Define
Divergent thinking
Expanding possibilities - generating many ideas, pain points, or options before narrowing down.
Divergent thinking opens the search space. In Empathize and early Define, teams gather widely: more interviews, more pain points, more perspectives.
In Ideate, divergence means brainstorming without premature judgment. The Double Diamond's first half of each diamond is deliberately divergent - quantity and variety before convergence.
Related terms
- Convergent thinking - Narrowing possibilities - prioritizing, synthesizing, and committing to the best options.
- Brainstorming - A facilitated session to generate many solution ideas quickly, deferring evaluation until later.
- Double Diamond - A widely used design process model with divergent and convergent phases for discovering problems and developing solutions.