Gut Feeling in Small Design Consultancies

A participatory study of product design teams in six design consultancies in the north west of the UK is described. Prior research indicates that designers and new product developers often attribute the term ‘Gut Feeling’ (GF) to decision-making that is perceived as difficult to articulate and typically outside acknowledged causal models. From the use of participant-observation to elicit detailed hindsight narratives, the notion of GF appears to be systemic within the early stages of the design development process. GF use represented the synthesis of causal and effective knowledge. Its value impacted new product design and development.