Advanced: cognitive task analysis, the decisions experts cannot tell you

What this lesson covers

1. 01

   "I just know"

   You ask the best claims assessor in the company how she spots a fraudulent claim. She says: "You check the documents and the dates, and you just know." Every step she describes is something the average assessor already does. What makes her better is not in her description. If you build the course from that interview, you will train everyone to do what they already do.

2. 02

   Why experts leave things out

   With practice, decisions become automatic and stop being available to conscious recall. Research reviewed by Richard Clark and colleagues found that experts describing their own work routinely omit a large share of the decisions and cues they actually use, while describing the observable steps well. This is not modesty or secrecy. It is how expertise works. The consequence for design is direct: interviews that ask "what do you do?" recover steps, not judgment.

3. 03

   Three CTA techniques you can run this month

   Critical decision method: Ask for one specific, recent, difficult case. Walk the timeline. At each turning point ask: what did you notice, what did you expect, what were you trying to avoid, what would a newcomer have done?

   Think-aloud on a real task: Give the expert a live or recorded case and ask them to say what they are looking at and why, as they work. Record it. Do not interrupt with theory questions.

   Expert-novice contrast: Give the same case to an expert and a newer employee. The differences in what they look at first, and what they ignore, are your practice targets.

4. 04

   What a CTA output looks like

   Decision point | Cues the expert uses | Common novice error | Practice it with

   Is this claim worth a second look? | Repair invoice dated before the incident; garage outside customer's city | Checks only that documents are present | 20 short claim files, 6 with subtle cues

   Call the customer or request documents? | Customer history of quick, complete answers | Always requests documents, adding 10 days | Branch: same claim, two customer histories

5. 05

   Use more than one expert

   Each expert omits different things. Clark and colleagues recommend interviewing at least three experts on the same task and merging what they report. Where they disagree, you have found either a real judgment call (document it as a range of acceptable choices) or a local habit (check it against outcomes). In MENA organisations, run the interview in the language the expert works in. Cues are often named in the working language, and translation in the moment loses them.

6. 06

   One critical-decision interview

   Run one 45-minute critical-decision interview with the best performer for your top action. Fill the four-column table from slide 4 with at least two decision points. Add it to your performance brief. This is the part of the brief that most designers skip and reviewers notice first.