I’m trying to coach some designers along the path of feeling comfortable adjusting and evolving approaches that have been learned in school (vs believing that there is a single “right” way and that design quality is aligned to how closely they execute against that “textbook” approach). I’d like to be able to share something with them that demonstrates that the higher one’s design maturity, the more comfortable/ confident one is with adjusting approaches and trying new things based on context and experience… and that this is a good thing.
I don’t have a framework or model to point to, but the thing that strikes me as interesting about this question is
design quality is aligned to how closely they execute against that “textbook” approach
It might be worth pointing out that this is an inward-looking, appeal-to-authority view of quality, measured in the wrong place. Design quality is actually measured by the attainment of user ease and satisfaction coupled with business results, and these do not depend on method adherence. The methods exist to help you get the information you need to achieve these results but they do not deliver these results themselves.