selecting Grand Ideas to explain ways of selecting ideas.

Cycling between divergence & convergence

Daniel Cook put the model to practical use in a post from 2010 where he describe thoroughly how the process works and I find the post extremely insightful. The basic concept that he is talking about is that some ideas are kept through each cycle (create value) and that it bit by bit shape & build the final idea.

The concept of value accumulated through cycling described by Daniel Cook.

Making the diamond your own

I believe that models should be made dynamic. Not only be there as a theory, but to be able to be a tool to think with. Making your own adapted model is a good way of understanding how it fits into what you do. 2008 I worked with the crowdsourced Photo Book about Sweden and needed to convince people of how the pictures they sent in we going to be handled, I used an adaption of the Diamond to explain the process of photo curation.