When I was younger, I noticed I did a lot of what I called “tunnel” thinking. I would approach a problem from the point of view of whether or not I had seen it before. Then I would start the process of solving it. Sounds okay, right? But sometimes it wasn’t so easily solved; I would have to dig and dig and dig to find the answer.
Only if I finally got tired of trying to find the answer down there in depths of my brain would I give up and come up for air, and either try it again (definition of insanity), or completely start over as if I had never seen the problem before.
That’s when I realized I needed to think horizontally rather than vertically.
But it wasn’t so easy to switch gears. The problem with vertical thinking, or “tunnel” thinking as I called it, is, just as I found out, you can dig and dig and dig and never find the answer.
That may be because you haven’t dug deep enough, yes. But it can also be because that particular hole you’re diving into isn’t the right hole.
I don’t like to admit it, but it took me a while to get used to that idea. When I started my business, though, I was confronted with this vertical/horizontal dichotomy just about every day. In web design, functionality issues are a part of the drill. My first instinct would always be to start digging in the most obvious rabbit hole. We all know how easy it is to get lost in one of those; it took me some time to catch myself doing it, and make the course correction.
But how do you know when it’s time to switch from vertical to horizontal? In my case, it was when I realized hours had gone by that I wasn’t billing for and I still hadn’t come up with a solution (ie. The hard way).
So what’s the right way to approach a problem in web design? Or in any problem requiring a creative solution?
First let’s define the terms:
Vertical thinking:
According to innovationmanagement.se, vertical thinking is “something like drilling deeper in an existing oil well, or mining an existing seam in a gold mine”. The gold mine is usually a tried and true solution that someone else, or in my case, me – has seen in the past and has proven at least somewhat successful.
The upside of this kind of thinking is that you are very focused and not distracted by all the various squirrels on your computer monitor vying for attention.
The downside is you can spend a lot of time and energy on something that may not yield results.
Horizontal thinking (or sometimes called Lateral thinking) involves looking at the problem from a 360 perspective, or rising above it to see the entire landscape. From there you can investigate various solutions by thinking in new directions.
The upside of horizontal thinking is you have a much better chance of finding a solution in less time since you’re taking in the “big picture.”
What’s the downside? To my mind, you can only test one theory at a time, so in this case, you may end up wasting time digging shallow tunnels into several different ideas. Focus can suffer and those squirrels start getting more and more of your attention.
The answer is to use both types of thinking. But again, I don’t know about you, but I can only hold one idea in my brain at a time. So which do we do first, the vertical or the horizontal?
As an example, let’s say I’ve just come across a client website whose contact form has suddenly stopped working.
Should I start brainstorming possible reasons, or immediately dig into what I have found this issue to be caused by in the past?
My instinct would be to assume it’s caused by an update failure. But it could be a plug-in conflict, an issue with reCAPTCHA, or an email address that doesn’t exist anymore.
The experts don’t unanimously agree on the right approach, other than to say that both should be used.
Some would have me brainstorm all the issues and do a shallow dive into all of them. Others would have me dig deep into my most likely scenario based on past experience.
Old habits die hard and I admit that my first instinct would get the most attention. But I have learned not to spend too much time there. Once my initial vertical thought doesn’t yield results, I now tend to go the possibility that is easiest and fastest to test. In this case, it would be that the email address has been lost or the mailbox is full. A quick test email to it and a response from the client could solve the problem then and there. No digging required.
But that’s an easy example. What if I’m now trying to work out how to expand my business? What should I add in terms of services to provide more income in a way that doesn’t cost me more than I’m likely to see in returns? Should I offer current clients more services or add new services for new clients?
This is a trickier question. Thinking vertically, I might simply add more services to what I already offer. But thinking horizontally, I can see many different ways of doing that, including ways to save money vs. earning more income.
First one, then the other. I know I will always gravitate to whatever I feel is “tried and true” first. And years ago, I would have chastised myself for doing it. After all, the idea of thinking “vertically” sounds inherently bad or at the least lazy, whereas thinking “horizontally” sounds so much more advanced.
But the reality is I have to do whatever works for me. The trickiest part might be for me to accept that and be okay with it.
We’re always evolving in our thinking. What if I come up with some other method of approaching a problem? Not vertical or horizontal, but something else altogether? That’s horizontal, right there!
But I suspect I will always have a grain of vertical in my thinking process because my brain is still comfortable there. But now I know I don’t have to stay there. I can come up for air anytime, look at the big picture, and decide if I want to go back down or if it’s not worth it.
That’s an evolution – or at least progress.
Are you a vertical or horizontal thinker?