Do You Know What the Problem Can Be?
Reprint: R1209F The rigor with which a problem is defined is the most important factor in finding a good solution. Many organizations, however, are not proficient at articulating their issues and identifying which ones are crucial to their strategies. They may even exist trying to solve the incorrect problems—missing opportunities and wasting resources in the procedure. The key is to ask the right questions. The author describes a process that his business firm, InnoCentive, has used to aid clients define and articulate business, technical, social, and policy challenges and then present them to an online community of more than 250,000 solvers. The 4-stride process consists of request a series of questions and using the answers to create a problem statement that volition elicit novel ideas from an assortment of experts. EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a nonprofit organization, used this procedure to notice a depression-toll, lightweight, and convenient product that expands admission to clean drinking water in the developing globe.
"If I were given one hour to relieve the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and ane minute resolving it," Albert Einstein said.
Those were wise words, but from what I have observed, most organizations don't heed them when tackling innovation projects. Indeed, when developing new products, processes, or even businesses, virtually companies aren't sufficiently rigorous in defining the issues they're attempting to solve and articulating why those issues are important. Without that rigor, organizations miss opportunities, waste matter resource, and end upwardly pursuing innovation initiatives that aren't aligned with their strategies. How many times have you lot seen a project go down ane path only to realize in hindsight that it should have gone down some other? How many times have yous seen an innovation program deliver a seemingly breakthrough result only to observe that information technology tin can't be implemented or it addresses the incorrect problem? Many organizations need to become amend at request the right questions so that they tackle the right problems.
I offer here a process for defining problems that any organization can use on its own. My house, InnoCentive, has used it to help more than 100 corporations, government agencies, and foundations improve the quality and efficiency of their innovation efforts and, as a result, their overall operation. Through this process, which we call claiming-driven innovation, clients define and articulate their business, technical, social, and policy issues and nowadays them as challenges to a community of more than 250,000 solvers—scientists, engineers, and other experts who hail from 200 countries—on InnoCentive.com, our innovation marketplace. Successful solvers take earned awards of $5,000 to $1 1000000.
Since our launch, more than x years ago, nosotros have managed more than 2,000 issues and solved more than than half of them—a much college proportion than most organizations achieve on their own. Indeed, our success rates have improved dramatically over the years (34% in 2006, 39% in 2009, and 57% in 2011), which is a office of the increasing quality of the questions we pose and of our solver customs. Interestingly, fifty-fifty unsolved problems take been tremendously valuable to many clients, allowing them to cancel ill-fated programs much before than they otherwise would have and and so redeploy their resources.
In our early years, we focused on highly specific technical problems, but nosotros have since expanded, taking on everything from basic R&D and product development to the health and safety of astronauts to banking services in developing countries. We now know that the rigor with which a problem is defined is the nearly of import factor in finding a suitable solution. Only nosotros've seen that nigh organizations are non proficient at articulating their problems clearly and concisely. Many accept considerable difficulty even identifying which problems are crucial to their missions and strategies.
In fact, many clients accept realized while working with united states that they may not be tackling the right issues. Consider a company that engages InnoCentive to detect a lubricant for its manufacturing mechanism. This commutation ensues:
InnoCentive staffer: "Why do you need the lubricant?"
Client'south engineer: "Because we're now expecting our machinery to do things it was not designed to do, and information technology needs a item lubricant to operate."
InnoCentive staffer: "Why don't y'all replace the machinery?"
Client'southward engineer: "Considering no i makes equipment that exactly fits our needs."
This raises a deeper question: Does the company need the lubricant, or does information technology need a new way to make its product? It could exist that rethinking the manufacturing process would give the firm a new basis for competitive advantage. (Asking questions until you get to the root cause of a problem draws from the famous Five Whys problem-solving technique adult at Toyota and employed in Half dozen Sigma.)
The example is like many nosotros've seen: Someone in the bowels of the organization is assigned to fix a very specific, well-nigh-term trouble. Just considering the firm doesn't utilize a rigorous process for understanding the dimensions of the problem, leaders miss an opportunity to accost underlying strategic issues. The situation is exacerbated by what Stefan Thomke and Donald Reinertsen have identified as the fallacy of "The sooner the project is started, the sooner it will exist finished." (See "Six Myths of Product Development," HBR May 2012.) Organizational teams speed toward a solution, fearing that if they spend too much fourth dimension defining the problem, their superiors will punish them for taking so long to get to the starting line.
Ironically, that arroyo is more likely to waste time and coin and reduce the odds of success than one that strives at the outset to attain an in-depth understanding of the problem and its importance to the house. With this in mind, we adult a four-pace procedure for defining and articulating problems, which nosotros have honed with our clients. Information technology consists of asking a series of questions and using the answers to create a thorough problem statement. This procedure is important for two reasons. First, it rallies the organization around a shared agreement of the problem, why the firm should tackle it, and the level of resources it should receive. Firms that don't engage in this process often allocate too few resources to solving major bug or too many to solving low-priority or wrongly defined ones. Information technology'south useful to assign a value to the solution: An organization will be more willing to devote considerable time and resources to an effort that is shown to represent a $100 million market opportunity than to an initiative whose value is much less or is unclear. 2d, the process helps an organization cast the widest possible internet for potential solutions, giving internal and external experts in disparate fields the information they need to crack the trouble.
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To illustrate how the process works, we'll describe an initiative to aggrandize access to clean drinking water undertaken by the nonprofit EnterpriseWorks/VITA, a division of Relief International. EWV's mission is to foster economic growth and raise the standard of living in developing countries by expanding access to technologies and helping entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses.
The organization chose Jon Naugle, its technical manager, as the initiative's "problem champion." Individuals in this part should have a deep agreement of the field or domain and exist capable plan administrators. Because trouble champions may also be charged with implementing solutions, a proven leader with the authority, responsibility, and resource to see the project through can be invaluable in this role, particularly for a larger and more strategic undertaking. Naugle, an engineer with more than 25 years of agricultural and rural-development experience in East and West Africa and the Caribbean, fit the beak. He was supported past specialists who understood local market place atmospheric condition, bachelor materials, and other disquisitional issues related to the delivery of drinking water.
Step 1: Establish the Need for a Solution
The purpose of this stride is to articulate the problem in the simplest terms possible: "We are looking for X in gild to achieve Z equally measured by W." Such a statement, akin to an elevator pitch, is a call to artillery that clarifies the importance of the issue and helps secure resources to accost it. This initial framing answers three questions:
What is the basic need?
This is the essential problem, stated conspicuously and concisely. It is of import at this stage to focus on the need that's at the heart of the problem instead of jumping to a solution. Defining the telescopic is besides important. Clearly, looking for lubricant for a slice of machinery is different from seeking a radically new manufacturing process.
The basic need EWV identified was admission to clean drinking h2o for the estimated one.1 billion people in the world who lack it. This is a pressing issue even in areas that take plenty of rainfall, because the h2o is non effectively captured, stored, and distributed.
What is the desired consequence?
Answering this question requires agreement the perspectives of customers and other beneficiaries. (The Five Whys approach can be very helpful.) Again, avoid the temptation to favor a particular solution or approach. This question should be addressed qualitatively and quantitatively whenever possible. A high-level but specific goal, such every bit "improving fuel efficiency to 100 mpg by 2020," can be helpful at this stage.
In answering this question, Naugle and his team realized that the outcome had to be more than than access to water; the access had to exist user-friendly. Women and children in countries such every bit Uganda often must walk long distances to fetch water from valleys and so carry it uphill to their villages. The desired outcome EWV defined was to provide water for daily family unit needs without requiring enormous expenditures of fourth dimension and energy.
Who stands to do good and why?
Answering this question compels an organization to identify all potential customers and beneficiaries. Information technology is at this phase that you understand whether, say, you are solving a lubricant trouble for the engineer or for the caput of manufacturing—whose definitions of success may vary considerably.
If the problem y'all desire to solve is industrywide, it's crucial to understand why the market has failed to address it.
By pondering this question, EWV came to run into that the benefits would accrue to individuals and families as well as to regions and countries. Women would spend less fourth dimension walking to call up water, giving them more fourth dimension for working in the field or in outside employment that would bring their families needed income. Children would be able to attend school. And over the longer term, regions and countries would benefit from the improved educational activity and productivity of the population.
Footstep two: Justify the Need
The purpose of answering the questions in this footstep is to explicate why your organization should endeavour to solve the problem.
Is the endeavour aligned with our strategy?
In other words, volition satisfying the demand serve the organization's strategic goals? It is not unusual for an organization to be working on issues that are no longer in sync with its strategy or mission. In that case, the effort (and perhaps the whole initiative) should exist reconsidered.
In the example of EWV, simply improving admission to clean drinking water wouldn't be enough; to fit the organization'due south mission, the solution should generate economic development and opportunities for local businesses. It needed to involve something that people would buy.
In addition, you should consider whether the problem fits with your firm's priorities. Since EWV's other projects included providing admission to affordable products such as cookstoves and treadle pumps, the drinking water projection was advisable.
What are the desired benefits for the company, and how will we measure them?
In for-profit companies, the desired do good could be to reach a revenue target, attain a certain market share, or accomplish specific cycle-time improvements. EWV hoped to further its goal of being a recognized leader in helping the world's poor by transferring technology through the private sector. That do good would be measured by market impact: How many families are paying for the solution? How is information technology affecting their lives? Are sales and installation creating jobs? Given the potential benefits, EWV deemed the priority to be loftier.
How will we ensure that a solution is implemented?
Assume that a solution is found. Someone in the organisation must be responsible for conveying information technology out—whether that means installing a new manufacturing engineering science, launching a new business, or commercializing a production innovation. That person could be the problem champion, just he or she could too exist the manager of an existing division, a cantankerous-functional squad, or a new department.
At EWV, Jon Naugle was also put in charge of carrying out the solution. In addition to his technical background, Naugle had a rail tape of successfully implementing like projects. For instance, he had served as EWV's country director in Niger, where he oversaw a component of a Globe Bank airplane pilot project to promote small-scale private irrigation. His office of the project involved getting the private sector to manufacture treadle pumps and manually drill wells.
It is important at this stage to initiate a loftier-level conversation in the arrangement about the resource a solution might require. This can seem premature—after all, you're all the same defining the problem, and the field of possible solutions could be very big—but it's actually not too early to begin exploring what resources your organization is willing and able to devote to evaluating solutions and then implementing the best one. Even at the outset, yous may have an clue that implementing a solution will be much more expensive than others in the organization realize. In that case, it'southward of import to communicate a crude estimate of the coin and people that volition be required and to make sure that the organization is willing to go on down this path. The outcome of such a discussion might be that some constraints on resourcing must exist built into the trouble argument. Early on in its drinking h2o project, EWV set up a cap on how much it would devote to initial research and the testing of possible solutions.
Now that you have laid out the demand for a solution and its importance to the arrangement, you must define the problem in detail. This involves applying a rigorous method to ensure that you have captured all the information that someone—including people in fields far removed from your industry—might need to solve the problem.
Step three: Contextualize the Problem
Examining past efforts to find a solution can save time and resources and generate highly innovative thinking. If the trouble is industrywide, it'south crucial to empathize why the market has failed to address it.
What approaches accept we tried?
The aim here is to find solutions that might already be in your organization and identify those that information technology has disproved. By answering this question, yous can avert reinventing the bike or going down a expressionless stop.
In previous efforts to expand access to clean h2o, EWV had offered products and services ranging from manually drilled wells for irrigation to filters for household h2o treatment. As with all its projects, EWV identified products that low-income consumers could afford and, if possible, that local entrepreneurs could industry or service. Every bit Naugle and his team revisited those efforts, they realized that both solutions worked merely if a h2o source, such as surface water or a shallow aquifer, was close to the household. Equally a result, they decided to focus on rainwater—which falls everywhere in the world to a greater or lesser extent—as a source that could accomplish many more people. More specifically, the team turned its attention to the concept of rainwater harvesting. "Rainwater is delivered directly to the end user," Naugle says. "It'due south as shut equally you can become to a piped water system without having a piped water supply."
What have others tried?
EWV's investigation of previous attempts at rainwater harvesting involved reviewing inquiry on the topic, conducting v field studies, and surveying twenty countries to enquire what technology was being used, what was and was not working, what prevented or encouraged the employ of diverse solutions, how much the solutions cost, and what role authorities played.
"One of the key things we learned from the surveys," Naugle says, "was that once you have a hard roof—which many people do—to utilise as a collection surface, the nigh expensive affair is storage."
Here was the problem that needed to be solved. EWV found that existing solutions for storing rainwater, such as concrete tanks, were too expensive for depression-income families in developing countries, so households were sharing storage tanks. Only because no one took buying of the communal facilities, they oft fell into busted. Consequently, Naugle and his team homed in on the concept of a low-cost household rainwater-storage device.
Their research into prior solutions surfaced what seemed initially like a promising arroyo: storing rainwater in a 525-gallon jar that was most every bit tall as an developed and three times as wide. In Thailand, they learned, 5 million of those jars had been deployed over five years. After further investigation, notwithstanding, they found that the jars were made of cement, which was bachelor in Thailand at a low toll. More important, the country's good roads made it possible to industry the jars in one location and ship them in trucks around the country. That solution wouldn't piece of work in areas that had neither cement nor high-quality roads. Indeed, through interviews with villagers in Republic of uganda, EWV found that even empty polyethylene barrels big enough to hold merely 50 gallons of water were difficult to carry along a path. It became clear that a viable storage solution had to be calorie-free enough to exist carried some altitude in areas without roads.
What are the internal and external constraints on implementing a solution?
Now that y'all take a better idea of what you desire to accomplish, it'south fourth dimension to revisit the consequence of resources and organizational commitment: Do you lot have the necessary back up for soliciting so evaluating possible solutions? Are yous certain that y'all can obtain the money and the people to implement the most promising 1?
External constraints are merely equally important to evaluate: Are there issues concerning patents or intellectual-belongings rights? Are there laws and regulations to be considered? Answering these questions may crave consultation with various stakeholders and experts.
Practise you take the necessary support for soliciting and evaluating possible solutions? Practice y'all accept the coin and the people to implement the most promising one?
EWV's exploration of possible external constraints included examining government policies regarding rainwater storage. Naugle and his team institute that the governments of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam supported the thought, simply the strongest proponent was Uganda'southward government minister of water and the environment, Maria Mutagamba. Consequently, EWV decided to test the storage solution in Uganda.
Pace 4: Write the Trouble Argument
Now it's time to write a full clarification of the problem you're seeking to solve and the requirements the solution must meet. The problem statement, which captures all that the organization has learned through answering the questions in the previous steps, helps establish a consensus on what a feasible solution would be and what resource would exist required to achieve information technology.
A full, articulate description also helps people both inside and exterior the organization apace grasp the issue. This is peculiarly important considering solutions to circuitous bug in an industry or subject ofttimes come from experts in other fields (meet "Getting Unusual Suspects to Solve R&D Puzzles," HBR May 2007). For example, the method for moving viscous oil from spills in Arctic and subarctic waters from collection barges to disposal tanks came from a pharmacist in the cement industry, who responded to the Oil Spill Recovery Plant's description of the trouble in terms that were precise but not specific to the petroleum industry. Thus the constitute was able to solve in a matter of months a challenge that had stumped petroleum engineers for years. (To read the institute'due south full problem statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement1.)
Here are some questions that tin can help you develop a thorough trouble statement:
Is the trouble actually many issues?
The aim hither is to drill down to root causes. Circuitous, seemingly insoluble issues are much more approachable when cleaved into discrete elements.
For EWV, this meant making it clear that the solution needed to be a storage product that individual households could afford, that was low-cal enough to be easily transported on poor-quality roads or paths, and that could exist easily maintained.
What requirements must a solution run across?
EWV conducted all-encompassing on-the-ground surveys with potential customers in Republic of uganda to identify the must-have versus the prissy-to-have elements of a solution. (See the sidebar "Elements of a Successful Solution.") It didn't thing to EWV whether the solution was a new device or an adaptation of an existing i. Likewise, the solution didn't need to be 1 that could be mass-produced. That is, information technology could be something that local small-scale entrepreneurs could manufacture.
Experts in rainwater harvesting told Naugle and his team that their target price of $20 was unachievable, which meant that subsidies would be required. But a subsidized product was confronting EWV'due south strategy and philosophy.
Which problem solvers should we engage?
The dead terminate EWV hit in seeking a $twenty solution from those experts led the organization to conclude that it needed to enlist as many experts exterior the field as possible. That is when EWV decided to engage InnoCentive and its network of 250,000 solvers.
What data and linguistic communication should the problem statement include?
To appoint the largest number of solvers from the widest diverseness of fields, a problem statement must encounter the twin goals of existence extremely specific but not unnecessarily technical. It shouldn't incorporate industry or subject area jargon or presuppose knowledge of a particular field. It may (and probably should) include a summary of previous solution attempts and detailed requirements.
With those criteria in mind, Naugle and his team crafted a problem statement. (The post-obit is the abstract; for the full problem statement, visit hbr.org/problem-statement2.) "EnterpriseWorks is seeking design ideas for a low-toll rainwater storage arrangement that tin can be installed in households in developing countries. The solution is expected to facilitate admission to clean water at a household level, addressing a trouble that affects millions of people worldwide who are living in impoverished communities or rural areas where access to clean water is express. Domestic rainwater harvesting is a proven applied science that can be a valuable pick for accessing and storing water year circular. However, the high cost of bachelor rainwater storage systems makes them well beyond the reach of low-income families to install in their homes. A solution to this problem would not just provide convenient and affordable access to deficient water resources but would likewise allow families, particularly the women and children who are usually tasked with water drove, to spend less time walking distances to collect water and more time on activities that can bring in income and improve the quality of life."
To engage the largest number of solvers from the widest variety of fields, a trouble statement must meet the twin goals of being extremely specific merely not unnecessarily technical.
What do solvers need to submit?
What information about the proposed solution does your organization need in order to invest in information technology? For instance, would a well-founded hypothetical approach be sufficient, or is a full-diddled prototype needed? EWV decided that a solver had to submit a written caption of the solution and detailed drawings.
What incentives practice solvers need?
The indicate of asking this question is to ensure that the right people are motivated to address the problem. For internal solvers, incentives can be written into job descriptions or offered every bit promotions and bonuses. For external solvers, the incentive might be a greenbacks award. EWV offered to pay $15,000 to the solver who provided the best solution through the InnoCentive network.
How will solutions be evaluated and success measured?
Addressing this question forces a visitor to be explicit about how it will evaluate the solutions information technology receives. Clarity and transparency are crucial to arriving at viable solutions and to ensuring that the evaluation process is fair and rigorous. In some cases a "nosotros'll know information technology when nosotros see information technology" arroyo is reasonable—for example, when a visitor is looking for a new branding strategy. Most of the fourth dimension, notwithstanding, information technology is a sign that earlier steps in the process have not been approached with sufficient rigor.
EWV stipulated that information technology would evaluate solutions on their power to come across the criteria of depression toll, high storage capacity, low weight, and like shooting fish in a barrel maintenance. It added that information technology would prefer designs that were modular (and so that the unit would be easier to transport) and adjustable or salvageable or had multiple functions (so that owners could reuse the materials after the product's lifetime or sell them to others for diverse applications). The overarching goal was to keep costs low and to aid poor families justify the buy.
The Winner
Ultimately, the solution to EWV's rainwater-storage problem came from someone outside the field: a German inventor whose company specialized in the design of tourist submarines. The solution he proposed required no elaborate machinery; in fact, it had no pumps or moving parts. It was an established industrial technology that had non been practical to water storage: a plastic bag within a plastic purse with a tube at the acme. The outer handbag (made of less-expensive, woven polypropylene) provided the structure's force, while the inner bag (made of more than-expensive, linear low-density polyethylene) was impermeable and could concord 125 gallons of water. The ii-pocketbook approach allowed the inner bag to be thinner, reducing the price of the product, while the outer pocketbook was strong enough to contain a ton and a one-half of water.
The structure folded into a package the size of a briefcase and weighed about eight pounds. In short, the solution was affordable, commercially viable, could be hands transported to remote areas, and could be sold and installed past local entrepreneurs. (Retailers brand from $4 to $8 per unit, depending on the volume they purchase. Installers of the gutters, downspout, and base earn about $6.)
EWV developed an initial version and tested it in Republic of uganda, where the organization asked end users such questions as What exercise you think of its weight? Does it run across your needs? Even mundane problems similar color came into play: The woven outer numberless were white, which women pointed out would immediately expect dirty. EWV modified the design on the basis of this input: For example, it changed the color of the device to brown, expanded its size to 350 gallons (while keeping the target price of no more than $20 per 125 gallons of water storage), altered its shape to make it more than stable, and replaced the original siphon with an outlet tap.
After 14 months of field testing, EWV rolled out the commercial production in Uganda in March 2011. By the finish of May 2012, 50 to 60 shops, village sales agents, and cooperatives were selling the product; more than 80 entrepreneurs had been trained to install it; and one,418 units had been deployed in eight districts in southwestern Republic of uganda.
EWV deems this a success at this stage in the rollout. Information technology hopes to brand the units bachelor in 10 countries—and have tens or hundreds of thousands of units installed—within five years. Ultimately, it believes, millions of units will exist in use for a variety of applications, including household drinking water, irrigation, and structure. Interestingly, the main obstacle to getting people to buy the device has been skepticism that something that comes in such a small package (the size of a typical five-gallon jerrican) tin hold the equivalent of 70 jerricans. Believing that the remedy is to show villagers the installed production, EWV is currently testing various promotion and marketing programs.Every bit the EWV story illustrates, critically analyzing and clearly articulating a problem can yield highly innovative solutions. Organizations that employ these simple concepts and develop the skills and discipline to ask better questions and define their problems with more rigor tin can create strategic advantage, unlock truly groundbreaking innovation, and drive meliorate business performance. Request amend questions delivers better results.
A version of this article appeared in the September 2012 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Do You Know What the Problem Can Be?
Source: https://hbr.org/2012/09/are-you-solving-the-right-problem
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