Let's say you have been out in the world exploring messy problems. You have found couple of different areas which you think are interesting and worth working on further. You have created personas to make sense of some of the messiness. In your exploration of messiness, your thinking has diverged. You believe you are ready to move forward, and if you are, you need to find a way to clearly define what you--and your team--will be working on. You need to write a good problem statement.
Let's look at an example from a recent team I have been working with. For this example, I'm going to assume you are on that team.
You have gone out and talked with some university students about their needs, and you find a whole bunch of people are stressed out about exams. You think: “This is a problem. Now I can come up with a solution. There are lots of students. This will be a great opportunity.”
Not so fast…
Let’s try to write this as a problem statement. We will see how clear we are about our problem.
Who has the problem that you are looking at?
If the problem is solved how will their lives get better?
What keeps people from reaching that outcome?
This is the problem that we understand from our exploration.
There are students who are stressed out when they take exams.
People: students.
Goal: want to live a stress-free life, or at least lower stress.
Barrier to that goal: taking the exam causes stress.
Many problem statements start out like this. We could just as easily have had…
There are small-scale farmers who want to be able to sell at higher prices.
There are people who are tired of being stuck in Bangkok traffic everyday when they commute to work.
…or many others.
Are these problem statements good enough? As soon as we try to do anything with these problem statements we will realize we need to get more specific and focused. So, now is a good time to emphasize…
Iteration is necessary in every part of innovation, and we need it when we write problem statements, too. You cannot write a perfect problem statement in one go. (Some people will tell us that we can. There are many problem statement templates on the Internet. We just need to fill them in…)
Assume our problem statements above are already perfect. What would possible solutions look like?
There are students who are stressed out when they take exams.
Solution: Don’t take the exam and you will have no stress.
There are small-scale farmers who want to be able to sell at higher prices.
Solution: Get somebody to pay the farmers a higher price.
There are people who are tired of being stuck in Bangkok traffic every day when they commute to work.
Solution: Move closer to work. Or, get a job closer to home. Or, stop working altogether.
OK, we’re done!
Obviously, we are not done. None of those solutions is likely to make many people happy.
And yet, I have seen countless statements that are written just like these: big, broad, unfocused. Sometimes we might be fooled because we are not familiar with the group of people or the particular situation, but the lack of focus is there. I prefer to call these overly general statements, “issues.” Poverty, corruption, crime, poor education, stress…these are examples of issues that people frequently say they are solving, but are not clearly written problem statements. And for that reason, they don’t get solved.
Sometimes these issues are hidden in outcomes that sound dreamily great: “There are people who have junk at home which is valuable to other people.” Throw in some trendy words and you’ll likely get no pushback in an Innovation Accelerator: “There are people who have junk at home which is valuable to other people. We are creating a circular economy by encouraging people to buy unused products from others rather than buying new items.”
The reality? Most of my junk is junk. Most of your junk is junk. The stuff that can get reused already has a market for it: cars, houses, vintage clothes, some appliances, durable goods. Yes, we can recycle glass bottles, aluminum cans, paper and cardboard. But, if any of my junk is dirty or dusty or broken, mixed in with other useless stuff, or at my house where nobody is willing to come get it? Well, under those conditions it is just junk.
Sure, I want to inspire all of you to make the world a better place, so keep searching for things that might emerge from my junk heap as valuable, for ways to lower students’ stress, or for ways to make commuting people have better lives.
But if you are searching for an opportunity, you need to…
As you iterate and improve your problem statement don’t stop until you get to the actual trade-off. A trade-off is, what we get versus what we give up.
People have to give up a combination of things to get the things they want:
Money. This is the thing we usually think about first. Often, it is the only thing entreprenuers think about when they are trying to develop a new opportunity. And yet, when it comes down to action, for most people money is not the most important thing on the list.
Time. Getting something requires time, including the time to figure out what we want, the time to search for it, to go and get it, pay for it, take it back home, get it assembled or installed, and get it up and running.
Effort. Going somewhere to buy, walking to search in the store, and carrying the item all require effort. Even thinking about doing requires effort.
Uncertainty. Driving out to find a farmer on the edge of the city might take more time than I expected. Prices may be higher than I thought they would be. Do I really want to drive across town to look at a used computer somebody is selling? Will it work the way I want it to when I get it home? Uncertainty adds emotion to our calculations about cost, time, and effort. If other people are involved, our emotions get even worse. Will I look stupid? Will I be laughed at for wasting time, money, or the effort I put in? Do I love my kids less if I buy them 2nd-hand toys? What will my friends think?
Stressed-out students: Will my test scores really improve if I study more? How much more? I’m not sure. On the other hand, watching this Tik-Tok video is funny, right now. I;ll do that instead.
Do I feel a little guilty about all of the useful gadgets that I bought, which have stopped working and are hidden away in closets in my home. But I know this new Fitbit of the Mind will change my life--I'm going to buy it!
Would I feel better about helping out small-scale farmers? Yes, but it’s easier to drop by the supermarket when I’m tired at the end of the workday.
Getting to, and understanding, the trade-off is the main challenge of refining a problem statement. How do you get to the trade-off? Keep asking, “Why?” Keep asking until you finally understand the ultimate question, “Why hasn't this been fixed already?”
Why doesn’t somebody avoid the stress by just skipping exams? Because they want to pass the course they are taking. “I have a solution to lower your stress, will you buy it?” I will say, Yes, but actually the stress is valuable to me because it pulls me away from Tik-tok.
Why doesn’t somebody want to live close to work? Because the only options are condos. Why doesn’t that person want to live in a condo? Because they have kids who want to run around and make lots of noise. Why doesn’t that family want to live in the city? Because they want their kids to grow up with fresh air and large areas to play outside.
Maybe we enjoy our local Farmers Market where people can buy directly from the growers each month and we say to ourselves, “Let’s extend this, so it happens more often and in more places. If we do that more people will buy directly from farmers!”
The farmers say, “Wait, we need to go back to our fields and work, if we are going to keep growing stuff to sell.”
No problem, you think, “I will sell the stuff for you. Just send it to me.”
The farmers are happy until you tell them you need to take some of their profits to pay for the work you are doing.
Then, you want to open everyday and open more locations, so you hire some people to work for you…and you are quickly on your way to becoming a supermarket, which is already happening now.
When we push all the way through to the trade-off, we often find current solutions are working pretty well. This likely means no opportunity for us.
Or, we find many problems that don't have solutions. Helping small businesses (including farmers) is difficult when many consumers prefer lower prices to almost everything else. Cities have the highest paying jobs while open space and open air is found outside the urban areas. Stress is a way of life for students, and others, who have to meet deadlines. Many of us have stuff we bought which is not valuable to us, or anyone else. These don't automatically become opportunities.
Should we be depressed? Is every one of our problems going to end up as a non-opportunity? The answer to this is one of the challenging paradoxes of innovation:
The probability is that the problem you are working on is not a real opportunity.
There are opportunities everywhere.
("Hmmm...I’m not even sure how I am supposed to feel during this process any more.")
There will be students who are not stressed (or who are less stressed) about their upcoming exams. Is this because of their attitude (they are naturally confident or they don’t care about the results) or their behavior (they study a little everyday)?
For those who have decided that studying regularly is beneficial (in other words, is a valuable trade-off), why did they make that decision? Do they feel better and more confident? Could we use these lead users as examples and inspiration as we design a possible solution? Maybe we devise a fixed study plan, give points or rewards for getting their work done at each step, so it is not all work and no play. Maybe doing regular preparation is reassuring and less stressful. Can we build a solution that works similarly to the methods these lead users use?
There are people who choose to live in the city to avoid long commutes and maybe to have ready access to other urban attractions. What are the characteristics of these people that make them willing to live in the smaller confines of a condo in order to be in the heart of the city? What can we do to improve that trade-off? What products and services related to eating, entertainment, transportation, work, and living improve the trade-off of somebody living in a small space?
There are people who choose to live outside the city and take on a long commute to get more space and places to play. Can we make that trade-off better? Can we improve the commute? Can we help arrange car sharing? Can we set up a luxury van service with Internet (and let’s throw in a massage seat)? Could we convince an employer to pay for that as an employment benefit?
There are people who are tired of seeing so many things they purchased just get piled in closets around their house and they declare, “I’m going to be much more mindful of my shopping decisions.” Could these lead users be examples to make others aware of the opportunities to change their consumer behavior? (Marie Kondo built a huge opportunity doing exactly this!)
There are people who go to a farmer’s market to buy directly from the growers, or because they enjoy a trip on weekends outside of the city. Is it possible to make these situations occur more often? Could we send items in a subscription service to each customer once per week instead of waiting for the monthly market?
Explore deeply enough and we will eventually find a specific situation which is not working that well or a specific group of people who are not entirely happy with their current trade-off. We just might have the beginnings of a new opportunity. Try to write a good problem statement and you will find out.