problem forming problem finding and problem solving in design

Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design

This meeting [1], representing a convergence of students of design from a range of wholly dissimilar disciplines, is an event of major significance. It is significant that the meeting is being held at all that all of you recognize your common concerns. It is significant that we are gaining deep insights into the design process itself. If it is pretentious to talk about the “science of design,” at least we know now that there are truths about design that can be formulated and communicated, general truths that seem to apply to design as each of us knows it, in his or her particular professional domain.

But perhaps it is not really pretentious to speak of the science of design. There are principles that are widely applicable, and increasingly, we are finding ways of implementing these principles on electronic computers, and thereby securing the powerful assistance of those computers in the process of design. Let’s compromise on “the art and science of design.”

In recent years, the awareness of our communalities, whatever the specific field in which we work, has been hastened by the applications of computers to design: expert systems, computer aided design, artificial intelligence. Because their programs are open to inspection, computers allow us to look at the design process. The program is a tangible, concrete object. And in order to construct programs to design or assist design, we have to try to understand the process. That process is basically the same, whether it is carried out by people or computers, or, as is increasingly the case, by both in collaboration.

Tags: architecture, computers, creativity, decision-making, design, design-research, engineering, methodologies, and problem-solving

Format: Scientific Paper

Creator(s): Herbert A. Simon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon)

Publication Date: 2024, Aug 18th

View Resource: http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=34208

How to solve problems with design thinking

May 18, 2023 Is it time to throw out the standard playbook when it comes to problem solving? Uniquely challenging times call for unique approaches, write Michael Birshan , Ben Sheppard , and coauthors in a recent article , and design thinking offers a much-needed fresh perspective for leaders navigating volatility. Design thinking is a systemic, intuitive, customer-focused problem-solving approach that can create significant value and boost organizational resilience. The proof is in the pudding: From 2013 to 2018, companies that embraced the business value of design had TSR that were 56 percentage points higher than that of their industry peers. Check out these insights to understand how to use design thinking to unleash the power of creativity in strategy and problem solving.

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How to solve problems using the design thinking process

The design thinking process is a problem-solving design methodology that helps you develop solutions in a human-focused way. Initially designed at Stanford’s d.school, the five stage design thinking method can help solve ambiguous questions, or more open-ended problems. Learn how these five steps can help your team create innovative solutions to complex problems.

As humans, we’re approached with problems every single day. But how often do we come up with solutions to everyday problems that put the needs of individual humans first?

This is how the design thinking process started.

What is the design thinking process?

The design thinking process is a problem-solving design methodology that helps you tackle complex problems by framing the issue in a human-centric way. The design thinking process works especially well for problems that are not clearly defined or have a more ambiguous goal.

One of the first individuals to write about design thinking was John E. Arnold, a mechanical engineering professor at Stanford. Arnold wrote about four major areas of design thinking in his book, “Creative Engineering” in 1959. His work was later taught at Stanford’s Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design (also known as d.school), a design institute that pioneered the design thinking process.

This eventually led Nobel Prize laureate Herbert Simon to outline one of the first iterations of the design thinking process in his 1969 book, “The Sciences of the Artificial.” While there are many different variations of design thinking, “The Sciences of the Artificial” is often credited as the basis.

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A non-linear design thinking approach

Design thinking is not a linear process. It’s important to understand that each stage of the process can (and should) inform the other steps. For example, when you’re going through user testing, you may learn about a new problem that didn’t come up during any of the previous stages. You may learn more about your target personas during the final testing phase, or discover that your initial problem statement can actually help solve even more problems, so you need to redefine the statement to include those as well.

Why use the design thinking process

The design thinking process is not the most intuitive way to solve a problem, but the results that come from it are worth the effort. Here are a few other reasons why implementing the design thinking process for your team is worth it.

Focus on problem solving

As human beings, we often don’t go out of our way to find problems. Since there’s always an abundance of problems to solve, we’re used to solving problems as they occur. The design thinking process forces you to look at problems from many different points of view.

The design thinking process requires focusing on human needs and behaviors, and how to create a solution to match those needs. This focus on problem solving can help your design team come up with creative solutions for complex problems.

Encourages collaboration and teamwork

The design thinking process cannot happen in a silo. It requires many different viewpoints from designers, future customers, and other stakeholders . Brainstorming sessions and collaboration are the backbone of the design thinking process.

Foster innovation

The design thinking process focuses on finding creative solutions that cater to human needs. This means your team is looking to find creative solutions for hyper specific and complex problems. If they’re solving unique problems, then the solutions they’re creating must be equally unique.

The iterative process of the design thinking process means that the innovation doesn’t have to end—your team can continue to update the usability of your product to ensure that your target audience’s problems are effectively solved.

The 5 stages of design thinking

Currently, one of the more popular models of design thinking is the model proposed by the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design (or d.school) at Stanford. The main reason for its popularity is because of the success this process had in successful companies like Google, Apple, Toyota, and Nike. Here are the five steps designated by the d.school model that have helped many companies succeed.

1. Empathize stage

The first stage of the design thinking process is to look at the problem you’re trying to solve in an empathetic manner. To get an accurate representation of how the problem affects people, actively look for people who encountered this problem previously. Asking them how they would have liked to have the issue resolved is a good place to start, especially because of the human-centric nature of the design thinking process.

Empathy is an incredibly important aspect of the design thinking process. The design thinking process requires the designers to put aside any assumptions and unconscious biases they may have about the situation and put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

For example, if your team is looking to fix the employee onboarding process at your company, you may interview recent new hires to see how their onboarding experience went. Another option is to have a more tenured team member go through the onboarding process so they can experience exactly what a new hire experiences.

2. Define stage

Sometimes a designer will encounter a situation when there’s a general issue, but not a specific problem that needs to be solved. One way to help designers clearly define and outline a problem is to create human-centric problem statements.

A problem statement helps frame a problem in a way that provides relevant context in an easy to comprehend way. The main goal of a problem statement is to guide designers working on possible solutions for this problem. A problem statement frames the problem in a way that easily highlights the gap between the current state of things and the end goal.

Tip: Problem statements are best framed as a need for a specific individual. The more specific you are with your problem statement, the better designers can create a human-centric solution to the problem.

Examples of good problem statements:

We need to decrease the number of clicks a potential customer takes to go through the sign-up process.

We need to decrease the new subscriber unsubscribe rate by 10%.

We need to increase the Android app adoption rate by 20%.

3. Ideate stage

This is the stage where designers create potential solutions to solve the problem outlined in the problem statement. Use brainstorming techniques with your team to identify the human-centric solution to the problem defined in step two.

Here are a few brainstorming strategies you can use with your team to come up with a solution:

Standard brainstorm session: Your team gathers together and verbally discusses different ideas out loud.

Brainwrite: Everyone writes their ideas down on a piece of paper or a sticky note and each team member puts their ideas up on the whiteboard.

Worst possible idea: The inverse of your end goal. Your team produces the most goofy idea so nobody will look silly. This takes out the rigidity of other brainstorming techniques. This technique also helps you identify areas that you can improve upon in your actual solution by looking at the worst parts of an absurd solution.

It’s important that you don’t discount any ideas during the ideation phase of brainstorming. You want to have as many potential solutions as possible, as new ideas can help trigger even better ideas. Sometimes the most creative solution to a problem is the combination of many different ideas put together.

4. Prototype stage

During the prototype phase, you and your team design a few different variations of inexpensive or scaled down versions of the potential solution to the problem. Having different versions of the prototype gives your team opportunities to test out the solution and make any refinements.

Prototypes are often tested by other designers, team members outside of the initial design department, and trusted customers or members of the target audience. Having multiple versions of the product gives your team the opportunity to tweak and refine the design before testing with real users. During this process, it’s important to document the testers using the end product. This will give you valuable information as to what parts of the solution are good, and which require more changes.

After testing different prototypes out with teasers, your team should have different solutions for how your product can be improved. The testing and prototyping phase is an iterative process—so much so that it’s possible that some design projects never end.

After designers take the time to test, reiterate, and redesign new products, they may find new problems, different solutions, and gain an overall better understanding of the end-user. The design thinking framework is flexible and non-linear, so it’s totally normal for the process itself to influence the end design.

Tips for incorporating the design thinking process into your team

If you want your team to start using the design thinking process, but you’re unsure of how to start, here are a few tips to help you out.

Start small: Similar to how you would test a prototype on a small group of people, you want to test out the design thinking process with a smaller team to see how your team functions. Give this test team some small projects to work on so you can see how this team reacts. If it works out, you can slowly start rolling this process out to other teams.

Incorporate cross-functional team members : The design thinking process works best when your team members collaborate and brainstorm together. Identify who your designer’s key stakeholders are and ensure they’re included in the small test team.

Organize work in a collaborative project management software : Keep important design project documents such as user research, wireframes, and brainstorms in a collaborative tool like Asana . This way, team members will have one central source of truth for anything relating to the project they’re working on.

Foster collaborative design thinking with Asana

The design thinking process works best when your team works collaboratively. You don’t want something as simple as miscommunication to hinder your projects. Instead, compile all of the information your team needs about a design project in one place with Asana.

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How to Problem-Find Before You Problem-Solve

Uncovering the root causes.

How to use the 5-whys to uncover root causes

‍using the 80/20 rule to problem-find, use storytelling to identify the problem that needs to be solved, action plan.

Problem-finding must come before problem-solving. Otherwise, we might be solving the wrong problem.

How do you identify the critical problem to solve?

Have you ever “fixed” something that ended up not being broken? Sometimes our solutions fail because we are solving the wrong problem, and we can avoid this situation by engaging in problem-finding before we engage in problem-solving.

This article will teach you three strategies that you or your team can use for problem-finding.

The 5 Whys
The 80/20 Rule
Story Telling

This simple habit delivers a significant impact. Here's how it works. You ask "Why?" 5 times . It's that simple.

Let's walk through an example. Imagine a conversation between a father and son.

Dad: Why are you home in the middle of the day?

Kid: Dad, I can't go to class.

Kid: The car won't start

Kid: The battery is dead

Dad: Why is the battery dead?

Kid: It's been an issue; I think the alternator isn't working.

Dad: Why do you think that?

Kid: It's one of the error codes on the dashboard.

The key is to move past symptoms (car won’t start) to causal factors (bad alternator, or maybe no maintenance).

Suppose the dad stopped after even the third why. He'd be replacing a battery that would soon be dead. You can imagine additional questions emerging after this dialogue about underlying issues like regular maintenance.

Have you ever “fixed” something that ended up not being broken? Sometimes our solutions fail because we are solving the wrong problem.

Five isn't a magical number, but it's usually enough to get to underlying causes and not so many that you start to frustrate people. The key is to move past symptoms to causal factors.

I don't feel like every question has to be, "Why?" Asking "How? When? What? or Where?" can also be helpful, but "Why?" seems to be the most effective at getting to the cause of things.

I will use the 5-Whys in one of two ways:

I tell everyone I'm using it to facilitate a discussion challenging the team to keep digging deeper.
I can also use it subtly in a conversation by keeping a curious posture and continuing to ask questions.

The key is to move past symptoms to causal factors.

This habit is a great one to teach your team, and it will empower each member to do the discovery work necessary for leadership.

Reflection Questions:

When do you not ask why and treat a symptom rather than a cause?
When will you apply the 5-Whys?

The 80/20 rule (or Pareto Principle) tells us that 80% of output typically comes from 20% of the input. Here are some common examples:

In a group project, 20% of the people do 80% of the work.
80% of a company’s revenue comes from 20% of the company’s products.
20% of customer issues generate 80% of the complaints.

Once you understand the 80/20 rule, you’ll begin to see it all over. There are two big ideas here I want you to see.

Not all problems or causes are equally important, and some have much more impact than others.
There may not be one singular root cause. Instead, it might be a cluster of reasons that have an outsized influence.

Knowing that the 80/20 rule exists is an essential concept to help you focus and prioritize, but to do that, you need to find that 20%

That second point is crucial because I’ve seen myself and others get stuck trying to find the root cause. I may have already identified multiple problems that would have had a tremendous impact if fixed. But I was convinced there was one singular underlying cause to solve them all, which usually isn’t the case.

So about now, you may be thinking, “This is great, but how do I identify that 20 percent?” Knowing that the 80/20 rule exists is an essential concept to help you focus and prioritize , but to do that, you need to find that 20%.

Finding the 20 of the 80/20 begins with gathering information

We start by collecting data that we can make visible and organize to identify the impactful 20%. You probably have access to a lot of information you need, but it may require some work to get it together.

Here are three places to look for information that will lead you to find the 20 of your 80/20.

Reviews. Are you holding regular reviews for yourself or 1on1s with your direct reports ? Both can be rich sources of information about how things have been going over time.
Interviews. The core problems may be in an unfamiliar area, and interviews can help you learn from the experience of others. When conducting interviews, you can leverage the techniques of “5-Whys” and “Tell me a story” mentioned in this article.
Data you already have. Do you have staff surveys or customer surveys? Perhaps you have a list of customer complaints or product feature requests. They can be rich pockets of insight.

Ok, now you’ve gathered a lot of information, and it will need some structuring to bring out the root causes.

You need to organize the information gathered to identify the 20 of your 80/20

It can be pretty overwhelming to have a big data pool and not be sure where to start. I’ll briefly introduce two strategies I like to organize a data set.

Affinity diagraming is a simple but powerful process to help you identify themes.

Oxford defines affinity as a similarity of characteristics suggesting a relationship. So in affinity diagraming, we are organizing information based on similar characteristics.

Sticky notes on a whiteboard is my preferred context for affinity diagramming. If you’re on a distributed team, there are some great online whiteboard tools . Let’s walk through the simple steps to create an affinity diagram.

Start by getting all the data pieces onto individual sticky notes. These can be on the board or on a table nearby.
Have the team read over the board silently first
As people see commonalities, have them call them out.
Arrange the notes in clusters or columns
As groups form, use a sticky note of a different color to give a name to the group
As a team, discuss observations from the affinity diagram

Affinity diagramming creates new visibility for a broad set of data. It can be a helpful tool for you and your team to identify the 20% that will make a big difference.

Process mapping lets you see from a new perspective

When a team asks me for help solving a problem, one place I like to begin is mapping the process. Most often, no one person knows the whole process. Team members are usually surprised by how much they don’t know. Seeing it all together in one place provides the visibility needed for insight.

Process mapping uses specific shapes to map out all the steps from beginning to end. They can be simple or complicated. You can organize them around stages or people. There is a lot of flexibility, and how you do it depends on your context.

Creately has a great guide if you want to learn the basics of building a process map. Process mapping is a helpful tool to bring visibility, and seeing the whole process often allows you to identify the fundamental problems that have the most impact.

Related Guides

Problem-finding doesn’t have to be a formal process. It can be very conversational. When I do a design audit of a department, team or process, I begin with interviews. I’ll interview people from different roles and relationships and just ask them to describe to me how this works.

Teach this to me like I was a new hire.

To take a genuine learners approach, you have to set aside what you think you already know about how things work. This approach can be hard for both you and the person you are interviewing. Phrases like, “teach this to me like I was a new hire” can help frame the conversation.

This perspective is one of the reasons why bringing in an outside consultant can be so impactful. They don’t already know how the process works and can ask the “dumb” questions. Sometimes I’ll ask a question everyone in the room feels like they already know the answer to, but when I ask, they all have a different reply. This phenomenon usually leads to some good discussion.

You can implement the 5-whys in these interviews, but you really want to go beyond that and use all the questions words of who, what, where, when, how… Here are a few things to look for in your interviews:

Hacks. Are people having to hack the prescribed system, or even break the rules, to get their job done. There are probably some underlying problems to uncover.
Confusion. How often do you get the answer, “I don’t know,” when asking how something works?
Discrepancy. Do different people give different answers to the same question?
Redundancy . Is the same work being done by multiple people? Dig in to see why this is happening.
Delays. Are there unnecessary delays in the current system? Look to see what is causing these.

I usually take long-form notes and record my interview if possible. Shortly after an interview, I will process my notes, capturing insights on post-its. I’ll then use a process like affinity diagramming to organize them and identify root causes.

It’s easy to feel stuck or have an obstacle and not be sure how to begin to overcome it. I can lead your team through workshops for discovery, ideation, problem-solving, and solution testing.

We covered a lot in this article, and you don’t have to apply all of it at once. Here are three options to start problem-finding.

When a problem is surfaced in a team meeting, facilitate the 5-whys to see if you can identify the root cause.
Schedule a time with your team to map out the core process for your team to deliver value, whether that is a product or service.
Each month, choose a step in your process map and interview team members asking them to teach it to you like you were a new hire.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is design thinking, what is design thinking.

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that involves a deep understanding of user needs and experiences to create innovative solutions. It is a human-centered methodology that seeks to empathize with users, define their problems, ideate potential solutions, prototype and test those solutions, and iterate based on feedback.

Design thinking emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and experimentation, and it can be applied to a wide range of challenges, from product design and development to service design and organizational change. It involves creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement, where failure is seen as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Some key principles of design thinking include:

Empathy : Design thinking starts with empathy for the user, seeking to understand their needs, motivations, and pain points through observation, interviews, and other research methods.
Iteration : Design thinking is an iterative process, involving the creation and testing of prototypes to refine and improve solutions.
Collaboration : Design thinking is a collaborative approach that involves bringing together diverse perspectives and skills to ideate and create solutions.
Visualization : Design thinking often involves visualizing ideas and concepts through sketches, diagrams, and other visual representations.
User-Centeredness : Design thinking prioritizes the needs and experiences of users, creating solutions that are tailored to their specific needs and preferences.

Overall, design thinking is a powerful approach to problem-solving that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and user-centeredness. It can help organizations develop innovative solutions to complex challenges while creating a culture of continuous improvement.

Learn more about design thinking.

What are the five steps of design thinking?

Design thinking typically involves the following five iterative steps:

Empathize : This stage involves understanding the user's needs, desires, and challenges. Designers use empathy to put themselves in the user's shoes to gain a deep understanding of their experiences.
Define : In this stage, designers synthesize their research findings and define the problem statement, which serves as a guiding principle throughout the rest of the process to ensure that solutions are focused on addressing the problem.
Ideate : During the ideation phase, designers generate a wide range of ideas and potential solutions to the problem statement. Brainstorming, sketching, and other creative techniques are commonly used to help facilitate the generation of novel ideas.
Prototype : In this phase, designers create a prototype of the best solution or solutions that emerged from the ideation stage. Prototypes can take many different forms, but they are typically visual representations that allow users to interact with the potential solution and provide feedback.
Test : Finally, the designer tests the prototype with users, gathers feedback, and observes how the user interacts with the prototype. This feedback is then used to refine the prototype further, leading to an improved solution or even new ideas and further iterations of the design thinking process.

Overall, design thinking provides a structured approach to problem-solving that emphasizes creativity, collaboration, and user-centeredness. It enables designers to develop innovative solutions that meet the needs of the users while also providing value to the organization.

Learn more about design thinking .

What are some of the best design thinking exercises?

There are many design thinking exercises that teams can use to generate creativity and innovation. Here are some examples:

Empathy mapping: In this exercise, team members map out the user's experience and emotions to better understand their needs and pain points.
Idea generation: One classic idea generation exercise is brainstorming, which involves generating as many ideas as possible without judgment or critique. Another popular exercise is "Crazy 8s," in which team members sketch eight ideas in eight minutes.
Prototyping: Prototyping exercises include creating low-fidelity prototypes using materials like paper, cardboard, or clay to help teams visualize and test their ideas.
Role-playing: Role-playing exercises help teams empathize with users by acting out different scenarios and personas.
Collaborative sketching: This exercise involves having team members collaborate on a single sketch or drawing, each taking turns adding to the design.
Mind-mapping: Mind-mapping exercises help to organize thoughts and ideas by visually representing the relationships between them.
SCAMPER: This acronym stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. This exercise is helpful in generating new ideas by encouraging teams to brainstorm ways to modify or adapt existing products or processes.

Overall, these exercises help teams to generate and test ideas, refine solutions, and work collaboratively towards creating innovative solutions that meet the needs of users.

How to use Design Thinking

Team leadership, what is team leadership.

Team leadership is a management approach focused on leading and guiding a group of individuals working together towards a common goal. A team leader is responsible for providing direction, support, and guidance to the team members, while fostering a positive and productive work environment.

Team leadership involves setting clear goals and expectations for the team, communicating effectively, and building trust and relationships with team members. It also involves empowering team members to take ownership of their work and contribute their unique skills and perspectives to the team's success.

Some key characteristics of effective team leadership include:

Communication: Team leaders communicate clearly and effectively with their team members, keeping them informed about goals, expectations, and progress.
Vision and strategy: Effective team leaders have a clear vision for what they want to achieve and a strategy for how to get there, while also being flexible and adaptable when necessary.
Empowerment: Good team leaders empower their team members to make decisions and take ownership of their work, while also providing support and guidance as needed.
Trust-building: Team leaders build trust and strong relationships with their team members, creating a positive and productive work environment.
Results-oriented: Finally, effective team leaders are results-oriented, focusing on achieving goals and driving performance while also valuing the well-being and development of their team members.

Overall, team leadership is a collaborative and empowering approach to management that values communication, trust-building, and results-driven performance.

Learn more about leadership .

What are the different styles of team leadership?

There are several different styles of team leadership, including:

Democratic leadership: In this style, the leader encourages open communication and participation from all team members in decision-making processes.
Autocratic leadership: This style involves the leader making decisions and taking control over the team's direction, often with little input from team members.
Transformational leadership: This style focuses on inspiring and motivating team members to achieve their full potential, often by setting a clear vision and communicating goals effectively.
Servant leadership: A servant leader prioritizes the needs of their team members, focusing on serving and empowering them to achieve their goals.
Laissez-faire leadership: In this style, the leader provides minimal guidance or direction, allowing team members to take ownership of their work and make decisions independently.
Transactional leadership: This style involves setting clear goals and expectations for team members and providing rewards or discipline based on performance.
Situational leadership: This approach involves adapting one's leadership style to fit the specific situation or needs of the team at any given time.

Overall, each style of team leadership has its own strengths and weaknesses, and effective leaders may use a combination of different styles depending on the situation and the needs of their team.

What are the different skills required for team leadership?

There are several key skills required for effective team leadership, including:

Clear: Team leaders must be to communicate effectively with their team members, setting clear expectations and goals, providing feedback, and keeping everyone informed about progress and changes.
Active listening: Leaders need to be able to listen actively to their team members, hear their concerns, ideas, and suggestions, and work collaboratively to find solutions.
Empathy: Good team leaders value empathy, recognizing and understanding the perspectives of their team members, and working to build trust and strong relationships
Decision-making: Leaders must be able to make informed decisions based on available information and input from team members, while also being decisive when necessary.
Problem-solving: Effective team leaders must be able to identify and solve problems that arise within the team, working collaboratively to find creative and effective solutions.
Motivation and empowerment: Leaders must be able to motivate and empower their team members to take ownership of their work, overcome challenges, and achieve their full potential.
Delegation and management: Team leaders must be able to delegate tasks effectively, manage resources and timelines, and oversee the work of the team to ensure quality and efficiency.

Overall, effective team leadership requires a combination of interpersonal, decision-making, and management skills, as well as the ability to inspire and empower team members to work collaboratively towards shared goals.

What is servant leadership?

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy and management style that emphasizes the importance of serving others first before considering one's own needs and desires. It's an approach to leadership that focuses on the well-being and growth of others, rather than solely on achieving organizational goals.

A servant leader prioritizes the needs of their followers or team members, providing them with support, guidance, and mentorship. They are committed to empowering their team members to reach their full potential and achieve their goals.

Some common characteristics of servant leaders include:

Empathy: Servant leaders value empathy, placing themselves in the shoes of their followers to better understand their needs and motivations.
Listening: They are active listeners, taking the time to listen to their followers' concerns, feedback, and ideas.
Commitment to development: Servant leaders prioritize the growth and development of their followers, providing opportunities for learning and development.
Humility: They recognize their own limitations and seek input from others to make informed decisions.
Stewardship: Servant leaders view themselves as stewards of their organization, working to create a positive impact for all stakeholders.

Overall, servant leadership is about creating a supportive and empowering environment for others to thrive. By prioritizing the needs of their followers, a servant leader can inspire trust, loyalty, and commitment, ultimately leading to better outcomes for the organization as a whole.

Learn more about how to cultivate servant leadership .

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A guide to problem framing: best practices & templates

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When creating solutions and products, it’s critical to correctly frame the problem you’re attempting to solve.

Remember the Google Glass? What about the Segway? Taken on their own account, these were groundbreaking products with cutting-edge technology. No one had seen anything like them before. Yet they failed for a simple reason: They were solutions in search of a problem.

Now imagine if their creators had spent more time trying to understand the problem their customers faced. Imagine they had actually tried to identify a real challenge and properly define how it could be addressed. The result would have likely been closer to a Tesla or even an iPhone — at the very least, we wouldn’t be talking about them in nearly the same way.

This shows just how important it is to frame a problem before trying to solve it. Let’s go over in detail how you can apply problem framing to your next project.

What is problem framing?

Problem framing is a process for analyzing, understanding, and ultimately defining a problem or challenge in order to develop an effective solution. While it can be done on an individual level, it is typically practiced across teams so that you can achieve alignment and work more cohesively toward an agreed-upon outcome.

In short, problem framing is an opportunity to take a step back, assess the landscape of your problem and break down its root causes, then focus on a solution that is most likely to lead to the outcome you want.

Why problem framing is critical for better outcomes

Framing the problem is important because it sets the direction and scope of the solution design process, ensuring that efforts are focused on addressing the core issues. It helps avoid wasted time and resources on irrelevant or superficial solutions.

Good design and effective iteration can help improve a product, but they won’t tell you if you’re addressing the right problem — only problem framing can do that. Here are some ways this process can ensure your solution achieves better results:

It provides clarity. Whether your team isn’t sure what problem they’re facing or can’t reach an agreement, taking the time to break the problem apart can ensure everyone understands it. And that is crucial to developing a solution that actually works.
It narrows the scope. With a better understanding of the problem, you can eliminate everything but the most essential aspects that need to be addressed. That means only addressing underlying issues instead of just their symptoms.
It achieves alignment. By having a clear definition in hand, you can ensure that all team members and stakeholders share a common understanding of the problem and how to address it. This will help reduce misunderstandings and conflict.
It increases efficiency. While some may think problem framing is an extra step, it can actually help keep you from wasting resources and time by preventing you from focusing on irrelevant or ineffective solutions.

How to frame a problem

Whether you think you have a good idea of your problem or have no clue where to begin, learning how to properly frame it can give you new insights into how to solve it. Here’s a process for doing just that.

Create a problem statement

A good first step is to make sure that everyone can agree on what exactly the problem is. This is a great opportunity to write out a problem statement, or a clear and concise explanation of the problem or challenge you intend to solve.

The goal behind writing a problem statement is to describe the problem as comprehensively as possible, while also spurring your team into action. If your team can’t even reach an agreement on what the problem is, then try to discuss the problem from multiple angles to ensure you’re incorporating multiple perspectives. This will help you achieve alignment.

Even when everyone already has a good idea of the problem, this step can still help ensure complete clarity by taking the simple but effective step of making your team write it down. Learn more about what goes into creating a good problem statement in our full guide .

Identify and understand the problem's root cause

Although identifying your problem’s root cause or causes should be a part of writing out your problem statement , it’s important enough to deserve a discussion on its own. After all, if you are just focusing on the symptoms of your problem, then any solution you develop will ultimately fail.

The key to uncovering a problem’s root cause is to ask why it is happening, rather than what. Typically, there will be multiple answers to this. One way to start organizing and categorizing these different causes and their various effects is by using a fishbone diagram . Start out by writing down your problem, then come up with different categories that could be contributing to it. From there, start brainstorming different causes.

Once you have everything laid out cleanly, you can vote on what you think are the most significant contributors — or, if necessary, even rethink the problem itself.

Empathize with the end-users of the problem

Once you have a good idea of your problem and can articulate it, you also need to ensure that this is a problem your stakeholders face. That means being able to properly understand and empathize with their needs.

To accomplish this, consider organizing an empathy mapping session . Start out by gathering a diverse range of stakeholders in order to reduce biases and leverage different perspectives. Ask them to share their opinion regarding the product, service, or situation, encouraging open-ended responses. As you gather this feedback, divide it into four different categories: thoughts, feelings, actions, and observations —then start looking for areas of improvement. This is where your highest priority problems will be.

The act of interviewing your stakeholders, writing down their responses, and organizing them across different categories should give you a much deeper understanding of the user’s point of view and their needs.

Frame the problem to brainstorm solutions

With your user research in hand and your problem statement honed, it’s time to start framing the problem in order to come up with effective solutions.

During this process, your goal should be to get your team to rethink the problem in creative ways to help you find new ways to solve it. While there are many ways to do this, the Mural problem framing template provides a simple three-step procedure that can help you explore your challenge in new ways to get the right answer. Each person must transform the problem into four different questions that invite deeper, more nuanced thinking. These questions are then discussed, voted on, and narrowed down to the most promising, providing you with a clear frame for future work.

Tips to effectively frame the problem

Thinking through problems in new ways and effectively framing them involves outside-the-box creativity , a healthy dose of empathy, and a willingness to take risks. This can be intimidating for some people. So here are some quick tips to help make this process more effective.

Start with asynchronous collaboration

Focused sessions are the most effective sessions — and what you probably want to focus on the most while problem framing is coming up with possible solutions. That’s why encouraging stakeholders, end-users, and other participants to start collaborating asynchronously on ways to reframe and rethink your problem can be so beneficial.

Plus, getting participants to work on their own can help avoid groupthink, or the tendency to come up with ideas people will agree with rather than ideas that are actually useful. This will ultimately lead to better decisions and more effective solutions.

In-person sessions aren’t the only way to collaborate! Learn how async collaboration can solve your meeting problem .

Map out the context of the problem

Helping your team understand the drivers and impacts of the issue you are trying to solve will help them gain a more nuanced view on why this issue exists, as well as how best to solve it. This is why bringing in end users and empathizing with their needs is so important — but there’s no reason you have to stop there. By creating a customer journey map , you can identify vital pain points in the customer experience, locate areas for improvement, and create solutions that are personalized to the customer.

Mural offers several customer journey templates to get you started. For instance, our map template lets you break down the journey across five separate components for a more granular view, while our experience diagramming template is great for examining individual customer’s experiences.

Don't be afraid to dig deeper with stakeholders and the end-users

Fully understanding an issue and how it affects your stakeholders can take time. For some, this can be frustrating. After all, your objective is to come up with a solution, which will likely require a fair amount of design and iteration itself.

Try to resist the urge to jump ahead. Instead, embrace the problem-framing process as much as possible by digging in deep with your stakeholders and end users. Really try to explore and understand why their problem exists in the first place so you can find a better potential solution.

Even if all this takes extra time, just remember that it’s better to properly identify and understand the problem you aim to solve rather than solving the wrong problem.

Hold a vote to prioritize solutions

If you’re fortunate, you’ll come to the end of your problem framing session with a wealth of possible solutions to choose from. But this can also be overwhelming. Which is the best course of action? How should you decide?

When faced with these questions, you could try creating a prioritization matrix . This simple tool allows you to quickly identify and weigh the most important factors when making a decision. These could include factors like risk, costs, benefits, and stakeholder interests. You can then place them on a matrix according to the criteria of your choosing, such as potential difficulty and potential impact.

Once you’ve narrowed down your solutions, you could hold a vote to further prioritize what you’ll work on next. Lucky for you, Mural comes with a built-in voting feature that makes this easy.

Hold better problem-framing sessions

Often used in the design thinking process , problem framing is an essential step for understanding the issues you need to solve and uncovering creative new solutions for addressing them. And it doesn’t have to be limited to the beginning of projects. As your projects change and evolve, problem framing can be a useful process for realigning your team and making sure they are staying focused on what matters most.

But you’re not doing it on your own. With its array of tools, templates, and features, the Mural platform is designed to help you at every step of the process: from the first sticky note, to the project’s last step in execution.

Start designing with digital whiteboard platform or go ahead and dive into our library of templates . And don’t forget to let us know what you come up with!

Looking to level-up client engagements? Learn how to make client collaboration more engaging and personalized with this cheat-sheet.

Frequently asked questions on problem framing

What is the main focus of problem framing.

The main focus of problem framing is to define the problem accurately, understand its underlying causes, and identify its broader implications. It aims to provide a clear and comprehensive view of the problem, enabling teams to develop targeted and effective solutions.

What is the difference between problem statements and problem framing?

Problem statements simply state the issue at hand, while problem framing goes a step further by providing context, boundaries, and a deeper understanding of the problem's root causes and impact.

What are the main benefits of problem framing?

The benefits of problem framing include clear direction for the project, targeted and impactful solutions, user-centric design, fostering innovation and creativity, and improved problem-solving and decision-making. It ensures that organizations solve the right problems and achieve more successful outcomes.

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Frequently asked questions

Design Thinking, Essential Problem Solving 101- It’s More Than Scientific

The term “ Design Thinking ” dates back to the 1987 book by Peter Rowe; “Design Thinking.” In that book he describes the way that architects and urban planners would approach design problems. However, the idea that there was a specific pattern of problem solving in “design thought” came much earlier in Herbert A Simon’s book, “The Science of the Artificial” which was published in 1969. The concept was popularized in the early 1990s by Richard Buchanan in his article “ Wicked Problems in Design Thinking”.

Ralph Caplan, the design consultant, sums up the need for design thinking with; “Thinking about design is hard, but not thinking about it can be disastrous.”

Author/Copyright holder: Christine Prefontaine. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 2.0

A simple overview of design thinking as a problem solving process.

Problem-Solving and Two Schools of Thought

Design thinking is concerned with solving problems through design. The idea being that the future output of the process will provide a better answer than the one already available or if nothing is available – something entirely new.

It is an unconstrained methodology where it is possible that the designer (or design team) will work on many possible solutions at once. It enables designers to consider the problem in many different ways and speculate on both the past and future of the problem too.

This is in contrast to the scientific method of problem solving which requires a highly-defined problem which focuses on delivering a single solution.

This difference was first noted by Brian Lawson, a psychologist, in 1972. He conducted an experiment in which scientists and architects were asked to build a structure from colored blocks. He provided some basic rules for the project and observed how they approached it. The scientists looked to move through a simple series of solutions based on the outcome and entire rule set. The architects, in contrast, simply focused on the desired end-state and then tested to see if the solution they had found met the rules.

This led to the idea that scientists solve problems by a process of analysis, whilst designers solve problems by synthesis. However, later evidence suggests that designers apply both forms of problem solving to attain “design thinking”.

They do this via a process of divergent thinking . A designer will examine as many possible solutions at the beginning of a process as they can think of – then they will apply the scientific side ( convergent thinking ) to narrow these solutions down to the best output.

Design thinking can be as simple or as complex as the business and users require. This IDEO process can be seen as a 3 part process or a 9 part process .

The Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is essentially a process which moves from problem to solution via some clear intermediate points. The classic approach, as proposed by Herbert A Simon, is offered here:

Definition – where the problem is defined as best as possible prior to solving it
Research – where the designers examine as much data as they feel necessary to be able to fully contribute to the problem solving process
Ideation – where the designer commences creating possible solutions without examining their practicality until a large number of solutions has been proposed. Once this is done, impractical solutions are eliminated or played with until they become practical.
Prototyping – where the best ideas are simulated in some means so that their value can be explored with users
Choosing – where the best idea is selected from the multiple prototypes
Implementing – where that idea is built and delivered as a product
Testing – where the product is tested with the user in order to ensure that it solves the original problem in an effective manner

There are many other design thinking processes outlined in literature – most of which are a truncated version of the above process combining or skipping stages.

Here we see a more complex interpretation of the design thinking process and how it fits into the larger business sphere.

The Principles of Design Thinking

In the book, Design thinking: Understand, Improve Apply, Plattner and Meinel offer four underlying principles for design thinking:

Human – all design is of a social nature
Ambiguity – design thinking preserves and embraces ambiguity
Re-design – all design processes are in fact re-design of existing processes
Tangibility – the design process to make something tangible will facilitate communication of that design

It is also worth noting that design thinking functions independently of the design methods employed in any given design process. Design methods are the tools employed (such as interviews, user research , prototypes, etc.) and the assumption is that there are many paths that may be used (e.g. different sets of methods applied) to reach the same “best” result.

Visuals and Design Thinking

Firstly, it is important to acknowledge that design thinking is not about graphic design per se. However, designers are often used to communicating their thinking visually and drawings, sketches , prototypes, etc. are often used to convey the ideas created within a design thinking process.

In fact, ideas which are hard to express easily in words are often given shape in the form of visual metaphors. Design thinking thus easily incorporates abstract thought processes – something that scientific thinking may find more challenging to accommodate.

Visual representations of how those involved in the design process might be thinking about a problem.

The Take Away

Design thinking is a process by which designers approach problem solving. It incorporates analytical, synthetic, divergent and convergent thinking to create a wide number of potential solutions and then narrow these down to a “best fit” solution. There are many ways to use a design thinking process to incorporate different methodologies to still reach the same end point. Designers must solve problems in order to add value through design.

Richard Buchanan’s original article "Wicked Problems in Design Thinking," was published in Design Issues , vol. 8, no. 2, Spring 1992.

Peter Rowe’s book from 1987 Design Thinking was published byCambridge: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-68067-7.

Herbert A Simon’s book from 1969 The Sciences of the Artificial . Was published by Cambridge: MIT Press.

Plattner, Hasso; Meinel, Christoph; Leifer, Larry J., eds. (2011). Design thinking: understand, improve, apply . Understanding innovation . Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. pp. xiv–xvi.doi:10.1007/978-3-642-13757-0. ISBN 3642137563.

This fascinating case study looks at how IBM plans to bring design thinking to large scale businesses - http://www.wired.com/2016/01/ibms-got-a-plan-to-bring-design-thinking-to-big-business/

See how Pepsi’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, implemented design thinking in her organization - https://hbr.org/2015/09/how-indra-nooyi-turned-design-thinking-into-strategy

Harvard Business Review examines design thinking and how it translates into action here - https://hbr.org/2015/09/design-for-action

Hero Image: Author/Copyright holder: Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-SA 4.0

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Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design

Tags: architecture, computers, creativity, decision-making, design, design-research, engineering, methodologies, and problem-solving

Format: Scientific Paper

Creator(s): Herbert A. Simon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_A._Simon)

Publication Date: 2024, Aug 18th

View Resource: http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=34208

7 Steps To Better Problem Framing In Design Thinking

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” Albert Einstein

Last week a potential new client asked me to help them develop a process to get a group of disparate stakeholders to produce and sign off on a shared strategy document. They knew the output they wanted, just not how to get there given the personalities and logistics involved.

But by framing the problem in this way, they were guaranteeing up front that they’d get really ordinary results. They didn’t need a strategy document. They needed a way to get the disparate stakeholders to form a cohesive team that would actively collaborate to develop and implement a strategy. And they needed one that would support each other throughout the inevitably messy process when things didn’t go to plan. The strategy document was just an artefact — an output. And without the team being willing to work together for the long-haul, it would end up as a fancy door stop instead of a living document that would direct them in bringing about the changes they were committing to make happen.

I see this all the time. And it’s such a waste.

The quality of the question you ask — or the way you frame the problem you’re trying to solve — determines the context, meaning and significance of the project.

Download the ‘7 Steps to Better Problem Framing’ Cheat Sheet Here

It also determines the scope of what you’re tackling, the engagement of whoever you’re working with to make it happen, and the value of the outcome you create. So it’s just a little bit important. And worth spending some time on. Often days or weeks rather than hours. After all, design thinking is about problem finding more than problem solving, and problem framing is a crucial part of the discovery process.

Design thinking is about problem finding more than problem solving, and problem framing is a crucial part of the discovery process.

A pile of reasons. Usually because we’ve analysed the situation and we think we know what we want — to get rid of whatever the presenting pain point or symptom is. And because it’s hard — probably the most challenging part of any design thinking process — and we aren’t used to or trained to do it. It is consistently the chunk that people struggle with the most in the design thinking courses I teach, so I’ve spent years practicing with different ways of making it clearer and easier to grasp. (Agile essentially leaves it out entirely, takes the brief as assumed, and focuses on the process of creating the solution.) One of the things that makes it particularly hard is that a well-framed problem should include an insight (a new piece of information that will make us see the situation differently), and those too are hard to come by.

But most of all we don’t spend the time on it that it needs because we just want to get stuck into the solving bit.

But most of all we don’t spend the time on it that it needs because we just want to get stuck into the solving bit. After all, that’s where we think our value lies. But the right answer to the wrong question is worth bugger all.

So given that problem framing is more of an art than a science and that it relies as much on intuition as it does on logic, I offer from experience a few key steps to making yours better.

Focus on what you want to create (your ideal outcome), not the problem you’re getting rid of. In this case, you don’t want to overcome people’s self-interested squabbling, you want to create a high-performing team.
Focus on the outcome not the output. “Engaged team” not “strategy document”, people! I know we all like to think that the magic deck will solve all problems by capturing the genius of our irrefutable logic in a stack of pretty charts (kind of like cramming the genie back in the bottle), but really, it’s just an artefact. Like a snapshot from a family holiday but with more chevrons.
Frame it with the people that matter — include input from (or ideally collaborate with) the people who’s problem you’re solving and the people you’ll be working with to solve it. You want to make sure you’re working on the right thing in a way that truly engages the people involved. Mere “buy-in” sucks. If you can, put a person in the middle of your frame. Who are you helping achieve what and why does it matter to them?
Make it meaningful. Which means you have to find out what matters to everyone one and bake that in. This helps make sure you’re working on the right level of problem, and helps keep people motivated and invested when it inevitably proves harder and messier than anticipated. If they aren’t invested, they’ll bail.
Keep it open — don’t limit it by including the solution in the framing. In this case, it’s not “How do we design a series of workshops that will create a high performing team”, since that automatically precludes anything you might want to do outside of that. Instead, ask “How can we get everybody to work together to design and deliver a strategy that we all believe in?”
Be clear how you’ll know you’ve succeeded . What behaviours will you see? What will you have produced? What kind of conversations will you be having (or no longer having)? How will you be interacting?
Be willing to change how you have framed the problem if new insights arise . Not only are there always multiple ways of framing any problem (I encourage you to come up with at least 10 “How Might We” questions to stop you getting fixated on the one “Right” version), but the whole point of a creative process is to keep learning. If you do this well, you’ll discover all sorts of things you couldn’t have foreseen or included at the beginning that may change everything. That’s fine. Go back to the way you’ve framed the problem, and recalibrate or even completely redo it in light of the new insights. Who knows, you may not need to solve the problem you thought you had at all.

Note that it’s always much harder to frame problems where the desired outcome involves changing other people’s beliefs and behaviours.

Note that it’s always much harder to frame problems where the desired outcome involves changing other people’s beliefs and behaviours. Why? Because as anyone who’s ever tried to get their teenager to voluntarily clean up their room knows, you can’t control them and you can’t rely on it happening — however many rationales or inducements you offer. And when this is the case, I have found that using the framework I’ve developed for working with Wicked Problems is much more effective than those that are usually discussed as part of a design thinking approach. More on that in another article.

In the meantime, if you want to get the most out of the time and energy you are investing in both design thinking and the problem you are tackling, take the time to frame the problem properly. The better you do this, the easier the design process and the more relevant and valuable the outcome you create.

Isn’t that worth the extra effort?

For further insights into some of the principles of Design Thinking and some other tools and skills my invitation is to watch some of my videos and download my free eBook — Stick It! Mo’s pro’s guide to getting more out of classic Design Thinking tools here

Interested in more insights into how to use design thinking and creative approaches to navigate your messy strategic problems? Signup to our newsletter or get in touch to see how I might be able to help.

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Problem Finding

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Roni Reiter-Palmon 2 &
Sanaa Ahmed 2

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Problem finding or problem construction is commonly seen as the first step in creative problem-solving. Problem construction consists of two main aspects. The first aspect focuses on the identification of problems in the environment. The second aspect of problem construction focuses on the structure and description of a problem in order to then create a solution. The problem construction process most often occurs quickly and automatically; however, actively engaging in problem construction has been linked to an increase in creativity. Additionally, problem construction has been associated with creativity across a wide range of domains. There are a variety of factors that may affect problem construction, such as expertise and personality variables, as well as the amount of time or information provided to the problem-solver. While problem construction tends to be automatic, training in problem construction or instructions to actively engage in problem construction increase creativity. Engaging in the problem construction process takes time and requires effort on the part of the problem-solver. Problem construction provides a road map for the possible. Goals identified in the problem construction process relate to what is possible, which constraints relate to what is impossible.

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Reiter-Palmon, R., Ahmed, S. (2020). Problem Finding. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_72-1

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Problem finding and problem solving: Problem finding, creativity, and giftedness

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The 5 Steps of Problem Solving
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Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design
Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design. This meeting [1], representing a convergence of students of design from a range of wholly dissimilar disciplines, is an event of major significance. It is significant that the meeting is being held at all that all of you recognize your common concerns.
How to solve problems with design thinking
The proof is in the pudding: From 2013 to 2018, companies that embraced the business value of design had TSR that were 56 percentage points higher than that of their industry peers. Check out these insights to understand how to use design thinking to unleash the power of creativity in strategy and problem solving. Designing out of difficult times.
Finding the True North of a Problem: Problem-framing ...
If the future was driven by a single variable then problem framing could be prescriptive (i.e., do X to solve Y). However, problem framing rationalizes multiple variables and describes the space ...
How to solve problems using the design thinking process
The design thinking process is a problem-solving design methodology that helps you develop solutions in a human-focused way. Initially designed at Stanford's d.school, the five stage design thinking method can help solve ambiguous questions, or more open-ended problems. Learn how these five steps can help your team create innovative solutions ...
How to Problem-Find Before You Problem-Solve
Problem-finding must come before problem-solving. Otherwise, we might be solving the wrong problem. ... As groups form, use a sticky note of a different color to give a name to the group; ... Design thinking is a problem-solving approach that involves a deep understanding of user needs and experiences to create innovative solutions. It is a ...
A guide to problem framing: best practices & templates
The benefits of problem framing include clear direction for the project, targeted and impactful solutions, user-centric design, fostering innovation and creativity, and improved problem-solving and decision-making. It ensures that organizations solve the right problems and achieve more successful outcomes.
The Evolution of "Co-evolution" (Part I): Problem Solving, Problem
The history of design co-evolution concepts is rather complicated, with many early publications contributing to that history. However, the origin of the idea is most often attributed to Mary Lou Maher's work in the 1990s, especially her 1994 conference paper focused on how computer systems could perform creative design work. 2 Compared to well-structured problems, Maher described design ...
Design Thinking, Essential Problem Solving 101- It's More Than
The term "Design Thinking" dates back to the 1987 book by Peter Rowe; "Design Thinking." In that book he describes the way that architects and urban planners would approach design problems. However, the idea that there was a specific pattern of problem solving in "design thought" came much earlier in Herbert A Simon's book, "The Science of the Artificial" which was published ...
PDF Introduction to Engineering Design and Problem Solving
Engineering design is the creative process of identifying needs and then devising a solution to fill those needs. This solution may be a product, a technique, a structure, a project, a method, or many other things depending on the problem. The general procedure for completing a good engineering design can be called the Engineering Method of ...
Creative Problem-finding: a Shift in Focus for Creative Tools
Identifying and forming problems is an important first step in the problem-solving process in the design field (and beyond). A valuable definition of creative problem-solving includes, on the one hand, the production of original, high quality, appropriate solutions, and, on the other hand, novel, complex, ill-
Simon: Design as a Problem-Solving Activity
All in all, it is concluded that design is a problem-solving process in order to shape a solution [32, 33] and, further, these problems are often ill-defined [34], or rather difficult problems [35 ...
Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design
Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design. Posted on May 16, 2020 June 8, 2020 by Borislav Zlatanov. Resource Description: This meeting [1], representing a convergence of students of design from a range of wholly dissimilar disciplines, is an event of major significance. It is significant that the meeting is being held at ...
A Design Approach to Creative Problem Solving: Five Strategies ...
As designers, we relish an opportunity for creative problem solving. There's a lot out there about solving problems through design — whether that's by creating a new product, optimizing a ...
7 Steps To Better Problem Framing In Design Thinking
The quality of the question you ask — or the way you frame the problem you're trying to solve — determines the context, meaning and significance of the project. Download the '7 Steps to Better Problem Framing' Cheat Sheet Here. It also determines the scope of what you're tackling, the engagement of whoever you're working with to ...
Do we do enough problem-finding before problem-solving?
We have lots of objectives focused on problem-solving, but we do not spend an equal amount of time carrying out proper "problem finding.". The essence of adopting a problem-finding mindset is a willingness to question the status quo and more importantly, not to be afraid to truly think about the concept of ambiguity itself.
Problem Finding
Problem finding consists of two key facets, as pointed out by Reiter-Palmon and Robinson ( 2009 ). The first focuses on problem identification and recognizing opportunities in the environment even when those have not been explicitly presented to the individual solving the problem. The second facet focuses on structuring and describing the ...
(PDF) Design as problem-solving? or: Here is the ...
cognitive sense) as a process transforming a verbally-formulated "problem" situation. into a detailed plan for a tangible 2, usable artifact, whether "designed" or not. I consider. the separation ...
Toward a Design Theory of Problem Solving
Problem solving varies along at least three dif- ferent dimensions: (a) problem type, (b) problem This typology assumes that there are similar-. representation, and (c) individual differences. ities in the cognitive processes required to solve. As described earlier, problems vary in terms of each type of problem.
Problem finding and problem solving: Problem finding, creativity, and
Problem finding skills are increasingly recognized in theories of creativity. They should also be integrated into definitions of giftedness and recognized by educators. This article reviews the ...
Simon: Design as a problem-solving activity
SIMON'S ANALYTICAL APPROACH TO DESIGN. Contrary to Simon's elaboration of a general theory of problem solving, which was based on experimental research, his work on design was analytical. With one or two exceptions (Kim et al., 1995), Simon indeed has not been involved in any empirical studies on design.
problem forming problem finding and problem solving in design
Problem Framing in Design Thinking: Best Practices. Table of contents, the importance of problem framing in design thinking, start with broad research, involve stakeholders, focus

Problem Forming, Problem Finding, and Problem Solving in Design

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