Problem Statement Add/remove

Purpose:

Creating a relevant and actionable problem statement helps to navigate the problem solving process. A good problem statement creates a strong focus on the specific problem you are trying to solve, as well as defining who benefits from the solution and why this is an important problem to solve.

Step by step Facilitating tips Materials needed Goes well with Download template (pdf)

Tips to include participants who are not able to:

See

If participants have low vision use good color contrast and readable font size. Also, make sure that one person in the pair has high vision.

Hear

If participants are unable to hear make sure that they have a sign language interpreter so they can communicate with persons able to hear, or only use writing as a communication form.

Touch

If participants are unable to write make sure that one person in the pair is able to, or use text-to-speech remedies.

Hold

If participants are unable to write make sure that one person in the pair is able to, or use text-to-speech remedies.

Overview

Input

Opportunity areas, challenges

Output

Problem statement

Complexity

Moderate

Time

10-15 min

Participants

2

Activity

Core abilities: Communicate

Step by step:

  1. Gather the input for conducting the method. The input would be either opportunity areas identified in earlier methods or challenges identified through desktop research or through user interviews. For ideas on how to structure data, see ‘Affinity Diagramming’. It is important to consider the data gathered holistically before writing the problem statement.

  2. A good problem statement could address what, who, where, why and how. Use the template provided to write the problem statement. Note that you do not have to fill in all the blanks in the template, if it does not fit your problem.

When doing this method you should consider:

In order to formulate a good problem statement it is optimal to have thoroughly explored the problem space beforehand. You need to have an understanding of your user or the challenge you are tackling. This you can acquire through desktop research, user interviews and through generative methods in the early stage of the design process.

Materials needed:

Pens
Template