Reframing a Problem Statement
“How do we make the journey from London to Paris better?”
Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy Group, has delivered some hilarious, yet insightful TED Talks. In ‘Life lessons of an adman,’ he brings up the question of “How do we make the journey from London to Paris better?”
The engineering solution is to spend six billion pounds to build completely new tracks so that about 40 minutes can be saved from the three-and-half-hour journey time.
Rory’s imaginative way improving a train journey is not about making the journey shorter. His solution is…
Employ all of the world’s top male and female supermodels, pay them to walk the length of the train, handing out free Chateau Petrus for the entire duration of the journey. Now, people will ask for the trains to be slowed down.
Moral of the story: Interpretation of ‘improving’ something is not always about efficiency or saving time; it can be about creating a memorable experience!
How Might We?
We all start with a problem statement or a client brief in a Design Thinking Workshop. In the Double Diamond Design Process, ‘How Might We (HMW) questions’ or the ‘Final Brief’ sits exactly at the middle, separating the two diamonds of ‘doing the right things’ and ‘doing things right.’ A good HMW question is a ‘reframed’ problem statement that will open up the boundaries of ideation resulting in better solutions.
Let me illustrate this by narrating the story of Laila and her friend.
Laila and her friend decide to go for shopping at M. G. Road, the commercial high street of Kochi, where there are many shopping malls and eateries. They drive to the place in Laila’s car. Only one problem: there is no ample car parking space in that stretch of road.
After hunting for a parking space in vain, Laila decides to stop the car at the kerbside near a ‘No Parking’ sign. Her friend gets out of the car, darts across the street and goes into a shopping mall while Laila patiently sits in the car alone. After half an hour, her friend reappears with some shopping bags and they start the return journey together.
If we are trying to define a problem statement from the above story, it might look like this.
How might we help Laila to find a parking space at M. G. Road when she goes there for shopping?
If we are proceeding to ideation, this problem statement might trigger the following solutions.
- A mobile app that shows nearby parking slot availability
- A mobile app based valet parking service
- An automated, multi-level, underground car parking directly underneath the whole stretch of M. G. Road
- Huge Helium balloons that can lift the car up and make it float in the air
- A ‘foldable’ car that can fit in a suitcase to carry around
- …
“Why?”
On second thoughts, if we start to ask “why?” to the above problem statement, a new problem statement will reveal itself. If we ask “why” again and again (some say, five times!), we will arrive at the core — the real, reframed problem statement.
- “How might we help Laila to find a parking space?”
- “Why Laila needs to find a parking space?”
- “Why Laila needs her car?”
- “Why are they shopping particularly at M. G. Road?”
- …
How might we help Laila to do shopping with her friend at M. G. Road so that they enjoy the time together?
It turns out that the core of the problem statement is not about parking; it is about the experience of shopping together.
Now the ideation on the reframed problem statement might yield…
- Ditch the car and use public transport instead— metro rail or feeder bus service to M. G. Road
- Shopping malls and business owners can offer free luxury bus rides in a circular route within the city connecting the M. G. Road. I have used a similar service by a shopping mall in Singapore.
- A virtual reality tour and online shopping experience of M. G. Road
- …
The aim of problem restatement is to broaden our perspective of a problem, helping us to identify the central issue and alternative solutions. It increases the chance that the outcome our analysis produces will fully, not partially, resolve the problem.
Restate or redefine the problem in as many different ways we can think of. This allows us to shift our mental gears without evaluating them.
Double Diamond: No two diamonds are alike!
Always spend time making sure that we are trying to solve the right problem. Arrive at a ‘How Might We’ question — a distilled, reframed problem statement. Because asking the right question is as important as answering them.
Additional Reading:
11 Ways To Restate Problems to Get Better Solutions by Paul Williams
