DEFiNE: ThE BASICS

Perhaps the most challenging part of the Design Thinking process, the Define stage requires you to analyze and synthesize your observations from the Empathy stage into a concise and actionable problem statement. The problem statement, and its cousin, the design challenge, chart the course of your Design Thinking journey, determining just how innovative and effective your solution will be.

Why do we need to define the problem and identify the design challenge?

We can all see when something isn't working well. But if you ask around, we'll likely each have a different reason as to why. In the Empathy stage, you got past your own assumptions and gathered insights on the situation with an unbiased perspective. So now that you've spent the time to better understand the problem, don't immediately jump to your old idea of what the problem is. Even if your original understanding of the problem isn't completely misguided, chances are that it doesn't focus on the specific needs identified in your empathy interview. Defining the problem helps you properly scope the design challenge so you can keep your ideation and prototyping session on track, focused on the core essence of your empathy insights.

What is a problem statement?

A problem statement is a sentence that describes the challenge you hope to address. Focused on the facts, it includes:

What is the problem or need? What are the struggles? What task needs to be accomplished? What pain point needs to be relieved?
Who is affected? Who is experiencing the problem? Can this user be further specified (by demographic, persona, motivation, etc.)
Where does it happen? What is the context in which the user experiences the problem?
Why does it matter? Why is this problem worth solving? What value does it bring to the user? What value does it bring to WWF?
It does not include any indication of a solution.

What makes a good problem statement?

A problem statement should be:

Broad enough for creative freedom: keep it open enough to encourage lots of potential solutions. "Our user is thirsty and needs a receptable to drink water" will yield very few potential solutions.
Narrow enough to make it manageable: Stay within sufficient constraints to stay focused. "Stop deforestation" will create too many solutions to be useful.
Addresses the root cause: make sure you are getting to the root of the situation, and not only a symptom of the problem. See: 5 whys.
Easy to understand: keep it simple. Avoid jargon. You don't want to spend a lot of time in future brainstorming and prototyping sessions explaining what the problem is.
Free of any solutions: stay focused on the problem. Your problem statement shouldn't include any indication of a potential solution.

How do you define a problem statement?

First, organize your insights:

Write down all of your "Aha" moments, surprises, biggest takeaways from your Empathy research.
With your team, begin to cluster insights that are similar into groupings. Give each of these groupings a name, the theme they encapsulate.
Identify with your group the most exciting or important themes (voting is a good way to do this to ensure all perspectives are heard).
Take the top theme and write it into a headline: Draft a concise sentence that explain why the theme you've identified describes a challenge for the people in the community that you spoke with. E.g. “Funding” → Government funding will be redirected to non-conservation projects. Be sure to touch on the 4 Ws: What, Who, Where, and Why (see "What is a problem statement").
Review the problem statement. Is it properly scoped (not too narrow or too broad)? Is it easy to understand? Does it adequately address the needs of the community you spoke with?

What's a design challenge?

Once you have a solid understanding of the problem you are trying to address, you're likely eager to dive into the next phase, Ideation, and begin brainstorming solutions. Before you do that, it's helpful to reframe your problem statement into a design challenge, usually in a question form, to provoke meaningful and relevant ideas. This question usually starts with "How Might We…" which admits that we don't currently know the answer and encourages a collaborative approach to finding it.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

― Albert Einstein

How do you define a design challenge, your "How Might We" question?

Your How Might We (HMW) question should spark excitement, easily eliciting interest and thus ideas from your Ideating team. To find the best design challenge for your Design Thinking journey, you'll want to brainstorm a few different options.

Consider:

Problem Statement: WWF needs funding to implement its conservation impact, so if government funding is redirected to other priorities, like health projects, WWF staff may lose their jobs and wildlife will not be protected.

When brainstorming HMWs, you can:

Focus on the good: How Might We incorporate health into WWF projects OR support health projects?
Remove the bad: How Might We create alternative revenue streams that are not dependent on government funding?
Question an assumption: How Might We protect wildlife without funding?
Focus on one element of the problem: How Might We ensure gov funding is not redirected to health projects?
Once you have a few HMWs, vote with your team on the option that is most exciting to you (which will encourage the best ideas!) but also adequately addresses the needs surfaced in your Empathy research.