A problem is anything where there's a difference between how things are, and how you'd like them to be.
The thing that gets in the way most often in trying to solve problems is not working on the right one.
It's worth spending more time understanding the problem and making sure you have the right one than anything else.
Get the problem definition right and everything else will follow.
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Techniques to help "catch" problems to work on... |
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Bug ListingWhat's getting to you? List the things that annoy you. These are all potential problems: are any important enough that you should spend some time working out how to fix them? |
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TombstoneWhat would you do if you had only one day to live? Why aren't you doing it? Also, what do you want your Tombstone to read - and what are you going to do to make sure it does? |
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Wishing, Wouldn’t it be nice if...Just complete the sentence...W.I.B.N.I.... Whatever it is, it could be a problem worth solving. |
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Repeated "Why"Ever look after a small child? What's it's favourite question? |
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Then make sure you've caught the right problem*: |
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Assumption SurfacingWrite the first statement of the problem down, then underline everything in it that's an assumption. Ask - are the valid? What would it be like if they weren't? |
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Boundary RelaxationSimilar to laddering and chunking. Look at the edges of the problem - what if you made them narrower? Wider? Is this an instance of something more general? |
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"Not" the ProblemReverse the problem - see what it tells you. How might we make things worse? Then reverse the answers.
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* Why? Because the words you use (left brain) may not catch the actual problem (often right brain)
Page last updated
01/14/08
