Problem Framing
One of the first things I do when a new person joins my team is walk them through an overview of Problem Framing. My goal is to try to create a culture where everyone asks: "are we solving the right problem" and make sure we have the tools available to so that asking, and answering, that question doesn't slow down the work.
The following are some common slides that I've used over the years.
What happens all too often is that some initial problem is defined and teams rush into solution mode...
Teams will get together and workshop solutions to the stated problem, and end up falling in love with a solution:
"Of course it has to be a submarine, it's the only logical choice... not everyone knows how to swim, we can't afford a plane, a canoe is dangerous, etc."
But this is where we need to catch ourselves...
There is a great problem framing exercise I learned about from Marc Rettig back in 2005 at UX Week. Ask people to get a pen & paper... set a timer for 1 minute and ask them to "Design a vase"...
Get people to share what they drew, then, ask them to turn their paper over, set a timer for 1 minute and ask them to "Design a way for people to experience flowers"...
The purpose of this exercise, obviously, is that the map of possible solutions grow exponentially by simply having a more abstract problem statement.
The most important part of the talk is introducing a way to ensure that the problem statement is a good one.
