What is a design provocation?

A design provocation is a prompt that stimulates you to explore novel areas of solution space. A good one will lead to solutions better than those previously known.

A connotation of 'provoke' is that when someone is provoked they might go too far. A design provocation might make you go too far.

• "Provocation: You have to do the whole thing in 1 month."
• "Provocation: You can't use words at all."

The result of going too far is that you have expanded the Overton window of the design space you're exploring for solutions. If it worked, the best solution will now be within the boundaries of the space you are exploring.

Another connotation of 'provoke' is emotional arousal. A good design provocation wakes something up in you and brings more of your emotional resources to bear on the problem.

Provocations can be framed as a question ("What if we had to do it in 1 month?") or as an imperative ("Provocation: We have to do it in 1 month"). The imperative form is often more provocative.

What makes a good one

They're good when, in retrospect, they helped us find a better solution. Often this better solution was an interpolation between the wild ideas generated by the exercise and the orthodox ideas we started with. The design provocation helped us get there.

They're not so good when they had us exploring areas that weren't fruitful. A design provocation could be, "It has to be 100% purple." For most projects, that's not going to turn out to be useful.

It's not fully decidable in advance whether a provocation is going be good. You have to pick one based on experience and intuition. You'll find out in the end whether it worked.

How to generate them

Some approaches:

1. Radical amplification - Notice something desirable (characteristic X), propose it radically

• "Provocation: It has to take zero clicks."
• "Provocation: We won't listen to that guy at all."
• "Provocation: The goal is that kids prefer it over going on vacation."
• "Provocation: That number has to be 100x bigger."
• "Provocation: We're building the best one in the world."
• "Provocation: We have to do it in 1 month."

2. Inversion - What would destroy the product or tank the business?

• "Provocation: Our goal is to destroy user trust."
• "Provocation: We want this to be super aggravating to use."

3. Lateral thinking - Reframe the problem entirely

• "What if we had to solve the problem in a completely different way?"
• "Provocation: The problem isn't a problem at all."
• "Provocation: The real problem is our way of conceptualizing this."

4. Personas - Channel someone else's perspective

• "Provocation: We approach this like Steve Jobs would."
• "Provocation: We do what Jesus would do."

5. Feelings first - Start with the emotional response you want

• "Provocation: The goal is that I feel joy when I use this."

6. Crazy ideas - Remove all constraints

• "What if we solved this in the most batshit way possible?"
• "What if we had a magic wand and could [xyz, eg, have unlimited engineering resources]?"

7. Artifacts - Reference existing solutions

• "Provocation: It has to be like [artifact]."
• "Provocation: We employ the same method the [artifact] creators used."

2025-11-11

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