Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is a family of psychological research methods for uncovering and representing what people know and how they think. CTA extends traditional task analysis to tap into the mental processes that underlie observable behavior, and reveal the <a href="https://www.globalcognition.org/cognitive-skills/">cognitive skills</a> and strategies needed to effectively tackle challenging situations.

Instead, the idea of the critical decision method is to get experienced professionals to describe some of the toughest challenges they faced. By using carefully crafted probes, the CTA interviewer teases out how these people assessed situations and made decisions in critical moments of their experience.

Directly observing the behaviors of these folks gave me the insights I needed to tailor the solution. The same applies in a learning setting. Go watch that customer service agent <strong>IN PERSON </strong>and see for yourself what they are doing well, what they are not doing well, and what they might be totally missing.