Getting to the right question...
Many of us like to think we are natural problem solvers. I recently realised I often jump straight into trying to find a solution when someone asks a question, or even the questions I ask are loaded with what I think is the answer. A colleague actually reminded me of our old friend “the problem statement” and how crucial it is to get that right before you even attempt to jump with two feet into the solving part.
Over the last few months, I’ve consciously tried to peel back the layers to get to the “real problem statement” I’ve done this by asking questions back to the people asking the initial questions, this reframing has enabled us to remove the ‘solution bias’ to make sure we are all aligned and understand what the problem actually is, before even beginning to tackle the delivery of options/solutions. It's challenging to do this, especially with so much emphasis put on quick resolutions... but it's been very rewarding.
Naturally, people often create problems as they ask questions from their own understanding. I’ll take an example of this to a hobby of mine I’ve played for many years….golf… Some of my friends just starting out in the game are often asking me the question “I need to change my swing I keep slicing it” actually the question could be “I want to understand why I’m not hitting the ball straight”
What’s the difference here? Well, the first statement has homed straight in on an area, the second is the actual ‘problem to that person’...after all who’s to say that person doesn’t have a perfectly good swing but the clubs they are using just aren’t right for them. Or they don’t understand they have to adjust for wind conditions. If that’s the case you could spend years changing your swing, tinkering away and never be lowering your score/hitting it straighter.
In summary by getting to the actual ‘problem’ and by understanding question substitution to get to the actual ‘problem statement’, you can work to avoid its pitfalls. You can stop guessing and start solving the hardest of problems. As Einstein put it;
“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would use 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.”
At Daemon we use a number of Design Thinking techniques and tools to help us define problems from a human perspective. This helps us shape the start of any project in the right way so that we gather enough information to analyse and identify the core problem and the main question we’re looking to answer. This allows us to refine and focus things down from what we have learned so far.
If you have read the above and it interests you, please feel free to reach out if you would like to talk further.
You leap straight to the solution as you are 'male' :-)