Not on the same page? How the concept of “thought levels” can improve collaboration

Poor collaboration is all around us. Change how you communicate to get to mutual understanding faster.

During the past nine years of building products, every good product manager, designer, and engineer I’ve worked with has had a collaborative mindset to building products. Yet, despite good intentions, many of us still struggle to collaborate with one another effectively.

Despite good intentions, we struggle to collaborate effectively with one another.

In this brief article, I’ll cover the concept of “thought levels” and how you can use it to experience less confusion and more clarity of thought when working with others.

Communication breakdown is all around us

First, let’s look at a few scenarios of communication breakdown. Perhaps you can identify with one or several of the following situations:

• Kayla, a product manager, is trying to define and launch a brand new product. She wants her designer to be a thought partner as she learns from users about top use cases. However, the designer spends most of their time in Figma optimizing existing screens. Both Kayla and her designer are frustrated, and neither feels like they have the support they need from the other to move forward.
• Thomas, a detail-driven product designer, is pushing back on his product manager because the spacing is inconsistent between UI components. The product manager is focused on getting the MVP launched and repeatedly dismisses Thomas’ concerns leading to mutual distrust. Both feel like the other doesn’t know how to do their job effectively.
• Amy, a design leader is looking to improve UX maturity across the company. She gives a presentation to designers and product managers that touches on some important design theories and concepts. Despite their eagerness to learn, the audience is unsure how to apply the principles discussed in the presentation to their day-to-day jobs and is left feeling confused and unsupported.

Communication is imperfect

We have A LOT going on inside our heads each and every second, and most of our thoughts don’t get communicated (this is especially true when you have your webcam off in today’s remote era).

Despite our every intention to communicate clearly, human language is a blunt and imperfect tool to try and explain our thoughts.

Communication is imperfect. We often say we understand when we really don’t have a clue.

Often times many nuances get lost in translation resulting in misunderstandings, missed deadlines, meetings that last longer than necessary, and an “ugh, I’ll just do it myself” attitude.

However, not all hope is lost! I believe there’s one thing that sets an extremely good collaborator apart from a mediocre or poor collaborator, and that’s their ability to traverse between high and low levels of thought quickly and easily.

The best collaborators can traverse between high and low levels of thought quickly and easily.

(Don’t worry, you don’t have to learn the dark arts to be able to traverse thought levels)

Understanding thought levels

What do I mean by “levels of thought?” Let me explain with a few more amateur sketches and Lego figures.

Our thoughts and conversations range from extremely high-level to low-level concepts.

High-level thoughts

At the top end of the spectrum we have high-level thoughts. Otherwise known as “the bird’s eye view” or the “10,000 ft view.” These can be things like company mission statements, product strategy conversations, and so on. Somewhat like a belief system, these thoughts carry more weight and usually dictate downstream actions and behaviors.

High-level thoughts carry more weight and dictate downstream actions and behaviors.

Low-level thoughts

On the other end of the spectrum are the low-level thoughts, otherwise known as more “in the weeds” or “the details.”

Lower-level thoughts are more specific and generally carry less weight.

Just because they’re low-level doesn’t mean they’re any less important. However, sequencing matters. For example, if you wanted to plan a trip you would probably choose the destination and activities before you pack your suitcase.

Stephen Covey talks about how it’s important to “Begin with the end in mind” in chapter two of his famous book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” In other words, it’s important to align on the high-level before moving into low-level territory.

Putting it into practice

Alright, now that you have an understanding of thought levels as a concept, what does it look like to actually put this into practice?

When presenting or explaining concepts

Whether you are presenting work, leading a project kickoff meeting, or giving a company presentation you can traverse thought levels to communicate more clearly. If you stay at one thought level too long, your audience may become impatient or confused.

Connect high-level concepts to lower-level ones and vice versa to keep everyone on the same page.

If you stay at one thought level too long, your audience may become impatient or confused.

For example, when trying to get buy-in to work on a design system, don’t just talk about how each button will be consistent and have the same height, width, and corner radius. If you choose to start there, be sure to work your way up the thought ladder until you connect these low-level decisions to a higher meaning. Show your thought process to help your audience better connect with the decisions you have made and the impact behind them.

Ladder up to higher level thoughts to give context behind low-level thoughts and decisions.

If you are trying to educate other teams on the importance of design research, make sure to show them how these best practices will actually impact their day-to-day and how the product gets built.

Connect high-level concepts to a lower level that better resonates with your audience.

More clarity in conversations

The next time a teammate says something you’re unsure of, step back and identify where they might be on the thought ladder. Think to yourself, “Do I align with their understanding of the situation?”

You may find that they are in the weeds and you’re not sure how they got there. Or maybe you are trying to keep things moving forward and they are stuck in the clouds.

When you feel you’re not aligned with their thought level, it’s time to adjust.

After you’ve mentally placed them on the thought ladder, it’s time to calibrate your thought levels. Work your way up or down until you arrive at a place of mutual understanding.

If you find you are discussing the meaning of life, you probably need to bring it down a few levels. For that you might say, “Can you help me understand how this translates into next steps?” or “How does this impact the designs we currently have in progress?”

If they’re in the weeds, you can use phrases such as “Just so I understand…” or “Can you give more more context on how you arrived here?”

Ask higher-level questions to bring the thought level up a notch and get the context you need.

Based on their response, you may need to keep working your way up or down the thought ladder until you both arrive at clarity of thought. As you step through this process you also may find that you need to completely change your approach — and that’s OK!

Context is everything. As you work to align thought levels you may need to change your original approach.

Final thoughts

The next time you start to sense a feeling of confusion, frustration, or misalignment try to remember that your teammates are just trying to make the product and company better.

If you assume positive intent, show your work, and try to meet people at the right thought level, my hope is that you will be able to communicate with clarity, avoid unnecessary swirl, and arrive at a place of empathy and mutual understanding.

If you enjoyed this article, don’t be shy — give a clap or leave a comment! And be sure to follow me for more amateur sketches and lego figures. Cheers!