Are you solving the right problem?
Heard an interesting project war story the other day.
In a CX project, leadership was convinced that the issue was a clunky online form. But instead of rushing to redesigning the form, my friend (the lead) paused the room and encouraged everyone step back to ask: “Are we sure this is the real problem? Are we solving the right problem?”.
Data confirmed that the problem lied in unclear communication instead. With the challenge reframed, the project was successfully rescoped along the right direction.
I decided to write about this story because it beautifully illustrates 2 points:
Do not blindly follow assumptions
Do frame the problem before ideating solutions
Dealing with assumptions
In the story above, the executive team made an intuitive connection between “poor adoption” with “poorly-designed online form”.
To be fair, intuition can be right at times and may just be what one needs to kick things off. However, the higher the stakes, the riskier it is to rely on intuition alone.
The anecdote? Data collection. The more you understand the Who, When, How, What, Where of the matter, the more you can scope the plan accordingly. The key is to turn as many assumptions into known facts as possible.
There are many methods you can use to gather data, from interviewing users, workshopping with stakeholders, examining operational metrics, to conducing an experience audit of the user’s journey.
Armed with this understanding, you will be able to define the challenge properly.
Framing the problem
Imagine spending days and weeks ideating solutions, only to realize that you are solving the wrong problem!
That’s why Define is a key stage in Design Thinking. It refers to writing statements that describes the problem you are trying to solve in a concise, user-centric manner.
Creating problem statements take practice. For instance, “we need to redesign our online form so we can collect more completed forms” may sound like a valid problem statement, but it is actually a very poor one because:
it assumes the solution (redesign the form).
it focuses on the company’s goal rather than the user’s experience.
It treats the form as the problem as opposed to exploring the context behind it.
By contrast, “First-time customers feel uncertain and frustrated when applying because they don’t understand the process or what’s expected of them — leading many to abandon the form before completion.” is a good problem statement because
it focuses on the user’s motivation and pain
it leaves room for multiple solutions
it is based on user data
Takeaway:
CX projects come in all forms and sizes but essentially they are all about solving a challenge.
To make sure you are aligning the team on solving the real problem instead of the loudest one, make sure you do 2 things:
collect data for a full understanding of the context.
frame the problem in a concise and user-centric manner, leaving room for subsequent solution ideation.
Hi, this is Evelyn So from Thinker & Co., a newsletter for Product and Innovation Teams looking to create user-centred, business-aligned solutions.