Posted on Saturday, December 5, 2020

The Problem Statement Problem

Problems have been described at the discrepancy between the current state and some desired future state. A problem-cause-solution pattern is common as a critical thinking approach providing argumentation supporting proposed solutions. This approach is particularly attractive if existing predictive models based on the causal actions are available. Based on new inputs to the model, existing predictive models provide a mathematical basis for calculating (predicted) new results within the limitations of the model. As a mathematical technique, predictive models have been successfully applied in a variety field from scientific endeavors to commercial activities like algorithmic stock trading, predicting accident risk for auto insurance, and healthcare outcomes.

When considering potential bias in problem solving, the predictive model is often a starting place. A good model is both as accurate as possible, and as simple as possible making it easy to understand and apply – and also easy to misapply if its limitations are not understood. Most models reduce the amount of control data because this simplifies the model enabling easier model development, validation and usage. Models are typically validated over a limited range of control variable values, but reality may not be constrained to that range. Complex systems in the real world are often affected by multiple control variables, and those may interact in interesting non-linear ways. The phenomenon being modelling is typically assumed to have a stable pattern of behavior, but this assumption is not always true. Humans, animals and artificial intelligence software can all exhibit learning behaviors that evolve over time. Predictive models of systems with learning behaviors developed at one point in time, may not be valid after new behaviors are learned. While model developers strive for prediction accuracy, most models are approximations. The degree of precision of an approximation may limit the predictive power of a model.

The tools we use alter our perception of the problems we solve – various paraphrased along the line of if one has a hammer, one tends to look for nails (quote investigator 2014). Even professionals with specialist expertise in particular fields tend to look problems from the perspective of their profession. Indeed, they may risk liability issues if they deviate from professional norms. The approach of identifying a cause may be seen as argumentative or evaluative, e.g., when there are multiple causes or explanations leading to a problem. The model development approach looks for variables that can be isolated and controlled, but these may not be the only causes of problems. In a legal (liability) context, there is a notion of a proximate cause being a cause that produces particular, foreseeable consequences. This typically requires the court to determine that the injury would have occurred, “but for” the negligent act or omission (the proximate cause). The widespread adoption of big data collection and artificial intelligence techniques (e.g., machine learning) has increased attention on the need to move beyond statistical correlation to prove causality. Recent progress in development of causality proofs (e.g. causality notations – (Pearl & Mackenzie 2018) has enabled significant improvements in development of predictive models. While the problem-cause-solution pattern is common, there are situations where action (or a solution) is required without establishment of a cause. The continuing operation of the system may not afford time for causal determination, or the costs on inaction may be too great. In this action bias context, the objective may be to make “reasonable” actions (e.g. to avoid known bad outcomes) rather than attempt to resolve the problem.

A desired future state may be described in objective terms; a desired state, however, must be desired by some real human (ie. it is subjective) as non- humans do not have desires. Broad consensus on some desired future state may provide some aura of objectivity. “Wicked problems” lie in the area where broad consensus of desired future state does not exist. If there is no consensus on the desired future state, then that lack of consensus likely applies not just to proposed solutions, or causality model selections, but also to the problem statement.

Problem statements delimit the scope of the problem to avoid extraneous matters and focus on the information relevant to the problem. The problem statement provides a context and forms a perspective on the problem. Perspectives include not just data observations, but also some meaning associated with those observations, focusing attention on the most relevant/ important observations. Framing the problem from different perspectives may result in different solutions, e.g., different problem statement will likely have different causal explanations proposed, leading to different solution proposals.There is often a rush to solving a problem rather than clarifying the problem statement first. A problem statement should provide clarity around the four W’s of the problem:

Who – Who does the problem affect? Do they recognize it as a problem? Has anyone else validated that the problem is real? Who realizes the value if the problem is solved? Who else might have a useful perspective on the problem?
What – What is the nature of the problem? What attempts have been made to resolve the problem?
When – When does the problem happen? What are the antecedent and contemporary event? What is the Temporal Perspective?
Where – Where does this problem arise? Is there observational data of the problem context correlated with its occurrence? What is the Geographic Perspective on the problem?

When it comes to your problem – what type of problem solver are you? Ad hoc or intuitive problem solvers risk spending their effort solving the wrong problem and not achieving the impact they might hope for. A systematic approach to capturing the problem statement and then reframing it from multiple perspectives may take more time initially to develop the problem statement, but avoids the risk of solving the wrong problem. Why is the problem worth solving? Why are you trying to solve it? Once you have your client’s problem statement, you can then refine it to focus on the problems that matter for greater impact.

When developing the problem statement for your client, understanding diverse perspectives can impact the scope of the desired future state as well as constraints on viable solutions. If you are developing client problem statements, you might be interested in our free Guide to Writing Problem Statements.

A course on the use of perspective to refine problem statements is now available.

Problem Perspectives Course

If you need help with your problem statement contact me.

References

(quote investigator 2014) https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/05/08/hammer-nail/

( Pearl & Mackenzie 2018) Pearl, J., & Mackenzie, D. (2018). The book of why: the new science of cause and effect. Basic Books.

Posted on Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Learning to Solve the Right Problem

5 Benefits for Product Managers

What’s the worst nightmare for a product manager? When he/she is working on creating a solution…and this realization strikes like lightning: “Wait a minute…what problem am I actually solving? … How can I be sure I actually solve the right problem?”

Or when someone asks this question in a meeting — and it puts everything on hold.

You see, solving problems is innate to product managers. It’s what helps the team, department, product, and company as a whole succeed when product professionals like product managers solve problems that matter. But, the secret that makes a product manager great, is identifying and solving the right problems first.

(We’ll get to that shortly later in the post)

First, let’s have a look at the 5 powerful benefits you’ll gain by leveling up your knowledge — and learning how to think outside the box to solve the right problem!

1. You’ll make your workflow smoother.

Obstacles can hinder your workflow. When you solve the right problem, you overcome the right obstacle at the right time, you can keep your projects running smoothly. More often than not, you’re tackling a bunch of complex problems at the same time. By learning how to solve those sudden, unexpected problems that matter the most first, you can pave the way to a smoother workflow.

2. You’ll become a better team leader.

When you solve the right problem, you become a better problem solver, better team leader. You’ll be able to keep your team cohesive and connected. Since you’re the first respondent to every new problem — your attitude to how you approach that problem matters the most. If you do that job the right way, your team will stay worry-free, and will be confident enough to put their trust in you. Resultantly, you’ll position yourself as a credible, trustworthy leader who knows how to go about incredibly complex problems, at any given time.

3. You’ll finish more work in less time.

When you solve the right problem you save time. One single problem — even as mundane as renewing a software subscription — can put a ‘full stop’ to your work progress. Everyone just stops. All that time goes wasted, unproductive, or extremely less productive at the very least. But when you know what problems to prioritize first, how to identify them proactively, and then solve them before they hurt your productivity too much — that exact thing will help you do more in less time.

4. You’ll be delivering on-time projects.

On-time projects boost clients’ satisfaction, your department’s success, and your company’s success. But that’s only possible when you’re fast, efficient, and instinctive to solving the right problems, at the right time.

5. Happy clients/customers, happy You.

This is the most important benefit. At the end of the day, all that matters is how happy and satisfied your heart is by your work progress. As a product manager, you’re always at the forefront of every new obstacle. At times, it can even leave you overwhelmed on how to understand exactly what problems you’re facing — let alone how to solve those particular problems. When you master your problem-solving skills, you become confident, competent, satisfied, and a profitable team player for the company.

It’s Time.

Which problems should you solve first? The important ones, of course.

But how do you know which one is the most important one? Learn how to solve the right problem!

Instead of rushing, I want you to pause for a second.

Breathe.

What happens mostly is that managers rush into problems. The science behind why that happens is because we’re trained so instinctively.

Think about your school days. Your questions were well-framed and well-stated, all you needed were to figure out solutions/answers.Think about your childhood.

Your parents made it very clear about the things you’re doing wrong – and even guided you how to fix them.

Think about your mentor. They paved the way by making you well-aware of the hidden problems that were sabotaging your success.

The same pattern is continued by most managers in their professional life as well.

They just rush instinctively, without creating better problem statements first…

Without actually stopping and figuring out the root cause of the problem.

They jump into ‘solution space’ too quickly, instead of spending enough time exploring the ‘problem space.’

If you’re also a victim of that…stop.

Because when you’re in business, problems and obstacles can be complex.

Often extremely nerve-racking, coming from all different root causes.

That leads to unsolved clusters of problems — or worse, working on wrong problems at the wrong time.

Before anything, simplify what the problem actually is — and whether it’s the right one to focus on first.

What you should do instead is to…pause…wear your detective hat…look at everything with a fish-eye lens…

And craft better problem statements.

Get a hold of yourself — and see the problem as a whole using my Power Perspective method.

This is a brand new course I created to help product managers, entrepreneurs, or business professionals.

This course will teach you a compact, systematic approach to craft better problem statements using the unique power of perspective — so you can solve your best problems.

You’ll be able to create solutions that are effective and thorough.

Learn More about this course right here.

Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2022

How Solving The Correct Problem Can Save Social Entrepreneurs Thousands

As a social entrepreneur, you want to do good. You want to change the world and help people find success, fulfillment and happiness. You want to solve problems that matter! Most nonprofits fail because they didn’t solve the right problem. They were trying to win hearts when they should have been working on minds and using their talents to achieve something unique.

Did you ever start a project, only to realize you were solving the wrong problem? In some cases, it can be as simple as rethinking your goals. But it is not necessarily easy to see the disconnect between what you were trying to accomplish, and how much time and money you could have saved if only you thought differently. If this happens to you, there are ways that you can learn from your mistakes and build a better solution for yourself in the future.

Social entrepreneurs are always looking for new ways to solve problems. When it comes to social enterprises, the problem can be very complicated and nuanced, which can make it difficult to figure out what exactly it is that needs to be solved.

Social entrepreneurs are passionate about helping people. They have a desire to make a difference in the world and often have great ideas for how to do so. However, there is often more than one way to solve a problem.

In social entrepreneurship, there are two main ways to solve problems:

-Focus on your own perspective: You can solve your best problem by focusing on it and solving it just for you. This may mean changing the way you think about something or focusing on one aspect of the problem that is less obvious than others.

-Focus on your customers’ perspective: You can also solve your best problem by focusing on what your customers want and need. This may mean creating an entirely new product or service based on what they want or need.

It’s easy to get bogged down by a problem. But what if you could fix it?

That’s exactly what Problem Perspectives: Solve Your Best Problem! is here for—to help you refine your problem statement so that you can find the best solution to your problem.

Problem Perspectives is a course on problem-solving techniques that will help you understand the power of perspective and how to use it to your advantage.

You’ll learn how to apply the “power of perspective” to solving your best problems, and you’ll learn how to see the big picture and make good choices on a variety of topics. You’ll also learn how to use the “power of perspective” to solve difficult problems in your life.

You’ll get real-life examples with step-by-step explanations so that you can practice what you learn.

In this course, we’ll be talking about problem perspectives.

The first thing we want to do is make sure you understand the problem perspective—and why it’s important.

You see, there are two different kinds of problems: problems and issues.

A problem is something that we can’t ignore or get around—a loss of revenue or legal action from a client would be an example.

An issue on the other hand is just a concern that needs to be resolved in some way (like how to increase sales) but isn’t necessarily critical to the business as a whole. So for example, if you run out of product and can’t get more in time for your next sale, that’s an issue since it simply needs to be resolved before you can move forward with your business plan.

But what happens when these issues become too big? What happens when they start taking up too much time and resources? That’s where problem perspectives come in! Problem perspectives are used by organizations so they can solve their biggest problems first before moving onto others. This way they can avoid wasting their time and money by focusing on them first instead of letting them grow until they become too big for the company.

This course will help you learn how to solve your best problem in order to come up with better solutions. You’ll discover how to refine your perspective by analyzing all the factors that contribute to a successful solution for your company and then choosing one that works for you!

Through this course, you’ll learn:

-How to pick the right problem and recognize its importance

-How to use perspective analysis as a tool for decision-making

-How to work with other stakeholders in order to improve the overall environment of your business

Ultimately, I think the best approach for finding your best problem is to choose what you’re already passionate about and work there. This will spare you from working on a problem that you have no interest in solving because it’s not in line with what fuels your passion. It will also attract people who share your passions, which could lead to some amazing synergies. It will be easier to find ways to engage these kinds of co-workers, because they’ll want to contribute more than they would if they were just doing work.

I hope that this has provided a bit of insight into how you can better define “your best problem” or what it is that you want to do. Hopefully next time you create a problem statement, you’ll be able to make it more impactful.

Problem Perspectives Course

problem solving

Problem Perspectives: Solve your best problem!

Problems are the discrepancy between the current state and some desired future state (your objective). Learn how to use the power of perspective to solve your best problem!

$49.99

 5/5

Introduction

Change can be a difficult thing to envisage and to manage.
Getting it “wrong” can involve significant wasted time and resources as well as potential liabilities from solving the wrong problem
Getting is “right” can make a world of difference in problems that matter
Getting it “right” is not a matter of finding a better solution technique – its about finding the right problem to solve
Identifying the right problem to solve is not a matter of waiting for a stroke of inspiration – it can be approached systematically by refining the statement of the problem.
If you think about your problem from the right perspective, you can change yourself, your organization, or the world around you.
Be the changemaker that you want to be, by solving the right problem

Creative solutions are often described as “Out of the box” thinking
9 Dot puzzle example has a solution that literally draws lines outside the original nine dots – this requires a perspective that the space outside the 9 dots is available for use.
Changing perspectives can be approached systematically to examine diverse aspects of the problem space
Refining the problem statement from diverse perspectives lets you identify a better problem to solve.

Introduction
What’s the Problem Statement?
Perspective Positioning
Geographic perspectives
Temporal perspectives
Professional Perspectives
Choose your best problem!

Promotional vIdEo

Who this course is for:

Technology researchers, business professionals, social entrepreneurs, product developers, all need to ensure that they are working on solving problems that matter.
The power of perspective in this this course is particularly relevant for those challenged by wicked problems.
By developing and refining the problem statement, you will find a better problem to solve.

About Course

What you'll learn

Problems have been described as the discrepancy between the current state and some desired future state (your objective). Your desired outcomes may be an internal change (e.g., in creating new habits) or an external change in the world around you.

$49.99

This course includes:

Steven Wright

CEO, Macadamia Solutions LLC.

Instructor

Hi, I'm Steven Wright MBA, Ph.D., JD, - engineer, lawyer, professor, entrepreneur - a passionate and committed team player with a strong focus on mentoring, teaching and research and development and successful international experience at negotiating technology agreements that enable new ecosystems in the information technology industry with companies such as Alcatel, Fujitsu, and AT&T. My technology development efforts have produced in excess of 50 US patents. I have worked professionally in four countries and delivered lectures, invited keynotes, as well as executive and panel presentations in others.

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Posted on Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Temporal Perspective on the Problem

When documenting a client’s problem, one of the categories of information that the problem statement should include is information about the when the problem occurred. Humans are creatures of “time,” and for many of us it is a fundamental factor in the way we perceive the world, but notions of time vary. Temporal perspectives are an essential characteristic of culture, and cultural norm often follow from it. Around the world, different people live their daily lives at different tempos, and observe a different pace of life. This may be reflected in the speed at which they walk, the speed of decision-making processes, or how accurately they keep their clocks. The Hopi tribe of Arizona, USA, for example, have a language that lacks verb tenses, and their language avoids all linear constructions in time. The notion of cyclical time is common to religions like Buddhism and Hinduism; and there is considerable controversy among religious scholars as to precisely how “time” is employed in the divine scheme of things. Such cultural temporal perspectives can obviously impact perceptions of problems that we face. A temporal perspective on the problem can bring additional insight and clarity to the client’s problem statement

Temporal perspectives on Problems — Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

Time is an essential dimension of the world around us. Temporal concepts are fundamental constructs and assumptions of human cognition. Temporal constructs include not just both clock time and psychological time, but also time-sensitive processes; time frame, time courses, and time lags; and the details of the temporal context as a whole. This may be evidenced by temporal language production and comprehension, temporal judgment and temporal reasoning. The concepts of past, present, and future are important mental constructs for structuring experiences. This allows us to organize our perceptual experiences and navigate, mentally, through time. This structuring of experience enables us to bound the temporal scope of decision making and perceived problems

As creatures of time, humans also change their temporal perspectives. Children develop temporal concepts through life experience and typically view temporal concepts with short time horizons. Adults have a dynamic and flexible temporal perspective – we live in the ever-changing present, and our perception of past, present, and future keeps changing. Mature Adults (e.g., grandparents) may develop temporal perspectives that cover longer time horizons (e.g., generational). Time goes so fast that, often, we don’t even notice it. Only when we take a moment of rest, can we see the imprint it leaves on the things around us. Time is a limited resource and people experience strain as they attempt to manage their life, including time pressure, time-based work-family conflict, and time urgency. The attitudes we have towards time can be a significant factor in our perspectives on the problems faced, our decision making, and our performance in resolving those problems.

It seems that change and time are inseparable: changes take time; are located and ordered in time; and they are separated by time. Even though change clearly takes time (as all changes occur at a finite rate), time does not seem to make change. Most environmental parameters change with time (e.g., temperature, light etc.). With sufficiently large timescales (e.g. geological time) even the ground on which we stand may change due to the effects of time. So too the problems we face can seem quite different when viewed from temporal perspectives with different timescales

Time Perceptions vs Temporal Perspectives

Time perception is a field within psychology cognitive linguistics and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience, or sense, of time, as measured by someone’s own perception. In addition, different types of sensory information details (auditory, tactile, visual, etc.) are processed at different speeds by the complex systems of our neural mechanisms. Our brains learn to overcome these speed disparities to create a temporally unified representation of the external world. To get events correct timewise, our sensory systems must wait (about a tenth of a second) for the slowest information to arrive. This has the disadvantage of pushing our perceptions slightly into the past; but enables us to assemble perceptually coherent patterns and trends. Many of the problems we face occur at slow timescales relative to our perception, allowing us to develop analyses of the problem; before interacting with it. Some problems occur at on timescales comparable to our perception where the time to analyze the problem is not available, and our response may be simply autonomic reactions without conscious thought. Phenomena from our problems can also occur at timescales much faster than our perceptual threshold. At these timescales we can only directly perceive samples which may be difficult for our sensory systems to interpret, though electronic sensors and other mechanisms may enable indirect observations.

We are all time travelers in the sense that we all draw on past memories, experience the present and look forward to the future unfolding. Our conceptions of time are fundamental to our reasoning about the sequence of events and consequential decision making. The temporal aspects include temporal dimensions of events, time granularities, temporal context, temporal patterns, event order, and retrospective and proactive operations. Our assumptions and expectations (e.g. on norms of behavior) often condition our responses. Sequencing events is fundamental to identifying trends, correlation, causation and the controllable parameters we use to manipulate our environment, and the problems we experience within it.

A temporal perspective refers to a specific point of view or attitude that an actor holds about time. Temporal perspectives involve attitudes, thoughts, and affective tone regarding our personal past, present, and future. Marketing professionals look at temporal perspectives as situational characteristics that deal with the effect of time on consumer behavior. A temporal perspective on the problem includes the actors temporal perspectives as well as the temporal aspects of the problem context.

Conflicts can occur between different with different temporal perspectives – (e.g., in a financial investment context, investors with current or future temporal perspectives might be conflicted by disclosure policies – disclosure of a possible risk harms a firm’s current investors, but failure to disclose the risk harms the firm’s future investors). Time perspectives (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) involve a tendency to focus on a particular segment of time: past, present, or future. Your attitudes to your past or future may evaluate positively or negatively. Your attitude to the present may also be impacted by temporal concepts resulting in perspectives including: “fatalism” (no control), “hedonism” (no consequences) and “carpe diem” (seize the day). For individuals, balance and positivity comes from making positive use of the past, finding healthy ways to relish the present, and routinely making plans for an improved future; finding a temporal perspective which realizes essential psychological needs and deeply held values. Selecting different temporal perspectives may enable new decision-making opportunities in dealing with the problems of life as we experience it.

Is your client’s problem sensitive to a temporal perspective on the problem?

Temporal Perspective on Problems — Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

Is your client’s problem sensitive to a temporal perspective on the problem? They may not be aware of or report such temporal sensitivities. Your client may not recognize the impact of the their temporal attitudes and context in their problem statement or on potential problem solutions. Viable solutions may be cheaper and easier to develop if they only need to be applicable to clients within a reduced scope that can be developed through reframing the temporal perspective on the problem via the problem statement.

When developing the problem statement for your client, understanding the geographic perspective can impact the scope of the desired future state as well as constraints on viable solutions. Our free Guide to Writing Problem Statements can help you get your client program statement right.

Everyone has Client’s problems that they need to solve, but are they solving the right problem? Are you solving your best problem? Whether you are a researcher, business professional or social entrepreneur, the solutions you develop to the problems that you face matter! We’d like to hear your view of the most important challenges in writing problem statements for your clients. We have a brief survey on the most important challenges that should take less than 2 minutes to complete. The survey takes less than 2 minutes and you can get started right away by going to this link. I look forward to sharing these insights and resources with you.

A course on the use of perspective to refine problem statements is now available.

Problem Perspectives Course

If you need help bringing the power of perspective to your client problem statement contact me.

Posted on Monday, January 11, 2021

Geographic Perspective on Problems

When documenting a client’s problem, one of the categories of information that the problem statement should include is information about the location of the problem. Location matters for understanding a wide variety of processes and phenomena, whether directly related to human activity or not. A focus on “real world” relationships and dependencies among the phenomena and processes that give character to any location or place is a contrasting perspective to most other disciplines that treat them in isolation. Places are natural laboratories for the study of complex relationships among processes and phenomena. Geographic boundaries can enable independent operating instances of processes and phenomena generating potentially divergent results that may be explainable in terms of the geographic context. Capturing this geographic perspective on problems as part of the problem statement starts to scope the geographic boundary of the Client’s problem.

Geographic Perspectives on Problems — Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

Geographers recognize that the scale of observation – the boundaries of the pace under study – also matters for understanding geographic processes and phenomena at a place. This geographic perspective on problems inherently provides a geographic scope to the problem.Changing the spatial scale of analysis can provide important insights into geographic processes and phenomena and into understanding how processes and phenomena at different scales are related. Geographic boundaries demarcate contiguous places with common characteristics. Those characteristics might be topological, meteorological, cultural, political, resources environmental conditions or some other dimension of processes and phenomena. Identifying the scales at which particular phenomena exhibit maximum variation provides important clues about the geographic, as well as the temporal, scope of the controlling mechanisms.

Geographic approaches associate meaning with locations or places. Locations or places are commonly referenced in two dimensional spatial representations. Maps and atlases are common examples of such two-dimensional representations. Three-dimensional placement may be important in specific applications, e.g. navigation in aeronautical, submersible, or complex urban environments. The enduring dimension of the geographic approaches is the significance of spatial scales, from the global to the highly local. The data correlated with the spatial representation may also have multiple dimensions, (often including a time dimension to illustrate changes). Geographers may be challenged to provide effective visualizations with such high dimensional data. Such visualizations can, however, be very effective in illustrating the scope and scale of a problem. Recent trends in adoption and deployment of big data have facilitated the development of various programming languages and tools and resources to facilitate such analyses.

Geographic perspectives on problems that matter

A perspective is a framework that can be used to interpret the meanings of experiences, events, places, persons, cultures, resources and physical environments. Thinking with a geographic perspective on problems is a powerful tool that can be used to develop a more nuanced and complex understanding of the world. Where something occurs is the spatial perspective; how life forms interact with the physical environment is the ecological perspective. This perspective is particularly helpful for problems that matter because these problems often have a significant emotional impact from individual narratives.

Problems often exhibit different behavior in different geographic contexts, or other spatial patterns. Problems that matter impact people, and their geographic distributions is far from uniform, being impacted by a number of geographic boundaries. Geographic analysis of spatial analysis can therefore provide new insight into the problem statement. This insight can identify boundaries on problems correlated with processes and phenomena observable from a geographic perspective.

Is your client’s problem location sensitive?

Is your client’s problem location sensitive? They may report the location where they last experienced the problem, but probably failed to identify other locations where the same problem might occur. Your client may not recognize the impact of location on potential problem solutions. Solutions that have to span multiple geographic boundaries (whether physical or non-physical) may be more complex and expensive. Conversely, viable solutions may be cheaper and easier to develop if they only need to be applicable to clients within a reduced geographic scope.

When developing the problem statement for your client, understanding the geographic perspective on problems can impact the scope of the desired future state as well as constraints on viable solutions. If you are developing client problem statements, you might be interested in our free Guide to Writing Problem Statements. Everyone has Client’s problems that they need to solve, but are they solving the right problem? Are you solving your best problem? Whether you are a researcher, business professional or social entrepreneur, the solutions you develop to the problems that you face matter! We’d like to hear your view of the most important challenges in writing problem statements for your clients. We have a brief survey on the most important challenges that should take less than 2 minutes to complete. The survey tackles less than 2 minutes and you can get started right away by going to this link. I look forward to sharing these insights and resources with you.

A course on the use of perspective to refine problem statements is now available.

Problem Perspectives Course

If you need help bringing the power of perspective to your client problem statement contact me.

Posted on Sunday, January 10, 2021

Problems that Matter

Dictionary definitions of problems distinguish between exercises in mathematical operations (e.g., construction of geometric proofs) and questions involving some doubt, difficulty or uncertainty that may be proposed for solution or discussion. Mathematical operations may be used in developing a solution. Problems that matter to people are more often ideas conceptualized in non-mathematical terms. Problems are essentially unmet human needs. These problems can be also viewed as an opportunity for innovation. There is a diversity of problems in the world around us- from chronic diseases, energy, fiscal policy to more mundane decision-making aspects of modern life. Many of the most challenging problems lack singular “silver-bullet” solutions.

Human nature drives us to focus on and solve problems that matter. These are the problems or challenges that relate to real human needs. Many are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. Manfred Max-Neef also proposed a taxonomy of needs: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, leisure, creation, identity, and freedom. While we may be focused on our own immediate needs, all humans have multiple needs, and there are billions of humans on our planet with multiple needs, and all these other peoples’ problems matter.

Innovation for problems that matter

Thomas Edison once explained his approach to innovation succinctly: “I find out what the world needs. Then, I go ahead and invent it.” The most successful businesses tend to be born out of that sweet spot where what the world needs intersects with what you are deeply passionate about. We all want to solve problems that matter. We feel connected to the decisions we make; and the impact they have on people. When we are working on these sorts of important problems that we all care about, it becomes an emotional process.

Solving problems that matter has an impact on those people whose needs are now met through this innovation. The innovation of a solution to a problem may impact one person, or provide an aggregate solution affecting many people. Impact happens in a variety of ways – through the entrepreneurial ventures; through research publications; and, most importantly, through the actors (in the problem) who’s behavior and lives change. The metrics used to measure the scale of the impact will vary with the goals of the specific innovation – e.g. Physical event statistics (temperature, time between events, number of successful outcomes), monetary value, reported satisfaction, etc.

There are a multiplicity of approaches to innovating problems into solutions. Some methods involve direct action (e.g., where control variables are accessible), while others take an indirect approach by influencing external stakeholders. Some approaches provide temporary solutions (e.g. maintain the status quo in the face of disruptive events); or lead to incremental improvements while others are truly disruptive and transformative. The world is full of a bewildering number of organizations that may be relevant to your problem: government agencies, nonprofits, large corporations, etc. These organizations offer different kinds of resources and pursue different opportunities and platforms to effect change. They comply with different legal, operational, and tax regimes across different countries. Regardless of the solution approach, an effective problem statement is required.

Innovations can be developed at different levels of organizational, or technological abstraction. You can work on a organizational challenge through the United Nations, the national government, a non-profit or for-profit corporation or one-on-one. Innovations on technology challenges can be focused in different ways. For example, focused on a specific deployment, a particular type of solution architecture, or more generic technology independent frameworks. Technology innovations (e.g., Artificial intelligence) can enable the opportunity for other innovations through automating certain tasks. But these need to be applied to the context of the problem that matters. Innovations at higher levels of abstraction can have a much larger impact; but are harder to assess, iterate, and implement. Working directly with people can give you immediate feedback and a firsthand view of the human impact; but are often constrained to a smaller population.

Innovators, Innovation and transformation

Innovators have diverse motivations and incentives for engaging with particular problems. There are more reasons than there are people. For some, it is just a job; for others, maybe, it is a more lucrative job. Some love the challenge, some want to give back, while others are looking to “save” or “empower” other people. Some may engage to satisfy their ego, to earn bragging rights, or to discover the thrill and adventure of problem solving in an exotic locale.

Innovating solutions to problems that matter is not a “save-the-world mission”; but rather a rigorous, multidisciplinary, integrative discipline that requires collaboration to deliver impact. Innovator in interdisciplinary teams may share a common interest in harnessing the power of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and design to find practical and sustainable ways to improve the human condition. The may value rigorous data-driven and evidence-based approaches to create and deliver new products and services that transform ways of thinking and doing. But science, technology, mathematics and design don’t help if applied to solve the wrong problem, or people don’t adopt it. The answers for problems that matter often require attitude adjustments from various stakeholders.

Industry transformation is not about solving problems for the clients that matter, but about working with clients that focus on the problems that matter. Investors celebrate disruptive technologies for the profit they promise or fear them for the losses they could generate. What is revenue like, what are the margin structures, are there network effects, what is defensibility, how are engagement and retention numbers trending? These are all important ways to evaluate how large and valuable a business can be. However, it is particularly satisfying when a company marries strong performance with a mission to solve some of the largest problems our society faces. The age of judging companies only on their longevity is now past. Great companies solve problem that matter – new workplaces, new food sources, new medicines, etc. What problems matter to you and your clients?

Reframing the problems that matter

If you’re going to go through the hell of building an organization (whether for-profit or not), you might as well come out the other side having built something to solve a problem that matters. A big problem can be solved by solving little problems; but keep the end goal in mind. The happiest and most successful people don’t just love what they do. They are obsessed with solving an important problem, a problem that matters to them. It’s actually a lot easier to work intensely on solving a problem you are really passionate about. Take the time to identify which of the problems in the world you are passionate about solving. Life is just too short to build things that don’t make the world better.

Is your client’s problem sensitive to the way it is framed? They may not be aware of or report such sensitivities. Your client may not recognize the impact of framing their problem statement on potential problem solutions. Conversely, viable solutions may be cheaper and easier to develop if they only need to be applicable to clients within a reduced scope that can be developed through reframing the problem statement.

A course on the use of perspective to refine problem statements is now available.

Problem Perspectives Course

If you need help bringing the power of perspective to your client problem statement contact me.

Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2022

The Power of Perspective for Negotiators and Mediators

If you are a negotiator or a mediator, you know how challenging it can be to deal with conflicts and disputes. You need to understand the interests and positions of all parties involved, and find a way to reach a mutually acceptable agreement. You need to communicate effectively and persuasively, and manage emotions and expectations. You need to create value and trust, and avoid impasses and deadlocks.But how do you do that? How do you use the Power of Perspective to get inside the heads of the people you are negotiating or mediating with? How do you avoid making assumptions or judgments that may hinder your progress or damage your relationships?

The answer is the utilization of the Power of Perspective . Perspective-taking is the ability to imagine the world from another’s vantage point. It is a cognitive skill that can help you broaden your horizons, challenge your assumptions, and discover new possibilities. Perspective-taking can also help you overcome biases, stereotypes, and prejudices that may interfere with your negotiation or mediation effectiveness. Perspective-taking is not only a social skill, but also a cognitive skill. It enables you to see things differently, think creatively, and solve problems more effectively by refining the problem statement to solve a better problem. Perspective-taking can also help you build rapport, trust, and loyalty with the parties you are negotiating or mediating with. But how do you learn perspective-taking? How do you practice it and apply it in your negotiation or mediation activities?

The Power of Perspective for Negotiators and Mediators

That’s where a course on the Power of Perspective comes in. This course will teach you how to use perspective-taking to enhance your negotiation or mediation skills. You will learn how perspective-taking can benefit you at each stage of the negotiation or mediation process:

Prepare for your negotiation or mediation. You will learn how to research and analyze the situation and the parties involved by taking their perspectives. You will also learn how to identify their interests, positions, goals, and constraints by taking their perspectives.
Engage in your negotiation or mediation. You will learn how to use your imagination and curiosity to generate options and alternatives that address the parties’ problems or challenges from different angles. You will also learn how to use communication techniques that leverage perspective-taking, such as active listening, reframing, summarizing, and questioning.
Conclude your negotiation or mediation. You will learn how to evaluate and compare the options and alternatives with the parties’ interests and positions by taking their perspectives. You will also learn how to craft agreements that meet your criteria of fairness, efficiency, and durability.

By taking this course, you will not only improve your negotiation or mediation skills, but also your collaboration, communication, and leadership skills. You will be able to work with diverse parties and leverage their skills, knowledge, and insights. You will also be able to inspire others and make a difference by taking their perspectives.

If you are interested in taking this course, please visit our website for more information and registration details. Don’t miss this opportunity to unlock the Power of Perspective for yourself and your organization.

Posted on Sunday, November 7, 2021

Towards a Blockchain Voting Roadmap

Voting systems are a problem space that matter to humans because of the actions required of participants, and the impacts of voting decisions. Reports of unauthorized voting, of possible election interference by foreign powers, of voter disenfranchisement, and of technological failures call into question election integrity. Automated voting systems promise efficiency and improved accuracy. This improvement comes from elimination in the electoral processes of humans that may be error prone, or otherwise biased. Information, computing, communication and connectivity technologies offer capabilities that are not leveraged by existing paper voting systems.

Maybe it is time fore some outside of the box thinking. Suitable electronic systems may enable other democratic forms beyond representative democracy or direct democracy. From the perspective of an existing voting process, blockchain voting systems are an example of digital transformation. Transforming voting is also subject to a number of risks or threats regarding political exclusion, legitimacy issues, identity and privacy/ secrecy concerns.

Roadmaps as a retrospective provide the opportunity to learn from past mistakes. But, the main value of prospective technology roadmaps, is as a decision aid in developing the technology. Such roadmaps identify the sequence of evolutionary technology improvements needed. Community engagement and recognition of roadmaps as emergent rather than centrally planned are key.

Deployments of new voting systems by election organizers is easier in “greenfield” situations. This is because existing voting procedures do not need to be displaced. Election organizers have used a variety of different implementation and delivery models for other voting systems. These implementation and delivery models could be applied by election organizers for a blockchain based voting system as well. A blockchain voting system could be designed for a single organization. An alternative design might prefer a single instance be usable by multiple organizations. The designer of a blockchain voting service could offer it “as a Service”. The Service hides the implementation details. Alternatively, the developer could build on an existing blockchain infrastructure where the blockchain implementation is explicit.

Roadmaps can provide a decisional framework; and identify milestones to determine progress. Roadmaps with fewer dimensions help to concentrate efforts to improve performance in those dimensions. Roadmapping can help clarify the different areas where blockchain voting systems may be more easily implementable and deployable. Blockchain voting systems targeting market based or corporate governance may be more tractable in the near term. Establishing broader consumer familiarity with the technology may eventually lead to use in political governance. To read further a lengthier published article is available : Towards a Blockchain Voting Roadmap

Whether you are a researcher, business professional, or social entrepreneur, the solutions you develop to the problems that you face matter! Framing and reframing the problem from different perspectives can enable you to see past constraints. These constraints may not exist from a different perspective. Developing a client-centric, solution-agnostic problem statement can enable the needed creative thinking.

If you need help bringing the power of perspective to your clients’ needs problem statement contact me.

Posted on Sunday, February 28, 2021

From Sustaining to Disruptive Innovation

Managers know their companies must grow. Investment capital is not easy to come by. Firms are reluctant to take risks. Your clients are economically stressed. Growth is hard, especially given today’s economic environment. Today’s managers have a problem. The status quo is not acceptable. They need innovative thinking to change the game. But not all innovations are the same. Sustaining innovation targets existing, high-end clients or customers demanding better performance than previously available. Disruptive innovation helps create a new market and value network. The types of innovation that you require will depend on the circumstances.

Established competitors usually win competitive battles over sustaining technology. Year over year they grind out incremental improvements. On occasion, they develop products that leapfrog beyond the competition. It doesn’t matter whether the innovation is technologically advanced. This strategy works for the incumbents because it results in better products that they can sell for higher margins to their best customers. Established competitors have the resources to maintain a pipeline of sustaining innovation. For many incumbents, sustaining innovation is like fixing defects – a cost a business as usual. But even for masters of this approach, there can be times when sustaining innovation is not enough. Customers or clients and the business environment may change (e.g., COVID) requiring managers to reassess their business models.

Disruptive Innovation

The term “Disruptive innovations” means inventing or reinventing business models. A technology that enables market disruptions is a disruptive technology. It is the business model and not the technology that enables and creates the disruptive effect. The market is the thing that is disrupted by innovation.

To change from sustaining to disruptive innovation, your focus should not be on the product or service currently being delivered. Rather, your attention should be redirected to the clients’ needs that the product or service attempts to meet. Disruptive innovators significantly alter and improve a product or service in ways that the market did not expect. This is innovation by thinking outside the box of existing product or service offerings. The effects of your successful disruptive innovation can be seen in two dimensions – the market structure and the product features. By discovering or segmenting a new category of customers or clients, the innovator disrupts the market structure. By altering the product or service features and quality the innovator disrupts industry cost structures.

Disrupters tend to focus on getting the business model, rather than merely the product, just right. Usually, this requires a maniacal focus on clients’ needs. Market segmentation then proceeds not merely on the basis of demographics, but also using psychographics based on clients’ goals in a particular context. As Zig Ziglar once opined, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want”. By market segmenting on the customers’ or clients’ needs, and the contexts in which those needs arise, marketing messages can be more precisely delivered. By refocusing on the customers’ / clients’ needs and context, new technologies or processes for satisfying those needs can be developed. To change from sustaining to disruptive innovation, you first need to resegment the market based on your clients’ needs and context, before working through the solution details.

Clients' needs problem statement not biased by existing solution

Your first step to change from sustaining to disruptive innovation, then, is capturing the clients’ needs in a clear, unbiased, problem statement. Talking to clients and customers can provide insight into their perceived needs. Your discussions here are, unfortunately, often biased. The inherent bias comes from many sources – existing offers in the market, the clients’ or customers’ world view, etc. Additional observation approaches can help to develop a broader perspective. Refining these inputs into a clear problem statement can be a challenging, often iterative process. The iterations happen in conversation with clients or customers, but also in the analysis with reframing perspectives on the observations. With business model innovations, in particular, iterating through technical, legal, and business perspectives, can provide a broader perspective on the clients’ needs and context.

We can help!

Framing and reframing the problem from different perspectives can enable you to see past constraints. These constraints may not exist from a different perspective. Developing a client-centric, solution-agnostic problem statement can enable the needed creative thinking. You need a broader perspective of the clients’ problem to expose a wider variety of potential solutions. Our free Guide to Writing Problem Statements can help you get your clients’ needs problem statement right.

Whether you are a researcher, business professional, or social entrepreneur, the solutions you develop to the problems that you face matter! We’d like to hear your thinking on the most important challenges so you can think outside the box for your clients. We have a brief survey that should take less than 2 minutes of your time to complete. You can start right away by going to this link. I look forward to sharing these insights and resources with you.

A course on the use of perspective to refine problem statements is now available.

Problem Perspectives Course

If you need help bringing the power of perspective to your clients’ needs problem statement contact me.