Project management: can a sample solution constrain design?
At the start of a project, a mock-up or a previous deliverable often helps clarify expectations. The management question is narrower: should a reference solution be shown before the team has developed its own options?
What the literature establishes
David G. Jansson and Steven M. Smith (1991, Design Studies) studied design fixation: adherence to features of an example can restrict the solutions people produce. In their experiments, proposals reproduced certain elements of the model provided, including unsuitable features. An example therefore conveys more than an intention; it can also pass on choices that have not been justified.
An example leaves an imprint
Steven M. Smith, Thomas B. Ward and Jay S. Schumacher (1993, Memory & Cognition) observed a similar effect in a creative generation task: participants' outputs reproduced features of the examples they had seen. Instructions to avoid those features were not sufficient to eliminate the effect. Applied to a project, this mechanism suggests that saying “this model is only illustrative” does not guarantee independent design.
The hasty conclusion
One might conclude that all examples should be removed from the project brief. Yet these studies do not demonstrate that designing without a reference consistently produces a better solution. A model can make legitimate requirements visible; the precaution is to distinguish those requirements from the specific choices it contains. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot settle
These experiments concern bounded tasks, not projects in Genève tracked through to implementation. They do not assess the balance between time saved through an example and options discarded under its influence. Resemblance to a model is not, in itself, a mistake: it may reflect a regulatory obligation or a genuine technical constraint.
A practical check in Genève
Within SHR's “Project Management” programme, a verifiable exercise would ask participants to produce an initial outline based solely on needs, then a second after consulting the reference model. In Genève, the subject could be a private banking client journey, an approval workflow in an international organisation, a traceability process in luxury watchmaking or document processing in commodity trading. For each feature that appears in the second outline and is present in the model, the team would record the requirement justifying it; the indicator would be the proportion of these features without a documented justification. This record would not prove fixation, but would make choices imported from the model open to scrutiny before approval. To go further: explore the Project Management training in Geneva in the canton of Geneva, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Project Management in Geneva
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