How you start a project frames the entire project. As such, it's important to take some time to understand the subject and situation, before moving forward. We want to move forward on a particular path of focus/interest/need. We want to make sure we are focused, as this frames our next steps. Start with the "How Might We..." to create ideation questions. Then create a Problem Statement to capture your problem, goal, and success criteria.
Use the "How Might We", "In What Ways Might We", and "How to" exercise to switch your problems to openers to questions. These questions will open up different avenues to look at your problem, for ideation.
Example:
Customers aren't contacting us when they have a problem.
Result:
How Might We get customers to contact us if they have a problem with our product?
In What Ways Might We get customers to contact us with their problems?
How are we going to get customers to contact us when they have a problem?
A Problem Statement gives you clear focus for research and next steps. It can also identify constraints & guardrails to keep you grounded.
- What are the current goals of the project or system?
- What problems do the stakeholders wish to address?
- What goals have yet to be met?
- What is the explicit request for improvement that does not dictate a specific solution?
Use this template:
[The product/service, etc] was designed to achieve [These goals].
We have observed that the product/service isn't meeting [these goals,] which is causing [this adverse effect].
How might we improve [service/product] so that our customers are more successful based on [these measurable criteria]?