Everyone thinks they understand the problem that they’re solving. Unfortunately, our intuitive understanding, when applied beyond our personal experience, is almost always wrong. Proper thinking about the problem seems like a huge investment of time, so often gets skipped. It can save hundreds of hours and thousands of tears.
Just understanding that a problem exists is a time-intensive process for many companies and people . Whether considering creating a new product or service, or just solving a personal issue, If you’re working for a client, simply trusting what the client tells you is insufficient. When you are the client, you might be equally blind to the true problem. To become aware of the various aspects of a problem requires some attention.
I recommend spending 30 minutes exploring four perspectives with the information at hand or easily available using 1. the SCQ framework, 2. a problem statement, 3. reframing the problem, and 4. competitive solutions.
1. The SCQ Framework
The place to start is by defining the problem as you currently understand the context. Starting with the SCQ framework (Situation, Complication, Question) provides a clear outline of the context. I’ve put together a simple worksheet you can complete while exploring SCQ. Multiple versions are available for free on Gumroad.
When exploring the situation I like to include relevant background about the customers you wish to reach, competitors to beat, collaborators work with, the company you want to create, and the legal and social context you’ll work in. With complication explore recent and future changes, immediate challenges, threats or opportunities. Then use the question to zero in on the implications of the situation and complication. Imagine expected responses and list your desired outcomes. These three elements provide information to define the initial scope understanding of the problem, both what will and will not be covered in the solution.
A recent review of a font preview web app, provides a great example of SCQ in action.
2. The Problem Statement
Creating the problem statement flows from the clarity about contexts and constraints developed with SCQ. Starting with your intuition, write down all your thoughts, feelings, and facts related to the problem. A useful format for the statement is “How might we … when …” where the “How might we…” portion outlines the desired state and the “when…” portion highlights the complication. This format of the statement is a nice parallel to frameworks like user stories or the thoughtful execution framework and makes moving to one of those feel pretty seamless.
An example from the fontvisual review might look something like this…
3. Reframing the problem
Reframing the problem is the step that separates the pros from the amateurs. Further interrogation after a first attempt at defining the problem helps uncover different angles for exploration. Some great areas to question include: - why the problem exists; - who the primary and secondary stakeholders are; - what “solved” looks like; - whether we have a role in creating/maintaining the problem; - the source of the complication noted in step 1; - what is true when the problem does not exist.
For the fontvisual app from my review, the answers might look something like this:
1. Why does the problem exist?
Because usual users don’t need to see all the different variations of a font like designers do. Although there are a lot of designers that have this problem, they are not a large or organized enough group to have the ear of software developers who could help.
2. Who are the primary and secondary stakeholders
3. What does “solved” look like?
The designer/crafter is able to see all the font variations at a glance. Even better, they are able to see those variations within the context of their own project. Still better, they can show the variations to a client who can imagine the fonts within the context of the project.
4. Do we have any role in creating/maintaining the problem?
Not really.
5. What creates the complication?
It is a problem that large companies feel is too small to bother with. This provides an opportunity for a small company to sweep the niche while it is being ignored.
6. What is true when the problem doesn’t exist?
The output of font variations is valuable enough that customers are willing to pay money to get that output.
4. Examine Competitive Solutions
Most of us love our ideas and, thanks to a quirk in the human brain, tend to love our first ideas best of all. This often blinds us to the solutions other people have already tried. A terrific way to save thousands of dollars is not to spend hundreds of hours building a solution you could acquired for a small amount.
After reframing and before digging into product definition, consider prior experiences with the problem – both yours and others.
- Who else deals with something similar to this problem?
- Is there any place where the problem is not as bad or even been solved?
Dipping again into the example from the fontvisual review, the answers might look something like this:
Who else deals with something similar to this problem?
Adobe Fonts and Google Fonts, which try to sell their fonts, or access to their fonts.
Is there any place where the problem is not as bad or even been solved?
A quick look around turns up three competitors: - Fontstand - preview and rent fonts - FontGoggles - free font viewer for macOS - FontExplorer - font manager for macOS workflows
None of these quite match the fontvisual feature set, especially the platform agnostic nature of a web app. It looks like this is an interesting problem to spend time and energy on.
Like this pre-thinking tool?
Download the free worksheet! Get four versions, editable in Word, Google Docs, Mac, or import into other word processor with rich text. Or, use pencil or pen by printing out the PDF.