INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: everyone says they want creative ideas until you show them one

A Berkeley Haas study put words to something designers run into all the time. People say they want creative ideas, then get uncomfortable when the idea challenges what they believe.

That reaction makes sense, even when it is frustrating. New ideas have uncertainty built in, and they do not fit the pattern everyone already recognizes.

What most people actually want is the watered down version. Different enough to feel like progress, familiar enough to approve without anxiety.

Good ideas rarely die all at once. They get softened one reasonable comment at a time until the thing that made them worth doing is barely still there.

That does not mean you avoid unfamiliar ideas. It means you make the logic visible, explain the risk it removes, and help people understand why the unfamiliar part is worth keeping.