Report cover image

The Value of Counterintuitive Thinking

Publisher IDC
Published Dec 23, 2025
Length 14 Pages
SKU # IDC20676928

Description

This IDC Perspective explains the benefits and methods for encouraging counterintuitive thinking, along with tools and advice to make it work in almost any environment. Ignoring red flags, deferring to conformity, and misplaced optimism can cause leaders to make bad decisions. To combat that, consider counterintuitive thinking. Counterintuitive thinking has been very successful in the technology realm. It helps break through ingrained assumptions, encourages innovative solutions, and fuels disruptive progress in how problems are solved, products are designed, and organizations are structured. A variety of strategies enable teams to discover solutions that may not emerge from conventional logic. To organize and focus the process, consider deploying one of the dozens of tools available. These tools, which often employ AI to suggest alternative pathways, are quite diverse. Some have cross-functional capabilities, while others tend to focus on a subset of processes."Practicing counterintuitive thinking can be the difference between a run-of-the-mill solution that will provide reasonable results and an innovative solution that will make a big difference in terms of time to market, profitability, customer satisfaction, feature engagement, or anything else that's important to the business," said Karen D. Schwartz, adjunct research advisor with IDC's IT Executive Programs (IEP).

Table of Contents

14 Pages

Executive Snapshot

Situation Overview

Methods of Invoking Counterintuitive Thinking

Reverse Logic

Reverse Brainstorming

Lateral Thinking

Design Thinking

Constraint-Driven Thinking

Frameworks and Tools Can Help Spur Counterintuitive Thinking

A Case Study: Github Embraces Counterintuitive Thinking

Advice for the Technology Buyer

Learn More

Related Research

Synopsis

Search Inside Report

Pricing

Currency Rates
How Do Licenses Work?

How Do Licenses Work?

The primary function of a report license is to define how many people within a company are authorized to use the purchased report. This is separate to how a report might be delivered. Unless specifically identified otherwise, the purchase option is Single User. Below is a helpful description of that license, along with a sampling of others most commonly offered.

  • This license allows only one user to have access to and to use/read the report. It is not one user at a time or one user group; it is an individual who will be reading and utilizing the report.

  • This license allows for the entire purchasing company to read and use the report. This is the license level that would allow for a report to be placed on an internal company shared drive for access by all employees of that direct company. This license does not extend to parent or sister company use.

  • This license is designed to allow an entire department within a company full access to a report. The departmental license is a great option for companies that have more than one location and the department is spread out all over the country/world

  • This license is for companies that have one location where they want the report to be accessible by all employees within that physical location.

  • This is the most flexible of the licensing options. Some publishers will allow you to get a license for a preset number of people (typically 5). These licenses are ideal for small work groups.

License options are at the discretion of each publisher. As such, not all licenses indicated above are available for every product. If you are uncertain of the best license for your needs or would like a license that is not proactively available, please contact us and we will be happy to assist.

Request A Sample
Head shot

Questions or Comments?

Our team has the ability to search within reports to verify it suits your needs. We can also help maximize your budget by finding sections of reports you can purchase.
Chat Now
Contact Us