(Illustrated above) A financial trader follows a very similar schedule on most every working day. During large parts of this daily routine, he has the potential to be overwhelmed with a steady stream of incoming, discrete decision tasks, most of which are facilitated by his high performance computing tools.

An architect’s projects typically span over months or, more commonly, years. Her work days are often long, with a sustained intensity level that often leads her to feel hurried as she switches between very different tasks during different project phases.

A scientist is under pressure to quickly understand clinical data in order to deliver exacting discoveries— a “quickness” that she feels on very different time scales. She appropriates whatever computing tools she can to clarify the big pictures of her lab’s experimental outputs, while at the same time dealing with a myriad of time sensitive details that are needed to keep her studies running effectively.

What tempos are currently found within the tasks and larger activities that your team is striving to mediate?

How did these tempos originate? What factors have perpetuated them?

How can certain paces and timings in different threads of knowledge work nest and interrelate?

What drives current variabilities in tempo? What impacts can individual differences, workers’ roles, or specific organizational approaches have?

Where do conflicts sometimes occur due to misunderstandings around tempo? When and why do collaborators become “out of step”? Could these current problems present opportunities for your team’s product?

What do individuals and organizations think of current tempos in targeted work practices? What parts of their work would they like to slow down or speed up? Why?

What positive or negative impacts might your sketched application concepts have on various tempos? What problematic changes seem sufficiently possible to imply that your team may want to redesign related functionalities?

How might the inherent tempos of your sketched functionality concepts be received by an aging knowledge workforce?

What interactivity and design communication could positively influence workers’ perceptions of elapsed time during their experiences with your team’s computing tool?

How might positive changes in targeted tempos factor into your product’s brand?

Do you have enough information to usefully answer these and other envisioning questions? What additional research, problem space models, and design concepting could valuably inform your team’s application envisioning efforts?