Navigating Ambiguity: Creating Opportunity in a World of Unknowns

A thought-provoking guide to help you lean in to the discomfort of the unknown to turn creative opportunities into intentional design, from Stanford University's world-renowned d.school.

“Navigating Ambiguity reminds us not to run from uncertainty but rather see it as a defining moment of opportunity.”—Yves Béhar, Founder and CEO, fuseproject

A design process presents a series of steps, but in real life, it rarely plays out this neatly. Navigating Ambiguity underscores how the creative process isn’t formulaic. This book shows you how to surrender control by being adaptable, curious, and unbiased as well as resourceful, tenacious, and courageous.

Designers and educators Andrea Small and Kelly Schmutte use humor and clear steps to help you embrace uncertainty as you approach a creative project. First, they explain how the brain works and why it defaults to certainty. Then they show you how to let go of the need for control and instead employ a flexible strategy that relies on the balance between acting and adapting, and the give-and-take between opposing approaches to make your way to your goal.

Beautiful cut-paper artwork illustrations offer ways to rethink creative work without hitting the usual roadblocks. The result is a more open and satisfying journey from assignment or idea to finished product.

Andrea Small is design leader, strategist, and educator. As a former d.school teaching fellow, she and her cohort created award-winning education experiences. Currently she teaches at the d.school and leads storytelling and design strategy for Samsung Research America's R&D Innovation team. Andrea has worked with some of the world's most iconic brands, including Nike, Nivea, Facebook, iRobot, Starbucks, and Herman Miller.

Kelly Schmutte is a designer, educator, and entrepreneur. At the d.school she designs learning experiences with lasting impact, reimagining the future of higher education (Stanford 2025), creating life tools for high schoolers, and building out the Navigating Ambiguity curriculum. Kelly teaches core d.school classes alongside d.school founder David Kelley. She and her ballet shoe start-up, PerfectFit Pointe, were featured in the New York Times.

The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known as the d.school, was founded at Stanford in 2005. Each year, more than a thousand students from all disciplines attend classes, workshops, and programs to learn how the thinking behind design can enrich their own work and unlock their creative potential.