Dan Brown names an important and overlooked part of the design process so that we can rightly attend to it. The book discusses discovery activities, the discovery mindset, and a set artifacts aligned to a 4-quadrant model: Gather, Process, Explore, Analyze. Light stories serve as a bit of a backbone to describe traps, pitfalls, and tie activities together between phases.

The model itself is a 2x2, set against Framing Direction-setting (horizontal) and Converging Diverging (vertical). With descriptions of tools, activities, anecdotal examples and abstract samples, it lacks a strong point of view on how it all should fit together... while there's no ideal or standard project, it's nice to have a clear picture to serve as guiding light, until experience builds intuition and fluency.

In all, a smart collection of discovery technique that's worth a read or revisit before new projects. Dan Brown's experience shows in the breadth of topics covered. For deeper details on the execution of any specific area, you'll need to look further into one of the many cited references and resources. ( )