When I was a student at Stanford, the ME310 course used a personality test created by Doug Wilde and based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Wilde’s test is documented in his book Teamology.
I felt that version was a bit abstract for day-to-day design-thinking work, so I developed a simpler test aimed at the kinds of activities student design teams face. My goals are twofold: (1) help students recognize their own biases and (2) surface complementary traits that can be used to build balanced, diverse teams.
I’ve run this test several times in the ME310/SUGAR program at the KYOTO Design Lab. Because our cohorts are small (8–12 students) and other diversity factors, discipline, gender, English proficiency, also matter, we never rely on the results alone for team formation.
I’m not an expert in psychometrics; this tool grew from hands-on classroom experience. If you decide to try it with your students, I’d love to hear how it works and welcome any feedback.
Contact information: Sushi Suzuki (sushi@kit.ac.jp), Associate Professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology
This questionnaire assesses a student’s working style in a project-based, team-oriented design course. The aim is to highlight different tendencies so instructors can build groups with a mix of personalities.
The test looks at five traits:
A. Extroverted vs Introverted (Higher score the more Extroverted): Is the student the kind of student that wants to talk to new people and make new connections? This could be relevant to both talking to potential users and forging the bond between team members.
B. Bias towards trying new things: Is the student willing to go out of his or her comfort zone with regards to building? This has implications in prototyping with tools that may not be familiar to anyone on the team.
C. Bias towards action: Is the student the kind of person that wants to get active very quickly? Or is he/she the kind that wants to plan carefully before executing.
D. Bias towards organizing in teams: Is the student the kind of person that wants to organize and coordinate the team? Is he/she someone that wants order in the team?
E. Strong-willed vs Compromising (Higher score the more strong-willed): Is the student strong-willed with their own ideas? Or is he/she the kind that prefers to acquiesce to the team?
The test has 20 questions, four for each trait. Scores for every trait range from –8 to +8.
For instructors: Share the link with your students. Because individual data isn’t collected, ask them to send you their Results page as a screenshot or a PDF (“Print” → Save as PDF).
For students/individuals: Take the test and click Submit to see your results. If an instructor asked you to share them, send a screenshot or PDF of the Results page.