Thinking styles and product development project types: How to match them?

Abstract

Focusing on the characteristics of different thinking styles and different product development project types, we suggest that people should adapt their thinking strategies according to the challenge they face and choose a thinking style that is a best match for the type of project they are working on. Even though people can perform well in more than one thinking style, they can be more successful if they adequately choose the most appropriate one for solving the problem in front of them. Considering that different thinking styles have different ideas and conclusions as results, we propose how to match them to a specific product development project type that has a certain degree of change in the product as a deliverable. For further research, these findings open the possibility to define the most appropriate creative problem solving methods and techniques that spur and support a specific style of thinking. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.