Tag: problem finding

Design Better How Might We Statements

Design Thinking, FeaturedPublished onUpdated on3 Comments on Design Better How Might We Statements

It is widespread for us all to wrestle with the DEFINE stage of design thinking as we try and seek out a well-defined how might we statement. This might be true of your team, or perhaps your students struggle with writing a clear How Might We (HMW) statement.

If we have fully committed to the previous EMPATHY stage, we have a bucketload of data and insight for our design challenge. We are also switching our thinking mode and mindset from divergent to convergent. That change can often be tricky. We are attempting to make sense of the information we have gathered. The DEFINE phase brings clarity as you make connections and see some directions to explore.

But how do we know we have clearly defined a problem? What makes a good HMW statement from a great one? What should we focus on when offering critique to improve them? What do we know works best in this phase?

In this post, I have gathered together some of my key recommendations to improve your problem defining efforts. These are my top strategies and tactics for navigating the DEFINE stage of design thinking and creating compelling how might we statements.

Is The Problem Worth Solving?

We develop how might we statement in the DEFINE stage of design thinking. The problem should clearly state and define a genuine need or issue. Whatever happens next has to be worthy of your time and creative effort. Your defined problem should coherently represent the issue you are addressing and the learning you have experienced so far.

Once you have some examples, a good question is: How do we know this is the issue we need to resolve? This question will force you to connect back to the previous work and justify your choices.

The Goldilocks Problem

My standard approach to developing an HMW statement, or critiquing them, is to use the Goldilocks Principle. You can use this to offer feedback and review the versions and ideas you have created. We are looking for a balanced problem statement. Not too narrow and not too broad. It has to be just right.

A narrowly scoped challenge won’t offer enough room to explore creative solutions. And a broadly scoped challenge won’t give you any idea of where to start.

(DesignKit)

Consider the following HMW statement about adapting and changing the physical learning environment. Notice the different versions and how each iteration broadens or narrows:

HOW MIGHT WE change the classroom to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Too broad)

HOW MIGHT WE change the room layout and types of chairs to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Too narrow)

HOW MIGHT WE make small changes to my learning space this term to provide my students with more opportunities for choice in their learning? (Just right)

Start and Iterate

Developing a powerful HMW question is an iterative process and takes tweaks and many versions. It is easy to get stuck wondering where to start. Perhaps you are looking at all the interviews you did or student data you have gathered and begin to feel overwhelmed. My best advice is to get started writing some HMWs down, and then you can refine and iterate as you go.

What is your 4th Word?

Focus on the fourth word. The imperative, the fourth word, signals the action. We use the How Might We structure, so the fourth word is the first choice you have in crafting a problem. Consider what action you want from this creative problem-solving process.

Is this aligned with what we are trying to achieve? Is it aligned with the needs of the people we have interviewed? “How might we encourage” is very different from “How might we direct.”

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Image from Doug Belshaw, CC-BY-SA

Language Inspiration

Explore word banks and vocabulary sets to support students with fourth-word choices. I sometimes use Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs as a good starting point.

Explore the verbs from the taxonomy. There is plenty of inspiration and options to consider.

It is powerful to have alternatives to our stock language: create, help, support, make, implement. Sometimes more nuanced word choice helps capture our intentions better.

Breadcrumb Trails

Keep it connected to the EMPATHY phase. Ask yourself: where is the evidence for this focus in the data we gathered? Which insight or experience tells me this is a real need? Force yourself to articulate the breadcrumb trail back to the EMPATHY stage again and again. That will help you develop a rigorous and well-defined problem, not just something in response to your bias or interpretation.

Stick to a Template

Use the HMW template to help comprehensively build each element of the statement. Explore the quality of the different parts as well as the overall idea and how it reads. What are we trying to communicate with each element? Who are we helping?

How Might We Statement Template
Use this template for writing your How Might We statement.

Focus on Your Intended Impact

Pay attention to the part of the statement that signals your intended impact, the “In order to…” element. What change are you looking for? Share feedback about the desired effect we are seeking from this process. Consider how it is aligned to the needs of the people at the centre of the issue.

A great provocation for problem framing is to finish the sentence, “It’s not right that.” This helps us focus on impact, unmet needs and genuine problems people are facing. Thanks to Annie Parker for teaching me this back when I ran the Google Teacher Academy in Sydney in 2014.

It’s not right that________

Fill in the blank

Resist Excessive Wordsmithery

Try not to wordsmith the problem statement too much. We can easily get bogged down in the language and start to split hairs over small changes. Yes, I know this might seem to contradict the use of word banks – design thinking is full of tensions.

Remember this problem definition phase is there to help you. We are not writing to impress others. Be clear and concrete in your writing style and try to avoid too much jargon and abstractions. Does it represent the needs of the people we have connected with? Is our intention clearly stated?

Take the time you need

Please don’t rush this phase, as it will have a knock-on impact on the remaining process. I have seen many design thinking processes grind to a halt because of a lack of investment in the DEFINE phase. There is no need to rush to ideas. Take your time to identify a significant unmet need and define it clearly.

A clearly focused problem statement invariably yields both greater quantity and higher quality solutions.

(Stanford d.school)

One of the most powerful ways to know whether you are on the right track with the problem DEFINING phase is to listen to your team’s reactions and trust your judgment. If the problem you have defined is a genuine reflection of the needs of the people you are trying to help, you now have the responsibility to CRACK ON and figure it out.

Let me know what resonates, and if you would like some independent critique on your ideas, email me your HMW statements. I would be happy to help.

Some other readings worth exploring

Download a FREE Problem Framing Resource (PDF)

I have updated and refreshed my popular Problem Framing Resource, which hundreds of design thinkers use to support their work in the DEFINE stage of DESIGN THINKING. You can download a FREE copy of the PDF below.

Click here to download

Download a free copy of my Design Thinking – Problem Framing resource by subscribing to my small but perfectly formed newsletter, the Dialogic Learning Weekly – ideas and insight about Innovation, Leadership and Learning.

  • Step by step process and detailed instructions for you to follow.
  • Key provocations to challenge your thinking.
  • Space to iterate and create multiple versions.
  • A tried and tested template for writing HMW statements.
  • Graphic organiser structure.

Featured photo by Thanos Pal on Unsplash

How to Keep People at the Heart of Your Next Problem Solving Process

Design ThinkingPublished onUpdated on25 Comments on How to Keep People at the Heart of Your Next Problem Solving Process

 

Problem solving is a skill we want all of our students to be honing whilst at school. However one of the issues I stumble upon during my work is the weaker focus on problem finding.

In many ways problem finding can be more accurately and more broadly defined as the time when we check that a problem is worth solving in the first place. This is something students don’t experience enough.[1] All too often they are presented with a problem and get busy generating ideas, or as adults we assume that the problem is clear when it is not and start from a much weaker position.

I enjoyed this recent article from Emily Heyward[2] that focused attention on ensuring a problem is worth solving in the first place. Instead of immediately jumping ahead there are significant gains to be had by staying in the problem for much longer.

Staying focused on the problem also prevents you from falling into the fatal trap of assuming the world is waiting with bated breath for your product to launch. When I used to work in advertising, we would joke that the “insight” in the creative brief was often something along the lines of, “I wish there were a crunchy cereal with raisins that was healthy and also delicious.” But people do not wish this. They might have a hard time finding a quick breakfast that doesn’t make them feel fat or sluggish. And maybe your crunchy raisin cereal is the perfect response to this issue. But they are not waking up in the morning wishing for raisiny, crunchy goodness. Similarly, people are not wishing for your idea to exist, because they don’t even know it’s an option. So when you sit down to clarify what problem you’re solving, a great initial test is to imagine someone’s inner monologue. Is the problem you’ve identified something that a real human might actually be thinking?

The last line emphasises the importance of empathy in any problem solving/finding process. We have to be able to put ourselves in other people’s shoes to fully appreciate what the need is. I suppose that is the difference between something we might want and something that is a true need.

So spend longer in the problem state. Encourage your students and colleagues to remain in that state, often characterised by asking questions, for as long as you can. Technology and habits cause us to jump out of this inquiry/problem finding state all too quickly. That in itself is a habit or mindset we need to wean our students off.

John Dewey talked about inquiry in a similar way, inquiry in my opinion being synonymous with any creative process, saying that we need to protract the state of uncertainty for much longer.

To be genuinely thoughtful, we must be willing to sustain and protract that state of doubt which is the stimulus to thorough inquiry.[3]

That has always resonated strongly with me. Whether in a design agency as Heyward refers to or as a curriculum based inquiry, it is the deliberate and sustained period of doubt that most characterises an inquiry. When we experience this with an open mindset to learn and empathise with those involved we are more likely to identify a problem worth our time to try and fix.

Further into her piece Emily Heyward also refers to the 5 Whys[4] technique which we commonly use with teams we are working with. I suspect you have probably come across this too. However I like the slight change in the wording of the question, not just “Why?” but “Why does that matter?”. I think this small change resets the question back into one of relevance to the human being at the heart of the issue. It will be a small change I make when I use the 5 Whys technique in the future.

By focusing on the problem you’re solving, you move beyond a functional description of what your product is, to an emotional solution that connects with people at their core. It also keeps us honest that what we’re doing really matters…

In the start-up and design world it is critical to remain focused on the people at the heart of new ideas, but this is just as relevant for the creative inquiry we help our students experience. In many ways the core experience of “school” should be about creating something that matters. I imagine a time when that becomes a new education standard.

  1. The design thinking process emphasises this precursive step. Participants immerse themselves in an issue or topic and then synthesise the insights they gain. It is through these two significant stages that a problem is identified and ratified. You don’t start with a problem, and even if you did you still orientate yourself to ensure it is worthy of our time.  ↩
  2. Emily Heyward is s a founding partner at Red Antler, a branding consultancy specialising in start-ups and new ventures.  ↩
  3. Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. New York: D.C. Heath and Company. (p. 16)  ↩
  4. The 5 Whys technique is used to dig deeper into the causes of an issue. You start with a simple identified problem and then ask why is that an issue and then repeat again with the answer. It deliberately opens the issue up and ensures a team identifies the root causes. The technique is commonly attributed to the Toyota Motor Corporation during the evolution of its manufacturing methodologies.  ↩